Records Officer (RMO)
The person responsible for leading an organization's records management program — developing schedules and policy, training staff, and coordinating disposition and oversight.
A records officer (also Records Management Officer, or in federal agencies the Agency Records Officer) is the individual designated to lead an organization’s records management program day to day. The role typically includes developing and maintaining retention schedules, writing records policy, coordinating records inventories and disposition, training staff, and serving as the program’s point of contact with oversight bodies such as the National Archives.
The records officer is the engine of the program, but not its sole owner: effective recordkeeping also depends on senior leadership for authority, record liaisons within business units, and the participation of everyone who creates records. In the U.S. federal government, agencies are required to designate a records officer, reflecting how central the role is to a functioning program.