Compliance & Regulatory · CCO Executive Search
Compliance Recruitment & Chief Compliance Officer Executive Search
Sartori & Partners runs retained compliance recruitment and chief compliance officer executive search for regulated companies: CCO, MLRO, head of sanctions and DPO/CPO seats. On a CCO search the shortlist arrives in 21 days and the accepted offer in 10 weeks.
What is chief compliance officer executive search?
Chief compliance officer executive search is a retained search for the person who will speak for your business to the regulators who can fine it, restrict it, or shut it down.
That is a different kind of search. The compliance leaders worth hiring are rarely on the market — they are employed, trusted by a board, and reached only through a direct approach. They have to be mapped, assessed against the regulator's own standard, and persuaded.
The bar is external. The U.S. Department of Justice Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (updated 2024) sets out what a credible program looks like — a CCO with real authority, independence, resources and access to the board — and the 2015 Yates Memo put individual accountability at the center of corporate enforcement. The wrong hire carries regulatory, reputational and personal-liability risk.
Sartori & Partners has completed 36 compliance and regulatory leadership placements since 2017, inside 400+ placements (230+ in-house). The officer mandate is a chief compliance officer search; the buyer guide is hiring a chief compliance officer.
How long does a CCO search take, and what does it cost?
A CCO search takes 21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to an accepted offer, across 36 compliance and regulatory leadership placements since 2017.
| Seat | To shortlist | To accepted offer | Base | Replacement guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief compliance officer | 21 days | 10 weeks | 36 compliance leadership placements | 12 months |
| Privacy and AI-governance counsel | 19 days | 9 weeks | Specialist counsel searches | 6 months |
| Interim CCO | Median 7 days from first call to start | 60+ interim and fractional engagements | Day rate: $2,200-$3,800 (US) | |
The fee is 25-30% of the hire's first-year total compensation, retained only. A retainer of 30% of the fee is paid at engagement. Off-limits on the client's legal department run 24 months. Across corporate mandates, 96% of offers taken to a signed letter are accepted, and 97% of placed in-house leaders remain at 12 months.
A NYSE-listed payments company in New York hired its chief compliance officer on this clock: reporting line to the audit committee, candidates assessed against the DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, shortlist in week 3, accepted offer in week 10. Read the New York payments CCO case study. Pay by seat is in chief compliance officer pay, 2026.
We asked for a CCO who had sat across a regulator, not a policy author. The dossiers named examinations. We interviewed three. We hired one.
Chair of the audit committee, Euronext-listed insurer, Brussels
ACC's 2025 Chief Legal Officer Survey names risk, compliance, data privacy and regulatory change as the issues chief legal officers rank first (Association of Corporate Counsel, 2025).
Sibling searches: chief compliance officer search, sanctions and AML recruitment, chief privacy officer search, data protection officer search, AI governance counsel. New York hiring: compliance recruiters in New York.
What standard is a chief compliance officer held to?
A CCO is judged against the U.S. Department of Justice Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, updated 2024: is the program well designed, adequately resourced and empowered, and working in practice.
The modern compliance function was built by Sarbanes-Oxley (2002) and Dodd-Frank (2010). The DOJ now asks whether compliance has autonomy, resources and direct access to the board or its audit committee. A candidate answers those questions with examinations sat, findings fixed and resources won, not with policies written. That is why the reporting line is the first line of the brief.
Standard: U.S. Department of Justice, Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (updated 2024), and the 2015 Yates Memorandum.
Which compliance roles do you recruit?
From the chief compliance officer who owns the program to the financial-crime and privacy leaders beneath them, we recruit across the full regulatory function.
Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
The compliance leader who owns the program, answers to the board or the audit committee, and stands in front of a regulator. The officer mandate is a CCO executive search.
CCO executive searchRegulatory & Government Affairs Counsel
Lawyers who read the rulebook before it is written — handling examinations, enforcement, rulemaking and the regulators themselves across sector-specific regimes.
Financial Crime, AML & Sanctions
BSA/AML officers and MLROs, sanctions and OFAC leads, KYC and transaction-monitoring heads, and financial-crime counsel for banks, fintechs and payments businesses.
Sanctions and AML searchRisk & Internal Audit Leadership
Chief Risk Officers, heads of operational and conduct risk, and internal-audit leaders who pair quantitative judgment with a working knowledge of the law.
Data Privacy & Information Governance
Chief Privacy Officers, Data Protection Officers and privacy counsel fluent in GDPR, CCPA/CPRA and the widening patchwork of state and cross-border data law.
Chief Privacy Officer searchEthics, Conduct & ESG
Heads of ethics and business conduct, and the compliance leaders now asked to own ESG disclosure, anti-bribery and supply-chain regulatory obligations.
Hiring across the wider legal department too? See in-house & general counsel recruiting and legal operations recruitment, or start from the legal talent acquisition hub for companies.
Which sectors do you recruit compliance leaders for?
Regulated industries where compliance is a board-level concern. The regulatory regime — not the job title — defines the brief.
Banking & Capital Markets
BSA/AML, sanctions, conduct, and SEC/FINRA-facing compliance for banks, broker-dealers, asset managers and market infrastructure — the function Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank rebuilt. Dual-regulated financial services companies typically run 15 to 40 lawyers plus a compliance function.
Fintech, Payments & Crypto
Money-transmission licensing, consumer-finance, and the crypto-and-payments compliance leaders who build a program while the rules are still moving.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
HIPAA, anti-kickback, Sunshine Act, FDA and pharmacovigilance compliance for providers, payers, device and biopharma companies.
Energy & Industrials
FERC, environmental, trade and anti-corruption compliance for energy, utilities, manufacturing and critical-infrastructure businesses.
Technology & Data
Privacy, content, AI-governance and cross-border data-transfer leadership for platforms, SaaS and data-intensive businesses.
Law Firm Compliance Practices
The regulatory, white-collar and investigations partners and senior associates who advise the regulated companies above.
When the seat is model governance, the search is AI governance counsel search. Payments and financial-crime seats also sit on sanctions and AML recruitment.
How do you assess a compliance leader's regulatory credibility?
We establish ownership — what the candidate actually led, decided, and was accountable for — and benchmark it against the DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, updated 2024, on authority, resources and independence.
Anyone senior enough for this work has the right words. The difference between a good and a costly hire is whether the experience behind those words is real, whether it matches the program you actually have, and whether the role you are offering gives a compliance leader the standing the regulator expects. Four questions decide it.
- 01
Regulatory credibility, not just a CV
We test whether a candidate has genuinely owned a regulatory relationship — led an examination, responded to an enforcement action, sat across the table from the FCA, SEC, OCC or DOJ — rather than supported from a distance.
- 02
Program-build vs. program-run
A leader who stood up a compliance function from nothing is a different hire from one who optimized a mature one. We match the candidate's proven mode to where your program actually is — and to what the DOJ's Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, updated 2024, expects a program to demonstrate.
- 03
Authority, resources and independence
The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, updated 2024, asks prosecutors to test whether compliance has real authority, adequate resources and a seat with the seniority the role demands. We assess the candidate against the same standard — and tell you where your structure would undercut them before you hire.
- 04
The reporting line and the board relationship
Where the role reports — to the GC, the CEO, or directly to the board and audit committee — changes the brief and the candidate. The 2015 Yates Memo put individual accountability at the center of corporate enforcement. The leaders who have sat an examination ask about that line first; we pressure-test the structure with you before we approach the market.
Why use specialist compliance recruiters rather than a generalist search firm?
A specialist reads the regulatory regime behind a title. Sartori & Partners works only in the legal and compliance market, with 36 compliance and regulatory leadership placements since 2017.
A generalist sees a title. We read the regime.
Compliance titles travel badly. A “Head of Compliance” at a payments startup and at a global bank are not interchangeable, and a sanctions specialist is not automatically a privacy one. We know which AML lead can also carry sanctions, which regulatory counsel has owned a board relationship, and which CCO is ready to step up rather than across.
The people worth hiring rarely see the advert.
The compliance leaders worth hiring are trusted, busy and employed. They are reached through a mapped, direct approach — not a job board. The Sartori research programme maps 1,480,000+ lawyers. Judgment on the shortlist is set out in our methodology.
One sector, both sides of the table.
We work only in the legal and compliance market, for the companies that hire and the leaders who move — including compliance officers and CCOs considering a move, for whom the hiring company pays our fee. That dual view is how we read whether a hire is portable, and whether a candidate is ready.
Planning the function before the hire? Read our guide to compliance & regulatory talent acquisition and hiring a chief compliance officer. Firm background is on about Sartori & Partners, founded in early 2017.
Compliance recruitment and CCO search: common questions
What is a chief compliance officer executive search, and what do CCO recruiters deliver?
A CCO executive search is a retained search for a chief compliance officer: mandate, total-market mapping, private outreach, assessment dossiers, offer and onboarding. Sartori & Partners has completed 36 compliance and regulatory leadership placements since 2017 (CCO, MLRO, head of sanctions, DPO/CPO). The officer page is chief compliance officer search; a closed file is the NYSE-listed payments CCO search in New York.
How long does a chief compliance officer search take?
21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to an accepted offer, the median across 36 compliance and regulatory leadership placements since 2017. A NYSE-listed payments company in New York hired its CCO on that clock: shortlist in week 3, accepted offer in week 10. Privacy and AI-governance searches run 19 days to a shortlist and 9 weeks to an offer.
How much does a CCO search cost?
The fee is 25-30% of the hire's first-year total compensation, retained only. A retainer of 30% of the fee is paid at engagement, the replacement guarantee on a retained CCO search is 12 months, and off-limits on your legal department run 24 months. We do not run contingency searches. Pay by seat is in chief compliance officer pay, 2026; terms are in legal recruitment fees explained.
What compliance roles do you recruit for?
Senior compliance, regulatory and risk leadership, from the chief compliance officer down. That means CCOs and deputy CCOs, BSA/AML officers and MLROs, heads of sanctions, Chief Privacy Officers and DPOs, regulatory counsel, Chief Risk and internal-audit leaders, and heads of ethics and conduct. Officer mandates go to chief compliance officer search, sanctions and AML search, chief privacy officer search and data protection officer search.
Do you place a first chief compliance officer for a scaling company?
Yes, and it is a different hire from a replacement. The candidate must build a program from a blank page — often because a license, an investor or a regulator demands it — and show the authority, resources and independence the DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (updated 2024) expects. The CCO clock still applies: 21 days to a shortlist and 10 weeks to an accepted offer.
How do you assess regulatory credibility?
We test for ownership, not exposure: examinations led, consent orders or remediations managed, enforcement matters answered, and a working relationship with the regulator. We benchmark the brief against the DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs on authority, resources and reporting line. Read the New York payments CCO case study.
Can you replace a CCO confidentially while the current officer is still in seat?
Yes. The process is blind both ways until mutual interest is confirmed, no CV leaves us without written candidate consent, an NDA is available on request, and conflicts are checked before any outreach. The people worth hiring are employed elsewhere, so the approach is direct and private.
Do you provide interim or outsourced compliance officers?
Yes, as interim engagements billed by the day. Interim CCO day rates run $2,200-$3,800 in the US and £1,600-£2,800 in the UK, and the median start is 7 days from first call across 60+ interim and fractional engagements. Days billed are credited against a later retained search.
Do you recruit compliance leaders in New York and outside the United States?
Yes. Corporate mandates have run in 23 countries and 41 cities. New York companies start at compliance recruiters in New York; Sydney at compliance recruitment in Sydney; a conducting-officer or bank compliance hire in Luxembourg at in-house counsel recruiting in Luxembourg. Every market is listed below.
Where we run this search.
One page per market: the local bench, the employers hiring, the pay and how the process actually goes.
Compliance & regulatory43 pages
Amsterdam
Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Boston
Brussels
Charlotte
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Dubai
Dublin
Frankfurt
Hong Kong
Houston
Kansas City
Las Vegas
London
Los Angeles
Madrid
Miami
Milan
Minneapolis
Munich
New Orleans
New York
Newark
Paris
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Singapore
St. Louis
Sydney
Tampa
Tokyo
Toronto
Washington
Zurich
Build your compliance function
A CCO shortlist in 21 days starts with one conversation.
Hiring a first chief compliance officer, replacing one quietly, or strengthening a regulatory and risk team: retained only, 25-30% of first-year total compensation, 12-month replacement guarantee on a CCO search.