Director of Internal Audit and Assurance | Edinburgh

Recruiter: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

Location: Edinburgh

Salary: £103,231

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing: 20 May 2024

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This is an excellent opportunity for a highly motivated leader seeking to provide high quality internal audit and assurance services to the Permanent Secretary who is the Principal Accountable Officer of the Scottish Government, its Directors General and, through 24 Service Level Agreements, to a range of other Accountable Officers of public bodies across Scotland and the European Commission.

This is a highly influential role, necessary to underpin good governance and best outcomes for the deployment of over £50bn of taxpayers’ money across Scotland, raised increasingly through devolved tax policies. It demands the skills of a strong leader, a highly skilled Internal Audit professional with experience of operating across a breadth of clients in a complex operating environment.

This is a professional audit role and fully qualified membership of a relevant professional institution e.g. Institute of Internal Auditors or CCAB professional accountancy body is required.  Your application must also demonstrate recent experience at the level and scale required for this role. You will have senior leadership responsibilities for around 70 staff and a direct running cost budget of approx. £3.4m.  The Director leads the Directorate of Internal Audit and Assurance that encompasses Internal Audit, the Digital Assurance Office, Portfolio, Programme and Project Assurance, the Data Protection Officer and the Counter Fraud Service. If you have the leadership ability to shape this key role and increase the profile and impact of Internal Audit and Assurance across Scottish Government and the wider public sector, we very much hope you will apply.

The Scottish Government Director of Internal Audit and Assurance will provide leadership for:

• increasing the profile and impact of Internal Audit and Assurance across Scottish Government and the wider public sector, adding value by pro-actively developing its role in strategic issues and on-going developments across Scottish Government and ensuring that the Directorate meets the changing key assurance needs against these issues and risks

• ensuring Scottish Government processes, including supporting systems and skills are at the forefront of best practice in the public sector supporting Scottish Government to be high performing, innovative and efficient

• driving the development of the integrated assurance offering, optimising synergies and maximising the benefits of the integrated approach to enhance the likelihood of projects and programmes (Digital and other) achieving their key objectives

• an effective, professional internal audit service to Scottish Government Principal Accountable Officer and Accountable Officers, the Scottish Government Audit and Assurance Committee (SGAAC) and other Agency Audit and Risk Committees

• delivering the programme of audit work to cover European Commission funds as required under EC regulations, including engagement with EU Ministers and officials, working closely with the Managing Authority to reduce the risk associated with the closure of the current programmes

• maintaining a highly effective relationship with Audit Scotland and other assurance providers and ensuring effective coordination and alignment of audit and assurance activity

• maximising the benefits that can be derived from the current co-source partnership with EY, providing specialist services as required and capitalising on the opportunities for knowledge transfer, insight into best practice, and continuous improvement

• providing timeous advice and support to management including the conduct of special investigations as required

• representation of Internal Audit and Assurance at evidence sessions for the Public Audit Committee, including providing briefings for the Committee and Ministers as required

• contributing to the wider assurance control and risk agenda by participation in the Government-wide Head of Internal Audit network and via links with the Institute of Internal Auditors, and Head of Internal Audit networks in Scotland and across Government. This will be required in order to obtain/exchange information, identify environmental change which may impact on the organisation and keep abreast of emerging trends and best practices in internal auditing and assurance.  You will ensure appropriate action is taken to maintain/enhance internal audit, assurance and risk management practices within the Scottish Government to develop a comprehensive and flexible service, setting performance targets and driving continuous improvement

Qualifications

How to Apply

To apply for this post, you will need to provide the information requested via the online application system. We require both a CV and a written Supporting Statement to be submitted on the system for your application to be considered.

Further details on the application process and the documents that we require are available in the Candidate Pack.  If there are any technical issues please contact SCSHR@gov.scot.

For an informal discussion about the nature of the role please email Victoria Rawnsley, Head of DG Scottish Exchequer Office, DGScottishExchequer@gov.scot).

The closing date for applications is Monday 20 May 2024 at midday.

To apply please follow this link - Director of Internal Audit and Assurance in EDINBURGH | Careers at VICTORIA QUAY (icims.com)