P&C Compliance Sr Specialist

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Job Overview:

The P&C Employment Compliance Manager is the organization's designated subject matter expert and primary focal point for U.S. employment compliance — spanning Form I-9/E-Verify, background screening, EEO/EEOC compliance, and Employee Handbook and HR policy governance. This role exists to move IRC from a reactive, administrative approach to employment compliance toward a proactive, audit-ready one — particularly given IRC's workforce naturally includes a significantly higher proportion of employees with non-native immigration backgrounds than a typical U.S. employer, which elevates both the stakes and the complexity of getting this right.

This role is designed to make the jobs of P&C Partners easier, not to displace or duplicate them. By owning the standards, tools, training, audit processes, and regulatory tracking that P&C Partners currently have to navigate on their own, this role frees them to focus on people-centered, relationship-driven work, while giving them a dedicated expert to call on for complex or gray-area compliance questions — and appropriately escalating matters that require legal interpretation or advice.

The right candidate moves fluidly between hands-on execution — personally completing I-9 reverifications and audits, and serving as the final checkpoint before Tier 1 submits new-hire verifications — and enterprise-level program leadership: building the compliance frameworks, quality controls, vendor relationships, reporting structures, and training curricula that keep the organization audit-ready at all times. This is a deep practitioner role for someone interested in a career in this space, not a legal role — a law degree is not required.

While the role's deepest ownership sits with U.S. compliance given the concentration of legal complexity here, it also maintains lightweight visibility into policy currently across IRC's global operations.

Major Responsibilities:

Employment Eligibility, I-9 & Background Screening Compliance

- Own the organization's I-9 program end-to-end: set policy, standards, and process, and serve as the final review and confirmation point before Tier 1 submits new-hire I-9 verifications
- Personally complete all I-9 reverifications (e.g., work authorization renewals) and manage reverification timelines and tracking
- Design and deliver training and certification for everyone completing new-hire I-9 verifications (currently Tier 1 HR Operations), and serve as their go-to point of confirmation before submission when questions arise
- Conduct regular internal I-9 audits — including audits of Tier 1's completed verifications — and prepare the organization to respond to any government inspection or Notice of Inspection with confidence
- Own and oversee the U.S. background screening program, including process governance, vendor management, and continuous improvement, ensuring compliance with applicable federal, state, and local requirements, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- Own the Workday ↔ HireRight integration, coordinating with HR Technology, Talent Acquisition, and the vendor to ensure the integration meets compliance and operational requirements, and manage any future changes or new requirements as they arise

Multistate Compliance & Regulatory Tracking

- Maintain a living compliance matrix of federal, state, and local employment law obligations across all U.S. operating locations, including state-specific holidays, paid family leave requirements, and other jurisdiction-specific nuances
- Maintain clear visibility into where employees are located by state, so compliance obligations can be mapped accurately as the distributed workforce evolves
- Partner with Payroll to monitor wage-and-hour compliance — including meal and rest break requirements and timekeeping accuracy — in high-risk states such as California, proactively closing gaps before they become costly
- Monitor regulatory changes and proactively update policies, handbooks, and practices before deadlines take effect

EEO / EEOC Compliance

- Serve as the HR Operations focal point for EEO/EEOC-related compliance and reporting, including EEO-1/Affirmative Action Plan obligations and applicable state-level equivalents (e.g., New Jersey), monitoring where federal requirements have lapsed but state requirements may still apply
- Own California Pay Data Reporting (SB 1162) — coordinating with Payroll and People Analytics to compile accurate pay band, race/ethnicity, and sex data by job category, and managing the annual submission to California's Civil Rights Department ahead of the required deadline
- Coordinate EEO-1 reporting — data collection, validation, and submission — in partnership with People Analytics, HR Technology, and Payroll to ensure data integrity and reporting readiness
- Coordinate responses to EEOC-related requests, inquiries, or audits in partnership with Legal

Audit, Quality Control & Vendor Management

- Establish and execute a regular internal audit cadence across all compliance domains, identifying gaps and remediating errors before they escalate
- Manage relevant HR compliance vendors (background screening, I-9/E-Verify, and related third-party providers), monitoring performance and ensuring consistent application of compliance processes
- Identify opportunities to automate, streamline, and standardize compliance-related processes in partnership with HR Technology

Policy and Handbook Currency

- Own the review and update cycle for U.S. employment policies and the employee handbook, ensuring alignment with current federal, state, and local law across all jurisdictions, including state-specific and local addenda and the NY State/NYC regulatory environment
- Own a central repository for all P&C policies, driving a regular review cadence with each policy's subject-matter owner (Compensation, Benefits, Recruitment, etc.) to confirm currency and surface any conflicts between policies for resolution by the relevant owners — this role owns the system and process, not the content of policies outside employment law
- Partner with HR Communications to effectively communicate policy and handbook changes to employees and managers
- Maintain a lightweight annual review cycle for handbooks across IRC's non-U.S. operations — collecting the most current version from each country and flagging any that are overdue for update — without taking on deep ownership of non-U.S. policy content

P&C Partner Enablement & Reporting

- Act as a standing SME resource for P&C Partners, fielding compliance questions and providing guidance on complex or gray-area cases, and identifying the appropriate process, policy, resource, or escalation path
- Develop FAQs, guidance materials, tools, and job aids that enable P&C Partners to independently navigate common compliance questions
- Develop and maintain dashboards and reporting for HR leadership and General Counsel on compliance status, open items, training completion rates, and emerging regulatory risk

Job Requirements:

- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience); law degree not required
- 5–8+ years of experience in U.S. employment and labor law compliance, with demonstrated expertise in Form I-9, E-Verify, and multistate regulatory environments
- Demonstrated experience managing background screening programs and working knowledge of FCRA requirements
- Experience supporting EEO/EEOC compliance and reporting, including EEO-1 reporting; experience with state-level pay data or pay equity reporting (e.g., California SB 1162) is a plus
- Proven experience working with employees across diverse immigration statuses, including refugees, SIV holders, parolees, green card holders, visa holders, and naturalized citizens
- Track record of building or significantly maturing a compliance program, not just maintaining one
- Experience designing and delivering compliance training for non-legal audiences, including certifying frontline staff to perform compliance-sensitive tasks
- Experience with HRIS platforms and HR technology; Workday experience strongly preferred
- Experience managing HR compliance vendors and third-party providers
- SHRM-CP/SCP, PHR/SPHR, or a specialist certification in immigration or I-9 compliance is a plus

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies

- Strong working knowledge of FLSA, Title VII, FMLA, ADA, PWFA, OSHA, WARN Act, and applicable state and local equivalents, particularly New York State and NYC
- Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and operate with credibility across all levels of the organization
- Strong diplomatic and relationship-building skills, able to guide and influence without formal authority over the teams they support
- Comfortable moving between hands-on casework and enterprise-level program building

Working Environment:

Standard office working environment with the ability to work remote 2-3 days per week.

Compensation: (Pay Rate: $95,000/yr). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct . Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding , Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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Benefits: IRC offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package. Highlights include 10 paid sick leave, 10 U.S. holidays, 20-25 generous paid time off based on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $163/month, dental starting at $6.50/month, and vision starting at $5/month, flexible spending accounts (healthcare, dependent care, and commuter), a 403(b) retirement savings plan with employer match (immediate vesting) along with a non-elective employer contribution based on age and years of service (3-year vesting), disability and life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering confidential counseling and support services for employees and their families.

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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