Director of Regulatory Compliance

Kipu Systems• US,

10h

About The Position

The Director of Regulatory Compliance owns the regulatory point of Kipu and its product portfolio. This is the person our subject matter experts, our product teams, and our customers turn to when the question is what a behavioral health regulation requires and what it takes to satisfy it. Behavioral health providers work under a regulatory load that no other care setting carries. Federal confidentiality rules that apply nowhere else in medicine, fifty state licensure regimes that regularly contradict one another, and two accrediting bodies with different philosophies and the same consequences for getting it wrong. This role exists to make sure we get it right. The Director manages a team of regulatory subject matter experts and partners closely with product, customer-facing teams, and company leadership. The authority in this role comes from expertise rather than from reporting lines, which means the person who holds it needs both the background to be right and the communication skills to be understood.

Requirements

Holds an advanced degree (clinical, medical, public health, health administration, or law).
Eight or more years in behavioral health compliance, quality, or regulatory affairs, including meaningful time inside provider operations across at least two distinct settings, such as residential treatment, withdrawal management, PHP or IOP, opioid treatment, crisis stabilization, or traditional outpatient.
At least three years of management experience, with direct responsibility for developing and deepening the knowledge of supervisees.
Deep command of state licensure and the federal framework, along with authority-level knowledge of The Joint Commission Behavioral Health Care standards, CARF standards, or both. Someone who knows one accreditor thoroughly will be expected to reach the same level on the other.
Direct experience with survey processes, including preparation, on-site management, and remediation afterward.
A track record of moving work forward across organizational lines without direct authority over the people involved.
Demonstrated ability to explain a complicated regulation clearly, both in writing and in conversation, to someone who does not share the same background.

Nice To Haves

Compliance or quality certification such as CHC, CHPC, CCEP, or CPHQ.
Experience serving as a state, Joint Commission, or CARF surveyor.
Hands-on experience with behavioral health EMR systems, including configuration, documentation workflows, and how requirements get enforced in software.
Technical fluency. Comfort in spreadsheets well beyond the basics, the ability to reason about structured data, and experience using AI tools.
Multi-state or multi-site program experience.
Experience serving as the compliance voice inside an organization.

Responsibilities

Serve as the regulatory authority for Kipu Compliance, with the final say when interpretations conflict.
Maintain deep working knowledge of the federal framework governing behavioral health, including 42 CFR Part 2, HIPAA Privacy and Security, 42 CFR Part 8 and SAMHSA opioid treatment program certification, and DEA requirements for medications for opioid use disorder.
Hold the same level of command over The Joint Commission Behavioral Health Care standards and/or CARF standards.
Oversee state regulatory coverage across residential, PHP, IOP, outpatient, withdrawal management, opioid treatment, and recovery residence levels of care, along with the Medicaid provider requirements layered on top of them.
Stay ahead of regulatory change by tracking proposed rules, standards revisions, and accreditation standards updates before they take effect, then deciding what matters and who needs to know.
Ensure the regulatory content in Kipu Compliance reflects current requirements and guidance.
Communicate complex regulatory requirements in language that both the SME team and the end user can act on. Internally, that means telling product and engineering what a requirement means in practice and where the edges are. Externally, it means giving the compliance officer or clinical director using the product that same clarity without the regulatory vocabulary.
Reduce complexity without reducing accuracy. Regulatory language is dense because it is precise, and good guidance keeps the precision while losing the density.
Serve as the escalation point for difficult questions, including ambiguous standards and conflicts between state and accreditor requirements. Make the call, explain the reasoning, and write it down so the team does not have to revisit it.
Recognize when a single finding points to something larger. One missing signature is a documentation error. The same gap across a dozen records is a process problem.
Lead and manage a team of regulatory subject matter experts, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and professional development.
Set the quality standard for the team's work, then teach people how to meet it.
Direct the regulatory work by setting the method, the sequence, and the review process.
Build the quality review practice that catches issues before a customer encounters them.
Create growth paths for specialists who want to go deeper into their expertise rather than only into management.
Partner with product managers and engineering so regulatory requirements are understood early in the design process rather than discovered late.
Support Customer Success and Sales by equipping those teams to handle routine regulatory questions, with a clear escalation path for the rest.
Champion Kipu Compliance with customers and speak credibly about what it does and does not do. When a customer asks whether we handle a requirement, you should be able to explain clearly what the product supports and where additional customer processes may be required.
Spend meaningful time with compliance officers, clinical directors, and quality leaders to understand how they actually work, then bring what you learn back to the teams who can act on it.
Represent Kipu at user groups, webinars, customer advisory boards, industry conferences, and company events.
Track industry trends and emerging regulatory themes to help inform where the compliance product goes next.