Lead Internal Auditor

Salary: National – ranging from £49,700 to £65,500 per annum and London – ranging from £53,300 to £75,000 per annum

The team/ department

The FCA is creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We're establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and their customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers.

Internal Audit is the 3rd line of defence, providing independent assurance across the whole of the FCA. Internal Audit drives continuous improvement in the FCA by assessing the management of key risks to objectives through the design, operation and effectiveness of internal controls.

The Internal Audit division is committed to providing the FCA with a first-rate independent assurance function. It fulfils a critical role in the effective management and governance of the FCA. Its responsibilities involve assessments of broad areas of strategy and the organisation, one-off investigations including whistleblowing investigations, and the provision of advice. The division reports to the Board and the Audit Committee.

The division plays an active role, at the heart of the FCA, in supporting the achievements of the FCA's objectives. The Internal Audit division is also PSR’s 3rd line of defence.

What you will be doing (the role)

Internal Audit at the FCA is unique. The work of the division is varied; audits are conducted across the full spectrum of the FCA’s regulatory remit and operational activities that enable the FCA to operate. Senior Auditors are provided with the opportunity to get an overview of the whole organisation and an opportunity to understand all aspects of how the FCA regulates financial services in the UK. It is an exciting time to join as the FCA is an innovative regulator undergoing a period of change, in addition to new regulatory activities and digitalisation.

We are looking for candidates that have experience in industry of non-financial audits, such as Internal Audit Managers, and are looking for a new challenge. The role would suit someone who thrives in a strategic and complex environment, enjoys variety, has a forensic mindset, is able to hold their own with senior management and wants to take ownership for audit delivery and their own development.

Our reviews are non-financial audits assessing the risks and key controls of the design and operation of our processes, whether regulatory or operational. The work of the Internal Audit division is demanding and rewarding. Each group operational audit is an opportunity to learn more about the depth and breadth of the organisational remit and recommend improvements to the control environment, whilst engaging with senior and executive management.

The work requires a high degree of professional excellence, credibility, integrity, curiosity, critical thinking and resilience, and will give the right candidate the opportunity to:

• Lead and manage small groups to conduct audits across the regulatory cycle and other supporting business activities. Key activities include:

  • Conduct research to inform scoping discussions with senior management

  • Identify key objectives, risks and controls to then design and develop your own audit test plan

  • Perform detailed walk-throughs to be able to create process maps for end-to-end activities

  • Use project disciplines to provide oversight of your audit team, set key milestones, identify and manage dependencies and quickly escalate any barriers to delivery

  • Identify issues, including being able to articulate strategic issues, control weaknesses and gaps based on sufficient evidence to support judgements

  • Lead close out meetings with senior management, demonstrate effective listening and be courageous to agree audit findings

  • Write a high quality, clear and focused report for the FCA’s leadership that is risk based and adds value

• Build a portfolio of work and self-manage multiple pieces of audit and non-audit work at the same time

• Use intelligence obtained during audits and from network contacts to assist the division to spot common issues and risks

• Support management of the Internal Audit division to conduct confidential investigations in response to reportable concerns made under the FCA’s internal whistleblowing policy

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with multiple stakeholders including with Executive Directors

• Draw on previous experience of good practice to support and challenge other colleagues

• Play an active part in improving the way the Internal Audit division works

What you will get from the role

• A varied workload that provides a unique overview and insight into all divisions of the FCA

• Opportunity to understand and challenge business processes and influence change at Senior Management level within the FCA

• Exposure to a wide range of staff across the FCA, including contact with FCA executive leadership

• Opportunity to build regulatory knowledge and understanding of the internal audit profession

• Opportunity to work in a small, dynamic division with a collaborative culture

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary

• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.

The skills and experience you will have

Minimum

We're a signatory to the Government's Disability Confident scheme. This means that we guarantee an interview to any disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Previous internal audit experience which includes identifying and assessing key areas of risk and identifying and evaluating key controls

• Demonstrable prior experience of internal audit reviews delivered against agreed standards, timescales and budgets

• Excellent written communication

Essential

• Experience of leading teams, coaching and providing feedback to junior staff and delegating effectively

• Proven project management skills, including the ability to apply project management disciplines in the delivery of audit reviews on time and budget in accordance with audit methodologies

• The ability to join the dots between difference sources of information to identify issues and risks

• Strong attention to detail, analytical skills and a forensic mindset to challenge assumptions the ability to quickly absorb complex information

• The ability to challenge constructively and to follow issues through while also having resilience to deal with challenges and setbacks

• The ability to influence, actively listen and work collaboratively as part of a team

• The ability to develop strong working relationships and communicate effectively with a wide variety of stakeholders at all levels of the organisation

• The ability to ask probing questions and make judgements under pressure

• Ability to identify alternative and creative ways of working which will lead to value-adding recommendations

• Educated to degree level or recognised accountancy or internal audit professional qualifications and/or memberships

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.

The FCA's Values & Diversity

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.

Useful information

Applications for this role close at midnight on Wednesday 11th October 2023

This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Louise.Nash@fca.org.uk

• For external applicants, please contact Beth.Haydon@fca.org.uk

What to expect from our interview process

The assessment process will involve a technical assessment and competency-based interview.