Consumer Compliance Manager, Complaints

Cardless•San Francisco, CA

4d•$135,000 - $160,000•Onsite

About The Position

This role is for a compliance professional to partner with the Customer Experience team, focusing on transforming consumer complaint trends into solutions that address root causes. The company views complaints as valuable feedback and treats this signal with significant importance. The position involves close collaboration with CX on investigations and responses, owning trending and reporting to bank partners, and identifying root causes to drive permanent remediation. The company operates as a program manager partnering with FDIC- and OCC-regulated issuing banks for credit and debit card programs. The compliance team functions within this bank partnership model, requiring consideration of obligations across multiple bank partners with varying regulatory expectations, categorization standards, and reporting cadences. Understanding the program manager structure is crucial for success. This is a hands-on, individual-contributor role where the person will handle critical complaints, support investigations, review responses, and collaborate with Customer Experience and Engineering to fix underlying defects. There is also an opportunity to automate the complaint handling function. The role involves identifying overall program enhancements, including intake, categorization, target dates, trend analysis, and audit-ready records. The company is also implementing new tooling, and this role will oversee that system implementation. It's a high-ownership position for someone who thrives on complex, cross-functional problems and is driven to resolve issues at their source.

Requirements

Typically 4 to 7 years in consumer compliance, complaint management, consumer advocacy, disputes, or a closely related function within banking, fintech, credit cards, lending, or payments.
Hands-on experience investigating and resolving consumer complaints, including regulatory and agency complaints, in a regulated consumer financial services environment.
Working knowledge of consumer protection regulations: Regulation Z, Regulation E, Regulation B, UDAAP, FCRA, and FDCPA.
Demonstrated root cause analysis skill, with the ability to identify underlying causes of complaint clusters and document findings with evidence.
Experience driving corrective action across functions not directly managed, particularly with Engineering and Operations, and following through to validated closure.
Excellent written communication skills for drafting consumer responses, investigation summaries, and reporting.
Comfort using data and AI tools for efficiency and expanded coverage.
Strong organization skills and the ability to manage multiple open matters with hard deadlines.
Proven ability to operate independently in a fast-paced environment without a defined playbook or daily check-ins.

Nice To Haves

Experience in credit card issuing or co-branded card programs.
Experience responding to CFPB portal complaints or working complaints alongside a partner bank.
Background in disputes, fraud, or servicing operations.
Experience building or maturing a complaint management program.
Experience writing procedures, response templates, or agent guidance for a support organization.
CRCM or another consumer compliance certification.
Fluency with workflow automation and comfort building tooling.

Responsibilities

Own the complaint program end to end, including intake, triage, categorization, investigation, and resolution for consumer complaints across card programs, including direct complaints and agency complaints from CFPB, FDIC, Better Business Bureau, state attorneys general, and counsel.
Draft investigation summaries and consumer responses that are accurate, plain-spoken, and defensible.
Manage complaint target dates and turnaround commitments, escalating proactively to avoid missed deadlines.
Produce monthly complaint reporting packages for each bank partner, including trend analysis and written summaries, adapting to each partner's specific categorization and reporting expectations.
Prepare quarterly complaint findings for the Compliance Committee and the Board.
Analyze complaint volume, categories, and drivers to identify patterns and perform root cause analysis on recurring themes, distinguishing between different types of errors.
Convert confirmed root causes into logged issues with corrective action plans, owners, and target dates.
Drive remediation to closure with Engineering, Product, and Operations, validating the effectiveness of fixes and confirming the cessation of recurring complaint themes.
Escalate repeat issues clearly and early, especially if a previously remediated problem resurfaces.
Partner with the Customer Experience team to improve complaint identification, tagging, and documentation at the first contact.
Write and maintain procedures, response templates, and agent guidance for the front line.
Provide practical regulatory guidance to support agents and build a review loop to catch handling problems.
Improve complaint tooling, intake workflows, and reporting, including automation, to scale coverage efficiently.
Maintain organized, complete, and audit-ready complaint records and documentation.
Support examination readiness and bank partner reviews by providing complaint data, investigations, and remediation status.
Provide coverage across other compliance functions as needed.