Compliance Specialist

Overview:
**About **Upbring**

At Upbring, **we are servants** on a mission to break the cycle of child abuse. **We are warriors**, brave as the thousands of Texas Children and families we serve. We stand up for those who can’t speak for themselves. **We are a family** who values innovation, empathy, patience, understanding and trustworthiness.

**About our Children's Shelters**

Many children begin life in the face of serious challenges. Instead of playing pretend and imagining grand adventures, unaccompanied children face perilous conditions alone as they travel to unfamiliar countries, leaving home and loved ones behind to escape war and violence. Our children’s centers, operated through a grant from the Office of Refugee and Resettlement (ORR), provide safety, stability and wraparound services. We help children grow into adults who have received love and kindness, instead of only violence and chaos.

**What You'll Do**

The Compliance Specialist is responsible and accountable to ensure the program remains up-to-date on all regulatory and licensing requirements in accordance with agency, state, accreditation, and federal regulations. The Compliance Specialist develops, implements, and enforces policies and procedures that keep the agency’s services, processes, and physical sites operating in a legal and ethical manner. If there are suspected violations of compliance, the Compliance Specialist conducts audits or investigations, recommends areas for improvement, and develops roadmaps for remediation.

Our Upbring staff members are servant-leaders in the pursuit of breaking the cycle of child abuse and empowering others to do the same through example while embodying our core values: We are Warriors. We are Servants. We are Family.

**All Upbring Children's Shelters employees must comply with ORR's vaccination mandate.**

All staff must be able to show proof of immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases transmitted by the respiratory route if working directly with unaccompanied children (UC). Medical and Religious exemptions may be requested after an offer of employment is accepted.

**Responsibilities**:
**We Are Warriors | **We Set the Standards for Child Welfare

**Work Standards**
- Maintain audit readiness by ongoing training, competency assessment, audit, monitoring or metrics and corrective action
- Perform regulatory compliance safety walk-throughs of the program to ensure continuous compliance
- Review critical incident reports and carry out root analysis to determine the cause
- Ensure consistency in standards, processes, forms, and best care practices across all Upbring ORR Emergency Shelter programs
- Must be able to adjust quickly to different work situations and remain composed under pressure and in stressful situations
- Design, develop, implement, and evaluate interventions to improve performance for key indicators of program outcomes and business operations, goals, and objectives
- Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of programs and operations in meeting established goals and objectives in compliance with Agency, licensing, accreditation, and other regulatory requirements and advise management on any non-compliance through detailed reports.
- Ensure that operations comply with legal regulatory standards, procedures, and policies
- Responsible for monitoring and documenting compliance activities, advising leadership and management on compliance matters, and liaising with regulatory, accreditation, and government agencies
- Identifying, investigating, and reporting compliance issues, irregularities, and violations immediately to leadership and management
- Identify compliance issues and recommend solutions.
- Perform occasional regulatory training for employees with respect to applicable job functions or as a response to audit findings
- Act as an internal resource for compliance related questions, issues, resolutions based on Agency policies and procedures, accreditation, and applicable government standards
- Attend monthly program Safety Committee meetings
- All other duties as assigned

**Communication**
- Possess strong analytical thinking skills and be able to maintain meticulous records of compliance activities
- Ability to express and to communicate thoughts and ideas in a professional, clear, and concise manner, both orally and in written form to a variety of audiences and to all levels of staff.
- Must be willing to express and support management’s ideas to affected staff
- Possess the ability to tactfully and effectively work with collateral agencies, peers, and stakeholders to achieve the mission of the agency

**We Are Servants **|** We Help Others

**Teamwork**
- Assist in coordinating audit materials for internal compliance audits and external regulatory and accreditation bodies
- Assist with reviewing compliance related policies annually and recommend changes for management approval as needed
- Assist with reviewing and revising forms for compliance with applicable poli