Sr. Manager of Compliance

Be the one who makes a difference! At Vertex Education we are a team of high achievers, courageous leaders, and passionate believers in changing lives through education. As a purpose-led education services provider, our mission is destined to benefit many and yet it starts with just one person inspired to work together with us to make a memorable and meaningful difference for our clients, schools, students, and communities.

Be the one who makes a difference-with us.

Vertex is seeking a Senior Manager, Compliance Center of Excellence to help establish and manage the operating standards that support compliance and reporting work across School Performance, Assessment and Reporting (SPA) , Strategic Finance (SFO ) and related school support functions.

Reporting to the VP, Student Performance and Acc ountabil ity / School Analytics, this role will partner closely with SPA and SFO leadership to stand up the CoE , define its operating cadence, and make its tools practical for the teams that currently manage compliance submissions. The role will work through dotted-line relationships with SFO and coll ab orate cl osely wit h Accounting, Grants, BCM, Student Performance and Reporting teams .

This is an enablement, standards, and state-readiness role. The Senior Manager will not generally own routine submissions or routine client communication. Instead, the role equips delivery teams by creating and maintaining the calendar, SOPs, knowledge base, training, QA expectations, readiness checklists, and state-specific guidance they need to execute accurately and consistently.

• 1. CoE Buildout and Governance with SPA Leadership:
  Partner with the VP of S tudent Performance, Assessment & Reporting to define the CoE charter, initial roadmap, operating cadence, decision rights, success metrics, and stakeholder governance. Translate the CoE concept into practical routines, artifacts, and working norms that current delivery teams can adopt without disrupting in-flight submissions. Create a dotted-line governance rhythm with Accounting, Grants, BCM, Student Performance and Reporting teams to review adoption, risks, upcoming deadlines, state changes, and improvement priorities.
  
  Clarify where the CoE sets standards, where functional teams own execution, and where leadership decisions are required.
• 2. Master Calendar and Compliance Coverage Map:
  Build and maintain the master compliance calendar architecture for current states and in-scope compliance categories, including financial compliance, student data reporting, state reporting, attendance reporting, authorizer reporting, and other recurring or ad hoc obligations. Define calendar fields, ownership rules, lead times, evidence due dates, dependencies, submission windows, approval requirements, escalation points, and status conventions. Maintain a state coverage map that documents which obligations apply by state, school type, client segment, authorizer, funder, reporting platform, and delivery team.
  
  Create a recurring refresh process so the calendar is updated annually and whenever state, authorizer, funder, or internal requirements change.
• 3. SOPs, Repository, and Knowledge Management:
  Build and maintain a centralized compliance repository with state-specific and workflow-specific SOPs, templates, portal guides, submission checklists, QA expectations, evidence standards, and historical reference materials. Codify subject matter expertise currently held by SPA, SFO, including Accounting, Grants, and other teams so that knowledge is accessible, current, and not dependent on individual memory. Document priority workflows such as PIMS, CALPADS, attendance reporting, state data reporting, federal grants reporting, financial compliance submissions, and other high-volume or high-risk recurring obligations.
  
  Define version control, naming conventions, permissions, annual refresh owners, and approval workflows for CoE materials.
• 4. Training and Enablement:
  Develop training materials, onboarding modules, job aids, refreshers, office hours, and role-specific learning paths for teams that execute compliance and reporting work. Train delivery teams on requirements, source data needs, portal workflows, evidence expectations, QA checks, escalation triggers, and changes in state or funder rules. Support cross-training and backup coverage so core workflows do not rely on a single person or legacy team with undocumented expertise .
  
  Partner with functional leaders to reinforce role clarity, especially where compliance work has historically defaulted to BCMs, AMs, or senior leaders because ownership was unclear.
• 5. State Greenlight and Expansion Readiness:
  Own the state compliance readiness framework for states where Vertex currently operates and for new states under consideration. Create a greenlight checklist that assesses state reporting requirements, financial compliance obligations, grants requirements, student data reporting, attendance requirem