IT Audit Specialist

Location: London or Newcastle offices. Our ways of working include a mix of time at your assigned office, time at client sites across the UK as required and working from home. We have a minimum requirement of attending in person for 2 days a week at NAO or client offices, increasing during busier periods. Salary: Starting: £69,017 p.a. (London) or £61,967 p.a. (Newcastle) plus Civil Service Pension. A higher base salary may be available for an exceptional candidate. Main purpose of the job The National Audit Office (NAO) supports parliament to hold government to account and to improve public services. We focus on driving long-term sustainable improvement in public service delivery and work with government and our stakeholders to deliver better performance. In a nutshell, we help the nation spend wisely. The clients of the NAO are investing in IT systems to address the challenges they face in fulfilling their role. This includes investing in new finance systems and related support systems. These investments mean that, increasingly, the NAO's financial audits are relying on automated controls / IT dependent manual controls and supporting IT general controls, necessitating increased requirements for IT Audit to support the NAO's audits of financial statements. The IT Audit specialist will be joining an IT audit team of 21 including other IT Audit Specialists, IT Audit Managers and Trainees to deliver work across multiple clients covering all areas of the NAO's financial audit client base. The team is led by an IT Audit Director and five IT Senior Audit Managers., We require an experienced IT Audit Specialist capable of supporting financial audit teams and IT Audit Managers to scope, plan and perform the hands-on delivery of all end to end IT audit work required for a client, including testing automated and supporting General IT Controls. We also require the candidate to be involved in other internal aspects of our IT audit practice work, including the development of practice material e.g. work programmes, guidance material etc. Given the likely engagements on which they will work, it would be helpful for the candidate to have experience in some or all of the following areas:

• SAP finance systems (including ECC and S/4 HANA);
• Oracle finance systems (including eBS and Fusion);
• Active Directory; and
• System migrations., Introduction
Key responsibilities will be supporting the IT Senior Audit Managers and IT Audit Managers in the scoping, planning and delivery of the annual programme of IT audit work. Depending on the level of experience of the candidate, some management of specific IT audit engagements may be required. Delivery of specific IT audit engagements
• Use your technical knowledge and understanding of the NAO's financial audit methodology to:
o guide Financial Audit (FA) [AA7.1]teams in responding to IT related risks to their audit; and o support the production of an appropriately detailed IT audit response to address the risks identified for relevant technology layers;
• Possess technical knowledge and experience of how to audit IT application and supporting general IT controls in one or more of the following areas at relevant technology layers: Oracle EBS, Oracle Fusion, SAP ECC, SAP S/4 Hana or Unix systems. Knowledge of auditing Active Directory and cloud-based systems would be favourable but not essential.
• IT audit technical knowledge and experience of obtaining assurance over the effective operation of IT controls / functions, interfaces, reports (e.g. SQL), segregation of duties, automated calculations, new system implementations / migrations etc.
• Proven ability in producing quality IT audit work for manager review.
• Competent in understanding and documenting complex business processes and identifying controls to address financial and business process risks (purchase to pay risks) through process maps.
• Experience of using, interpreting and evaluating of third-party reports e.g. (ISAE3402 reports) in accordance with ISA 402 for identified controls in support of financial audit teams.
• The ability to:
o understand IT processes/technical documentation/IT audit issues and interpret/translate these into understandable language for non-specialist internal colleagues; and o clearly articulate the relevance of risks arising from IT to the Audit Manager (IT Audit) when supporting the FA team.
• Summarise IT audit findings arising from IT audit work performed, impact on the business/financial statements, recommending additional audit work and drafting practical recommendations for audited body management.
• Form / maintain an effective, professional working relationship with the Financial Audit team to ensure they are updated on progress and act as a conduit between FA team and IT audit management/colleagues keeping both abreast of developments.
• Form / maintain the relationship with the audited body to ensure the delivery of an agreed schedule of evidence you will have prepared to support your IT audit work; escalating as appropriate.
• A strong track record of maintaining and furthering your technical IT and IT audit knowledge to ensure that you remain capable of understanding and mitigating risks arising from existing and emerging technology.
Development of IT Audit within the NAO
• Identify opportunities to improve the quality, efficiency or value of the work performed by the IT Audit Team.
• Support the development and training of IT audit trainees and other IT audit colleagues through sharing your knowledge and experience.
• Ensure you remain up to date with IT Audit Team and its sub-team activities, initiatives, priorities and those relevant to NAO internal practice networks.
• Maintain the relationship between the IT Audit Team and internal FA teams, internal practice networks, and external clients/stakeholders., We support Parliament in holding government to account and we help improve public services through our high-quality audits.
We are independent of government and the civil service. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, leads the NAO. He is an officer of the House of Commons with statutory authority to:
• audit and report on the financial accounts of all government departments and other public bodies
• examine and report on the value for money of how public money has been spent.
The Public Accounts Commission (TPAC), a parliamentary committee of MPs, oversees our work. Read more about the governance of the NAO. We have an ambitious five-year strategy from 2020 to 2025. Its aim is to improve our support to Parliament in examining public sector performance, provide more practical recommendations that lead to better outcomes, and share more of our independent insight. Read more about our recent impacts in our Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23. Company info


• Given that there are a range of tasks that the candidate could be asked to work on, the candidate must have the skills and experience to be able to move from a client focussed IT audit testing role to an internal material development role.
• As the candidate will be engaging directly with and producing client facing and internal facing written material, they must have strong verbal communication and report writing skills.
The preferred candidate is likely to be an experienced Senior Consultant or equivalent, with experience of IT audit work, close to promotion to a managerial role, and is capable of working independently and taking ownership of the day to day delivery of all end to end IT audit work.,
• Applicants should demonstrate a strong record of achievement through formal education, professional qualifications, or relevant experience. Evidence may include university degrees, certificates from recognised institutions, work-based learning or other equivalent accomplishments.
• IT audit experience, with a significant portion of that experience arising from IT audit work supporting financial audit.
• Demonstrable experience of working on clients with large complex systems. Demonstrable experience in Oracle (including Fusion) and SAP (including S/4 HANA) systems would be of particular interest.
• An IT audit qualification (e.g. CISA) is preferred, but evidence of strong practical experience of delivering IT audits in support of the financial audit is more important than a qualification.
• A formal finance qualification would be an advantage.
Attributes · Intellectual curiosity, especially about technology and business process related matters. · Trusted to work independently as well as co-operatively and collaboratively as part of a team to deliver a team effort and quality work. · Drive and determination to overcome obstacles, resistance or challenges in order to achieve goals. · Commitment to personal development and keeping technical skills up to date. · Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and appropriately, both verbally and in writing, with a range of audiences, including junior audit staff and senior level client staff.

The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK's independent public spending watchdog.