Director of Compliance

Wheels Manufacturing LLC•Bloomington, MN

2d•$150,000 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Compliance is responsible for setting strategy and driving execution of company-wide compliance and employee safety initiatives. The role is the company owner for compliance governance, operating standards, regulatory risk management, and employee safety programs. This role will balance multiple compliance functions that impact departments across the organization. This role will be expected to manage these compliance functions so that they are not fragmented and aligned with the business strategy and annual operating plans. The Director must translate complex regulatory frameworks into scalable operating practices, create decision rights and escalation paths, and ensure compliance and safety requirements are embedded into everyday business execution. The Director of Compliance reports to the VP Supply Chain and Global Logistics and partners across Legal, Purchasing, Logistics, DC Operations, Product, Finance, IT, Sales, external regulatory partners and broker partners.

Requirements

10+ years of relevant experience in compliance, customs, global trade, product compliance, employee safety, regulatory affairs, supply chain compliance, risk management, claims management, or related disciplines.
Progressive leadership experience building, leading, or scaling compliance, safety, claims, or risk management teams and programs.
Demonstrated ability to turn strategy into executable business plans and lead projects through to completion.
Ability to analyze complex regulations and communicate business impact clearly and concisely to diverse audiences.
Strong organizational skills; excellent written and oral communication including leading presentations.
High integrity and sound judgment; ability to identify risk and propose practical solutions aligned to business realities and values.
Ability to learn and engage across evolving technology platforms.
Licensed Customs Broker, or significant experience with US Customs and trade compliance is preferred.

Nice To Haves

Licensed Customs Broker, or significant experience with US Customs and trade compliance is preferred.

Responsibilities

Directing company compliance and employee safety strategies aligned to QBP objectives and insurance requirements
Establish clear accountability, standards, escalation paths, and management routines so compliance and safety are explicit and durable.
Operate as a company leader by influencing outcomes beyond direct reporting lines and ensuring compliance is understood as a business operating discipline, not as a reaction or after-the-fact responses.
Build a proactive, practical, trusted compliance department capable of both strategic planning and daily execution.
Lead and develop multiple direct reporting managers of distinct compliance functions.
Identifying and promoting change in process, systems, and company perspective to strive for continuous efficiencies, cost improvement, and adherence to compliance initiatives.
Management of Customs compliance policies, standards, internal controls, and operating procedures across import and export activities.
Compliance systems, data integrity, and process integration, including trade data quality, automation opportunities, and partnership with internal and external technology partners on scalable compliance technology.
Management of product safety compliance for proprietary and distributed products, including support for investigations into product quality and safety issues and leadership of recall execution when necessary.
Management of hazardous materials compliance related to transportation, storage, processing, documentation, training, and operational execution.
Management of various state or federal extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations, environmental reporting, and related regulatory obligations as requirements expand.
Management of employee safety strategy, standards, programs, training, governance, reporting, and execution across QBP locations and operational teams.
Compliance risk identification, escalation, remediation, communication, and documentation across the enterprise.
External partner engagement and, where applicable, performance, including customs brokers, trade service providers, governmental agencies, insurance providers, claims administrators, and third parties supporting compliance or safety execution.
Define and lead QBP’s compliance strategy and annual operating plans aligned with business growth, operational priorities, regulatory risk, and insurance requirements.
Design, continuously improve, and govern scalable compliance and safety programs with clear policies, internal controls, operating models, and defined ownership accountabilities.
Translate complex regulatory requirements and communicate business impact clearly to diverse audiences.
Continuously review established compliance and safety initiatives to ensure they remain relevant, scalable, cost efficient, and aligned to QBP values and risk tolerance.
Provide executive-level recommendations on compliance risk, safety risk, claim trends, business impact, mitigation options, and execution tradeoffs.
Management of the customs compliance functional area, which is responsible for import and export transactions, including entry accuracy, valuation, classification, country of origin, documentation completeness, and filing timeliness.
This includes ensuring timely, accurate, and compliant customs filings through effective oversight of internal processes, external brokers, and supporting data flows.
Lead enterprise risk identification and mitigation across global trade activities, including supplier documentation standards, restricted party or sanctions screening, licensing, and other regulatory requirements applicable to QBP.
Identify responsible opportunities to reduce duty exposure and landed cost, including tariff mitigation, free trade agreements, duty drawback, or other programs where appropriate.
Oversee product safety compliance for proprietary and distributed products, supporting compliant, best-in-class outcomes for QBP customers and business partners.
Support Product Safety, Product Development, Quality, Category Management, Brands, and Distribution teams through investigations into quality and safety issues.
Lead recalls when necessary, ensuring timely, coordinated, and compliant execution with appropriate communication, documentation, and follow-through.
Own hazardous materials compliance processes related to transportation, storage, processing, documentation, training, and operational execution.
Establish and scale EPR and environmental reporting programs as requirements expand across markets where QBP does business.
Own the employee safety program across QBP, including governance, standards, expectations, training, incident management, corrective action, and continuous improvement routines.
Coordinate safety expectations and initiatives across distribution centers, office environments, travel, and other work settings where QBP has employee safety obligations.
Oversee timely and accurate incident reporting, investigation, documentation, root cause analysis, corrective action, and communication with appropriate internal and external stakeholders.
Oversee claim submission and claim management processes, including ensuring claims are documented, submitted, tracked, escalated, and managed through resolution in partnership with Safety Coordinators, Human Resources, Legal, management, insurance carriers, and third-party administrators.
Ensure required safety documentation, reporting, training records, and audit trails are maintained with discipline and are available for regulatory, insurance, or internal review as needed.
Lead proactive safety improvement initiatives that reduce risk while remaining practical for leaders and teams to execute.
Establish and monitor compliance performance indicators.
Partner with IT and business stakeholders to improve compliance and safety visibility, automation, data quality, and system-enabled controls.
Identify and advocate for proactive processes and actions to reduce the need for reactive compliance activity.
Maintain appropriate records, documentation, and audit trails to support regulatory readiness, claims management, safety governance and internal accountability.
Partner with Purchasing, Logistics, Finance, DC Operations, Product Development, Quality, Category Management, Sales, Brands, IT, and Legal to integrate compliance and safety requirements into business processes.
Act as the trusted leader to communicate and solve compliance or safety issues that affect business operations, employee wellbeing, customer commitments, supplier performance, cost, service, risk, or reputation.
Build compliance and safety engagement across the organization through training, guidance, communication, audits, or other practical tools.
Ensure compliance and safety decisions balance legal and regulatory requirements with QBP budget, labor, operational realities, and company values.
Represent QBP professionally with governmental agencies, brokers, suppliers, service providers, insurance partners, and third-party administrators and other third parties.
Lead and develop customs, product safety, hazmat, environmental, employee safety, and related compliance professionals.
Create clarity of roles, priorities, performance expectations, and development paths across the compliance and safety functions.
Coach the team to balance strategic initiatives with daily execution, issue resolution, documentation discipline, and proactive risk management.
Build a culture of ownership, accountability, partnership, integrity, continuous improvement, prevention, and practical problem solving.
As a company leader, model QBP culture, values, judgment, and expected leadership behavior.
Manage compliance work in alignment with QBP’s risk tolerance.
Support insurance, litigation, disclosure, investigation, audit, claim, or document requests in partnership with Legal, Human Resources, Finance and business leaders as required.
Support business cases and prioritization for compliance and safety-related investments, systems, controls, external services, training and process improvements.
Drive remediation of compliance and safety gaps to completion and ensure corrective actions are owned, tracked, communicated, and sustained.