compliance-engineer

name

compliance-engineer

description

Guides compliance engineering—mapping regulatory and framework requirements to technical controls, automating audit evidence, continuous compliance monitoring, gap remediation tracking, and audit-ready documentation for security and privacy programs (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR technical measures, HIPAA safeguards, PCI scope boundaries, NIST CSF). Use when implementing audit controls, evidence pipelines, continuous monitoring, auditor packages, testable policy checks, or pre-attestation remediation—not non-engineering GRC (compliance-specialist), contracts (commercial-counsel), DC commissioning (data-center-design-execution-lead), financial SOX journals (senior-revenue-accountant), security strategy without audit lens (cybersecurity), CI scans only (devsecops), or AI model classification (ai-risk-governance).

Compliance Engineer

When to Use

• Map security, privacy, or operational frameworks to technical controls
• Build audit evidence pipelines from infrastructure, CI/CD, IdP, or ticketing systems
• Design continuous control monitoring and exception workflows
• Prepare evidence packages and remediation tracking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, or NIST CSF
• Translate policy requirements into testable engineering checks

When NOT to Use

• Contract negotiation, DPAs, or commercial redlines → commercial-counsel
• Corporate governance, board approvals, or entity matters → corporate-counsel
• Financial close controls, journal entries, or SOX accounting evidence → senior-revenue-accountant
• Broad security strategy without audit/control mapping → cybersecurity
• CI/CD scan configuration without compliance evidence requirements → devsecops
• Cloud-only framework evidence, residency, FedRAMP/PCI in AWS/GCP/Azure → cloud-compliance-specialist
• GRC program charter, gap plans, audit prep, vendor questionnaires (non-technical) → compliance-specialist
• Execute authorized penetration tests or write offensive findings → penetration-tester

Related skills

Need	Skill
GRC program, scope, gap plans, audit coordination	compliance-specialist
Cloud SOC/HIPAA/PCI evidence and CSPM mapping	cloud-compliance-specialist
Infrastructure capex SOX and asset controls	director-infrastructure-capex-accounting
Security program and IR strategy	cybersecurity
CI gates, SBOM, SSDF evidence from pipelines	devsecops
IAM, encryption, guardrail implementation	information-security-engineer
Access reviews, entitlement catalog, SoD evidence design	iam-specialist
Data governance and privacy architecture	data-architect
AI system risk tiers and model governance	ai-risk-governance
Enterprise cloud controls and residency design	enterprise-cloud-architect
Privacy research for safeguard pipelines	privacy-research-engineer-safeguards
Financial SOX control testing	senior-revenue-accountant
Commercial contract review and negotiation	commercial-counsel
Pentest reports (factual input to audits, not attestation)	penetration-tester
Corporate governance, entity, board packages	corporate-counsel
HRIS access reviews, training completion ops	people-operations-specialist
Physical DC design and commissioning evidence	data-center-design-execution-lead
Incident artifact analysis and forensic investigation reports (factual)	digital-forensics-analyst
Security risk registers, inherent/residual scoring, acceptances	security-risk-analyst

Core Workflows

1. Framework scoping

1. Identify in-scope systems, data classes, and subprocessors
2. Select frameworks (e.g., SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI)
3. Define trust service criteria / Annex A controls in scope
4. Document exclusions with risk acceptance
5. Align calendar: observation period, audit windows, evidence cutoffs

See references/framework_scoping.md for common scope boundaries.

2. Control design and mapping

Translate each control to testable technical implementation:

Layer	Examples
Policy	Approved access policy
Process	Quarterly access review ticket
Technical	SSO enforced; IAM policy as code
Evidence	IdP export + review sign-off

Avoid controls that cannot be evidenced automatically or manually on schedule.

See references/control_mapping.md for SOC 2 / ISO mapping patterns.

3. Evidence automation

control ID → evidence source (API, Git, SIEM) → collector → storage → reviewer attestation

Evidence quality rules:

• Timestamped, tamper-evident storage
• Named owner per control
• Sample size documented for population controls
• Redact customer PII in shared audit folders

See references/evidence_automation.md for source catalog and collection cadence.

4. Continuous control monitoring

• Detect drift from baseline (public buckets, open SGs, missing MFA)
• Alert owners before audit finding
• Integrate CSPM, Git policy checks, and HRIS for joiner/leaver
• Weekly dashboard: pass/fail per control, trend

See references/continuous_monitoring.md for CCM metrics and alert routing.

5. Gap assessment and remediation

1. Run gap analysis against chosen framework
2. Classify: missing control, partial, implemented
3. Assign remediation with owner, due date, evidence plan
4. Verify fix with re-test and attach proof
5. Track exceptions with expiry and approver

See references/audit_readiness.md for pre-audit checklist.

6. Auditor engagement (engineering)

Prepare evidence packages per control family:

• Access (IdP, reviews, privileged accounts)
• Change management (PR approvals, deploy logs)
• Vulnerability management (scan reports, SLAs)
• Logging and monitoring (retention config, alert samples)
• Vendor risk (subprocessor list, reviews)

Provide narrative only where logs are insufficient; prefer primary artifacts.

See references/audit_readiness.md for walkthrough agenda and FAQ for auditors.

7. Privacy engineering hooks (GDPR-style)

Coordinate with data-architect for:

• Data inventory and lawful basis documentation
• DSR workflows (access/delete) with engineering tickets
• DPIA triggers for new processing
• Cross-border transfer mechanisms (SCCs, etc.) as documented requirements—not legal advice

When to load references

• Scope and frameworks → references/framework_scoping.md
• Control mapping → references/control_mapping.md
• Evidence collectors → references/evidence_automation.md
• Drift and CCM → references/continuous_monitoring.md
• Audit prep → references/audit_readiness.md