Group Chief Internal Auditor

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 251073**Salary**:

- £73,000 - £117,800**Job grade**:

- SCS Pay Band 1**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- GIAA: OD2 - EBA - DEFRA**Type of role**:

- Audit**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Birmingham, Bootle, Bristol, Leeds, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Reading, Sheffield, Swindon, YorkAbout the job

**Job summary**:
About Government Internal Audit Agency

We are an executive agency of Her Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury), established in April 2015 to improve the quality of internal audit provided to central government. Most of the Agency’s people are professionally qualified internal auditors, accountants or investigators. Many are also specialists in areas including counter fraud, project management, digital and commercial audit. Our workforce brings with it a unique depth of experience gained in a wide range of government departments, related bodies and other sectors. This enables us to offer a high-quality service based on cross-government insight and a strong understanding of our customers’ business.

We lead both the Government Internal Audit Profession and the Government Internal Audit Function. We are looking for a Group Chief Internal Auditor to lead the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) audit team and potentially smaller customers within the GIAA portfolio. This is an exciting opportunity for you to add real government insight to your portfolio, working in a fast-paced environment, where you will own responsibility for the Internal Audit service to the DEFRA Accounting Officer. We'll welcome your new ideas and fresh outlook, together with your exceptional leadership, energy and drive to deliver an outstanding service to your customers with your team of professional internal auditors.

**Job description**:
The Group Chief Internal Auditor Role is varied but in summary your week may comprise a mixture of the following:

- Providing the Permanent Secretary, Accounting Officers, and client Audit Committees, with reliable, evidence based, independent opinions on risk management, control and governance.
- Directing activity to develop and implement an Internal Audit Plan which reflects the priorities of the client.
- Managing resources to enable effective delivery.
- Securing agreement to Internal Audit’s plans, with the Permanent Secretary, Accounting Officers and client Audit Committees.
- Delivering plans to time, budget and quality standards in order to support year-end assurances and other agreed stakeholder requirements.
- Supporting senior stakeholders in the identification and management of key risks.
- Assisting the Principal Accounting Officer in management of relationships with external bodies, including the National Audit Office, HM Treasury, and the Public Accounts Committee in respect of VFM and financial audits of the client department.

As a senior member of the leadership team of GIAA, the post holder will also be responsible for:

- Inspiring and leading a team of professional auditors to deliver the highest quality service to one of our most significant customers;
- Collectively organising both individual and thematic reviews sufficient to provide annual assurance to individual Accounting Officers;
- Actively engaging with the agendas of client organisations, maintaining awareness of changing risk profiles and appetites, and adjusting audit programmes in response to these as appropriate;
- Working with the wider internal audit community in enhancing the service across Whitehall;
- Supporting the CEO in building the capability of the internal audit function to deliver a strong, value added service to all clients, a focus on strategic risks, and develop new leaders with the capability to develop the profession in the future.

**Person specification**:
We are looking for a proven leader who is able to influence at senior levels, deploy strong professional internal audit skills to provide sound advice and respond quickly to fast moving priorities. As part of the assessment process, you will be asked to provide a statement demonstrating your skills and experience in the following:

- Highly developed leadership skills, with proven ability to build and inspire a team, develop capability, and create an engaged and motivated workforce.
- A successful track record of influencing with a range of senior stakeholders to adopt good practice, internal controls and risk management processes in large, complex organisations.
- Experience of working at board level (or equivalent) and managing relationships between departments and their sponsored bodies (or equivalent experience).
- Outstanding ability to communicate (both oral and written), and work effectively, with a wide range of peers, partners and senior colleagues, combined with the ability to respond quickly to