Head of Product Compliance

Location: New York

Head of Product Compliance

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Who We Are

At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, a wellness program, company retreats, and the opportunity to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset—our people. We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business, solving HR issues with data‑driven products and a culture of continuous iteration.

Who

You Are

You’re an experienced compliance executive with a proven ability to embed regulatory requirements into products and operational processes  combine regulatory depth with product and business acumen, balancing risk mitigation with practical, scalable enablement for customers and internal teams. You excel at operationalizing compliance through systems, automation, and cross‑functional partnership to ensure our products remain both compliant and competitive.

Your Success Profile

As the Head of Product Compliance, you will lead a centralized Operations function accountable for ensuring all Justworks products and operational processes are compliant by design and aligned with evolving regulatory standards. You will elevate product compliance as a strategic differentiator, strengthening customer trust and enabling innovation in regulated domains.

Build and Lead the Product Compliance Function

• Recruit, coach, and develop a high‑performing team that fosters ownership, clarity, and continuous improvement.
• Define and implement the strategy, structure, and operating model for a centralized Product Compliance function.
• Establish clear ownership and accountability across product‑related compliance domains, including regulatory research, product requirements, governance, and quality assurance.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations to ensure compliance is intentionally embedded into product design, system architecture, workflows, and decision‑making.

Drive Compliance Excellence and Product Governance

• Develop and maintain product‑focused compliance frameworks and policies that ensure our offerings meet applicable federal, state, and international regulations related to payroll, tax, benefits, payments, and international employment.
• Ensure product and operational readiness for key certifications and audits (e.g., ESAC, CPEO, SOC), partnering with enterprise compliance teams where appropriate.
• Implement governance mechanisms that ensure proactive regulatory interpretation, risk identification, escalation, and resolution across product lines.

Advance Product Compliance Enablement and Automation

• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to translate regulatory requirements into product specifications, system logic, and automated controls.
• Leverage automation and AI to build scalable, auditable compliance workflows and reduce manual risk.
• Create and maintain a single source of truth for product compliance documentation, decisions, and knowledge to ensure consistency and visibility across teams.

Lead Through Influence and Vision

• Serve as the senior compliance voice in strategic decision‑making, balancing customer experience, product innovation, and regulatory risk.
• Shape the narrative around product compliance as a driver of customer trust and differentiation, not just a risk function.
• Influence long‑term product strategy by providing forward‑looking regulatory insights, ensuring teams anticipate and build for future compliance requirements rather than react to them.

How You Will Do Your Work

• Strategic Vision & Planning:
  Set a long‑term vision for compliance that aligns with Justworks’ mission and anticipates future regulatory trends.
• Decisive, Data‑Driven Leadership:
  Use analytics and insights to prioritize compliance risks, design efficient controls, and measure outcomes.
• Change Management & Transformation:
  Lead organizational transformation by embedding compliance into operational and product life cycles.
• Cross‑Functional Influence:
  Build trust and alignment with Legal, Product, Engineering, and Operations leaders to execute complex, multi‑stakeholder initiatives.
• Inclusive,…