Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Lead

Position Summary

The Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Lead serves as the central coordination hub for all corporate governance, statutory, regulatory, and licensing compliance requirements for the entity in the Philippines. This enterprise-wide role maintains a complete, structured view of all compliance obligations across the organization, establishing clear accountability, driving timely completion, and maintaining audit-ready evidence.

Working closely with functional leaders (HR, Legal, Data, Finance, Operations), external consultants, and Philippine regulatory bodies, the GRC Lead safeguards the company against missed filings, licensing breaches, financial penalties, and avoidable compliance exposure.

Key Responsibilities

1. Central Governance & Compliance Framework

• Framework & Master Register: Maintain the country-level GRC framework, master obligations register, and annual compliance calendar covering corporate, tax, employment, social security, local government, data privacy, legal, licensing, and other statutory requirements.

• Regulatory Coordination: Act as the primary coordination point for filings and interactions with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Local Government Units (LGUs), Social Security System (SSS), PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG Fund, Board of Investments (BOI), and other authorities.

• Ownership & Tracking: Assign and track explicit obligation owners, supporting teams, due dates, dependencies, and required evidence across functions to ensure 100% completion.

• Governance Reviews: Lead periodic governance reviews with Directors and functional heads to highlight upcoming deadlines, overdue items, control gaps, and decision points.

• Central Repository: Maintain a controlled, secure central repository of all registrations, permits, licences, returns, legal opinions, and supporting compliance evidence.

2. Regulatory & Statutory Compliance Coordination

• End-to-End Execution: Coordinate compliance timetables ensuring internal teams and third-party advisers prepare, review, approve, and submit all filings accurately and punctually.

• Regulatory Horizon Scanning: Monitor changes in Philippine regulatory laws, assess functional impacts, and coordinate necessary updates to internal controls, SOPs, and the compliance register.

• Stakeholder & Advisory Relations: Maintain organized communications logs and effective relationships with regulators, government bodies, external counsel, tax advisers, and payroll vendors.

• Impact Assessments: Ensure all new or amended business activities, work arrangements, office locations, or operational changes are assessed for compliance impact prior to launch.

• Breach & Remediation Management: Escalate actual or potential non-compliance issues immediately, coordinate corrective action plans, and track regulatory responses to closure.

3. BOI & Investment Incentive Governance

• Incentive Oversight: Lead central coordination for Board of Investments (BOI) registration conditions, Specific Terms, and General Terms, ensuring functional delivery of commitments.

• BOI Compliance Tracker: Maintain trackers for commercial operations start requirements, hybrid/onsite work ratios, headcount/compensation commitments, capital assets, project costs, and annual evidence packs.

• Inspection Readiness: Ensure filings are backed by regulator acknowledgements and coordinate readiness for any BOI inspections, audits, or evidence reviews.

4. Cross-Functional Accountability & Coordination

• HR / People Services: Coordinate employment law, payroll, labor compliance, mandatory benefits (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG), workplace standards, and employee records.

• Legal: Coordinate corporate filings, SEC annual requirements, Board/shareholder records, contract governance, business permits, and legal opinion requests.

• Data Privacy & InfoSec: Coordinate Philippine Data Privacy Act compliance, NPC registrations, privacy policies, breach protocols, and retention guidelines.

• Finance: Coordinate BIR tax returns, statutory audits, financial accounting compliance, banking controls, and tax incentive reporting.

• Operations & Facilities: Coordinate LGU business permits, occupancy requirements, site operating conditions, and facility safety standards.

(Note: The GRC Lead is accountable for visibility, coordination, escalation, and evidence governance. Technical/functional accountability for calculations, legal interpretation, and formal approvals remains with the respective functional lead or appointed professional adviser.)

5. Controls, Reporting & Audit Assurance

• Internal Controls: Design and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), responsibility matrices (RACI), compliance checklists, and audit evidence standards.

• Executive Dashboards: Produce concise monthly compliance dashboards highlighting upcoming deadlines, overdue items, risk status, regulatory correspondence, and remediation progress.

• Spot Checks & Audits: Perform periodic completeness checks and spot checks on high-risk obligations without replacing primary functional reviews.

• Audit Coordination: Serve as the primary focal point for internal/external audits, regulatory inspections, and due diligence exercises relating to governance and compliance.

• Briefings & Training: Conduct practical compliance briefings to ensure functional process owners understand their statutory obligations and evidence expectations.

Key Performance Indicators & Measures of Success

• Zero avoidable financial penalties, license lapses, or late regulatory submissions resulting from missed ownership or unescalated deadlines.

• 100% of material corporate obligations assigned to named owners with complete, auditable evidence trails.

• Early escalation and successful resolution of critical/high-risk compliance gaps within agreed recovery timelines.

• Real-time visibility of company compliance status provided to local executive leadership and global headquarters.

• Fast, complete responses to regulatory, audit, and due diligence requests from a centralized document repository.

Qualifications & Background

Required:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Law, Accountancy, Finance, Business Administration, Human Resources, Compliance, Risk Management, or a related discipline.

• Experience: Proven track record in Philippine corporate governance, regulatory compliance, legal operations, risk management, internal audit, or a cross-functional compliance role.

• Regulatory Knowledge: Deep understanding of Philippine regulatory frameworks and practical filing workflows (BIR, SEC, LGU, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, BOI, NPC, DOLE).

• Tool & Process Proficiency: Demonstrated experience maintaining compliance calendars, obligations registers, risk logs, document repositories, and executive reporting tools.

Preferred / Advantageous:

• GCC / Shared Services Background: Experience operating within a multinational Global Capability Centre (GCC) or offshore shared services environment.

• Professional Certifications: CPA, Lawyer, Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), or recognized Risk/Compliance certifications are advantageous.

Core Competencies & Personal Attributes

• Accountability & Influence: Confident holding cross-functional colleagues, functional heads, and external advisers accountable to strict deadlines while maintaining strong collaborative relationships.

• Detail-Oriented & Organized: Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple recurring and event-driven statutory deadlines simultaneously.

• Analytical Judgement: Sound business judgement regarding when to resolve issues directly versus when to engage external experts or escalate to executive leadership.

• Executive Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills tailored for senior local executives and global stakeholders.

• Integrity & Discretion: Highest level of professional integrity when handling sensitive employee, financial, legal, tax, and proprietary corporate data.