Director, Compliance & AI Governance

About AKASA

AKASA is building the future of healthcare by developing AI-native solutions for some of healthcares most complex consequential work. Our customers include the most innovative health systems in the country like Cleveland Clinic Mayo Clinic NewYork-Presbyterian Duke Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Our customer base represents 1 in 10 inpatient discharges across the United States and more than $180B in net patient revenue.

Our products help health systems comprehensively capture and communicate the full patient clinical journey. By empowering health systems to streamline their operations they can focus on what matters most - delivering quality patient care.

We train internal models and build domain-specific harnesses to power our products and best capture clinical nuance for each customer. We hire people with high agency and good judgment. Everyone here is an owner and builder who is looking to help solve high stakes challenges every day.

We have raised over $250M in funding from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz BOND and Coatue. Our deployments have been recognized nationally as one of the most comprehensive real-world uses of GenAI in healthcare finance to date (link).

Some of our recent recognitions include being named one of Americas Top Startup Employers 2026 by Forbes a Top Healthcare Technology Company of 2026 by Healthcare Technology Report the #1 most promising healthcare RCM startup of 2025 by Black Book Market Research and we have been certified as a Great Place to Work for the past 6 years in a row.

Were looking for a strategic automation-minded Director of Compliance & AI Governance to own and evolve AKASAs compliance program as we scale. This role is ideal for someone who has led compliance in a healthcare SaaS or AI environment and wants to build a modern engineering-forward program rather than a paperwork factory. Youll own our HITRUST SOC 2 and HIPAA programs end to end operationalize emerging AI governance frameworks like the NIST AI RMF and drive the policy lifecycle across the company. The ideal candidate treats compliance as a product: automated evidence collection continuous control monitoring and policies people actually read and follow. Youll join a small high-leverage team with immediate ownership and room to build. You thrive in a fast-paced startup environment and are agile with an ownership mindset.

This is an on-site position that requires 3 days a week in our South San Francisco HQ.

• Own AKASAs compliance certification portfolio end to end (including HITRUST CSF SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA) from control design and implementation through evidence collection audit coordination and remediation. Evaluate and pursue new certifications and attestations (such as ISO 27001 ISO 42001 and HITRUST AI) as customer and market needs evolve.

• Define compliance roadmaps and ensure org-wide adoption driving cross-functional alignment and accountability on regulatory requirements.

• Build our AI governance program grounded in the NIST AI RMF partnering with Engineering Product and Legal to establish model risk assessments AI use policies and documentation that meets enterprise health system expectations.

• Drive compliance automation as a first principle: implement and optimize GRC and continuous control monitoring tooling automate evidence collection across our stack (Okta Google Workspace Kandji/Iru SentinelOne Nightfall AWS) and use AI tools to streamline policy drafting control mapping and audit preparation.

• Own the full policy lifecycle including authoring review cadences exception handling attestation campaigns and version control; ensuring policies are clear practical and mapped to the frameworks we certify against.

• Be the compliance face of AKASA for customers and prospects: lead security and compliance questionnaire responses support enterprise sales cycles manage customer audits and maintain trust artifacts including BAAs our trust center and shared assessments. Find ways to automate these processes using AI first tooling.

• Oversee vendor and third-party risk management the annual risk assessment security awareness and HIPAA training programs and incident response documentation and tabletop exercises in partnership with Security and IT.

• Partner with Legal and Security leadership on all security-related contractual obligations.

• 8 years experience in security compliance GRC or risk management including 2 years leading a team or function. Healthcare SaaS health tech or AI startup experience strongly preferred.

• Deep hands-on expertise across HITRUST CSF (r2 preferred) SOC 2 Type II HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules and emerging AI governance frameworks like NIST AI RMF. Youve run certification and audit cycles from start to finish and know how to translate AI governance standards into real controls for a company building on PHI.

• An automation-first instinct: hands-on experience with GRC and continuous control monitoring platforms (Vanta Drata Hyperproof or similar) evidence collection automation and a track record of using AI tools (ChatGPT Claude) to push the boundaries of what a lean compliance function can do.

• End-to-end policy ownership: drafting cross-framework mapping and running review/exception/attestation cycles.

• Comfort in front of customers: enterprise security questionnaires sales-cycle support BAA/security terms negotiation alongside Legal and managing customer audits.

Wed love to see one or more of:

• Direct experience achieving or maintaining ISO 27001 ISO 42001 or HITRUST AI certifications.

• Familiarity with the technical side of a modern security stack (Okta MDM platforms like Kandji/Iru SentinelOne Nightfall AWS) and the ability to partner credibly with Security and IT on control implementation.

• Experience with privacy regulations beyond HIPAA such as CCPA/CPRA state health data laws or GDPR.

• Implementing Compliance Automation Tools and Trust Centers like Drata or Vanta.

• Scripting or low-code automation skills (Python Zapier ) for building compliance workflows.

• Relevant certifications such as CISSP CISA CIPP/US HCISPP or HITRUST CCSFP.

• Flexible paid time off (PTO)

• Expansive coverage for health dental and vision

• Employer contribution to Health Savings Accounts (HSA)

• Generous parental leave policy

• Full employee coverage for life insurance

• Home office stipend

• Cell phone/internet reimbursement

• Commuting benefits

• Company-paid holidays

• 401(K) plan

Compensation

• Based on market data and other factors the salary range for this position is $175000 - $200000 Equity. However a salary higher or lower than this range may be appropriate for a candidate whose qualifications differ meaningfully from those listed in the job description.

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately in determining your pay well consider your location experience and other job-related factors.

Were committed to doing the best work of our lives together. Come see if were the right team for you.

AKASA is a proud equal opportunity employer and we believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce is an imperative. We welcome people of different backgrounds genders races ethnicities abilities sexual orientations and perspectives just to name a few. We do not discriminate based upon any protected class and we encourage candidates of all identities and backgrounds to apply. AKASA considers qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

AKASA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability please let us know at

Required Experience:

Director