Compliance Analyst
IT, Legal
SmartSuite for the Compliance Analyst
The Compliance Analyst performs compliance assessments, collects and evaluates evidence, executes control tests, documents results and prepares reporting. They do the detailed work that keeps the compliance program evidenced and the findings log current.
Reports to:
What you own
The Compliance Analyst performs compliance assessments, collects and evaluates evidence, executes control tests, documents results and prepares reporting.
- Perform compliance assessments against mapped requirements
- Evaluate evidence submissions for completeness and accuracy
- Execute control tests and record results
- Log findings and track remediation activities
- Maintain the obligations and control library data
- Prepare compliance reports and dashboards
At a glance
The GRC processes this role owns, touches and depends on.
Owns
accountable for the process
Touches
contributes or approves
Depends on
consumes its output
How the GRC processes connect
Three lines of defence set the frame; the chain shows where each process hands off to the next. Colours follow the Compliance Analyst: navy is owned, blue is touched, grey is depended on.
- First lineThe business and its control ownersRun the processes, own the controls, fix the issues
- Second lineRisk, compliance and the domain programmesSet the frameworks, assess, monitor and advise
- Third lineInternal auditIndependent assurance to the board and audit committee
Reporting lines
Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.
Reports to
Compliance Manager
See the roleDirect reports
Works closely with
Control Owner
See the roleInternal Auditor
See the roleRisk Analyst
See the roleControls Testing Lead
See the roleHow SmartSuite supports the Compliance Analyst
The compliance program is only as evidenced as your workpapers, and the Compliance Manager, internal audit and the external assessor sample them. SmartSuite gives a Compliance Analyst assessments on standard templates, evidence evaluated and recorded in one place, findings that chase their own owners and dashboards built from the testing you have already done.
Perform assessments, evaluate evidence and test controls
Evidence arrives through structured workflows with the required fields and dates, so you evaluate each submission for completeness against the template rather than deciding case by case what is missing.
Compliance Management suiteCompliance Assessments & Testing holds each control test, its procedure, evidence and result in one record, so your workpaper is complete the moment the test is done.
Compliance Management suiteBecause controls in Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries map to several frameworks, a test you perform once satisfies every requirement that control covers rather than being repeated per framework.
Compliance Management suiteWork with control owners, auditors and the risk team
Automated reminders go to Control Owners when evidence or a remediation update is due, so your follow-up time goes to the submissions that are actually late.
Compliance Management suiteInternal Auditors and the Controls Testing Lead can read your test records and evidence directly, so a sampled control is answered from the record rather than reassembled for the request.
Compliance Management suiteEach control links to the risks, issues and obligations it addresses, so a failed test shows the Risk Analyst which exposure just increased without a separate conversation.
Compliance Management suiteKeep the findings log and the library current
When a regulation changes, the impact assessment and the affected obligations route to you for library updates, so the control library reflects current requirements rather than last year's mapping.
Compliance Management suiteDashboards of testing progress, overdue items and control effectiveness read from your assessment records, so preparing the Compliance Manager's report means checking the view, not building a spreadsheet.
Compliance Management suiteThe AI Assistant in a SmartDoc field summarizes controls and drafts compliance narratives from your test results, which you then check against the evidence, so write-ups take less time than the testing did.
Compliance Management suiteCompliance management. Streamlines assessments with templates and workflows, evaluating submissions for completeness and recording control test results in one place.
Issues and actions. Documents findings and tracks remediation activities with automated reminders to owners.
Reporting. Prepares compliance dashboards and status reports from assessment and testing data.
Products this role uses most
Industry reference
ISO 37301:2021 and ISACA guidance set the standard the analyst works to: documented test procedures, evidence that is complete and dated, and findings logged with owners. The AICPA's Trust Services Criteria define what a SOC 2 assessor tests.
The frameworks under test vary by sector: HIPAA safeguards in healthcare, FFIEC and NYDFS requirements in financial services, NIST SP 800-53 controls in the public sector, and SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001 and PCI DSS v4.0.1 in technology. In each, the analyst's workpapers are what the external assessor samples.
Related roles
Compliance Manager
See the roleExplore Further
Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.
Frequently asked questions
The Compliance Analyst does the detailed work that keeps the compliance program evidenced: performing assessments against mapped requirements, evaluating evidence submissions for completeness and accuracy, executing control tests and recording results, logging findings and tracking remediation, maintaining the obligations and control library data and preparing compliance reports and dashboards. In SmartSuite that work runs in Compliance Assessments & Testing against the frameworks held in Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries.
SmartSuite streamlines assessments with templates and workflows in Compliance Assessments & Testing, so the analyst works through each assessment against its mapped requirements, evaluates the evidence submitted for completeness and records the control test result in the same place. Evidence that is incomplete or undated is caught at submission rather than by the external assessor, and the test procedure and result sit together, which is what an auditor sampling the workpapers expects to find.
Findings are documented in Issues Management and remediation activities are tracked with automated reminders to the owners, so the analyst is not chasing Control Owners by email to find out whether an action is done. Each finding links to the control and requirement it came from; the analyst sees which remediation is overdue and which has evidence of closure, and the Controls Testing Lead sees the same list for the controls they retest.
Control Framework & Regulatory Libraries holds the frameworks, obligations and the controls mapped to them, and the analyst maintains that mapping as controls change or new requirements arrive. Because assessments and tests are run against the library, keeping it accurate is what makes the test results meaningful: a control mapped to the wrong requirement produces a clean test that proves nothing, and the library is where that is prevented.
Compliance dashboards and status reports are prepared from the assessment and testing data in SmartSuite, so the analyst's report to the Compliance Manager or Compliance Officer is a view of the current state rather than a document assembled at month end. The Internal Auditor and Risk Analyst can read the same control results. New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows. For an analyst that means the assessment cycle: load the frameworks in scope and the controls, then run the first assessment.