Internal Audit Manager

Job Title: Internal Audit Manager

Grade: G

Directorate: Finance

Responsible to: Head of Internal Audit, Counter Fraud, Risk Management and Insurance

Last Review Date: January 2026

Job Purpose

To manage a team of audit staff to deliver internal audit reviews from agreed audit plans to specified quality and timescales.  To coach and develop staff to deliver the highest quality service.  To act as the client management contact and audit specialist for a range of council service areas and external clients.

Lead by example in modelling and embedding the council’s values and behaviours to help build a sustainable highly effective organisation and develop our reputation as a successful council delivering great value for its residents.

Provide outstanding leadership and direction to the service, driving service transformation and ensuring excellent joint working with Members and other stakeholders

Values & Accountabilities

Our Shared Values:

• Together, we hold ourselves to account to get things done. We do this by demonstrating accountability and integrity.
• Together, we make possible what cannot be achieved alone. We do this by being collaborative and focusing on impact.
• Together, we will listen and act to continually improve. We do this by being responsive to local people and the issues they raise and adapting our approach to achieve better outcomes.

Corporate Accountabilities:

• To work with colleagues to achieve service plan objectives and targets.
• To comply with data protection legislation and the council's Information Security Policy, including supporting policies.
• To be willing and able to work in a flexible and agile way with regard both to hours of work and location of work, including remote and home working, as required, subject to service needs and requirements.
• To participate in performance development, talent reviews and one-to-ones and to contribute to the identification of your own and team development needs and goals.
• To actively promote and comply with the council's diversity and equality policies.
• To ensure full compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 etc., the council's Health and Safety Policy and all locally agreed safe methods of work.
• To fully understand and be aware of the commitment to Section 17 'Duty of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to prevent crime and disorder'.
• At the discretion of the senior management, to undertake other activities as, from time to time, may be agreed consistent with the grade and nature of the role.
• To undertake and maintain relevant mandatory training in line with legislation.

Key Service Accountabilities:

• Audit Planning – contribute to the preparation of the council audit plan through consultation with the Head of Internal Audit, Counter Fraud, Risk Management and Insurance.  To take the lead on preparing audit plans, including consultation with senior management, research, risk assessment and presentation of the draft audit plan for approval by senior management teams and the Audit committee.
• Managing the team – take line manager responsibility for several named audit staff (Senior and Internal Auditors), carrying out all the required functions of a line manager; coaching and development, allocation and supervision of work, appraisals, identification of development needs and training to address these, regular one to one meetings, managing performance and attendance in conformance with council policies and procedures.  Support the team by attending key client meetings (scoping and closeout of audits) to ensure audit findings are clearly explained and action plans are completed appropriately.
• Delivery of audit workplans – manage across the wider team to ensure agreed audit plans are delivered in line with agreed performance measures.  Allocate work to team members according to skills, experience and development needs of staff.  Review working papers at key stages in the audit process and provide feedback to team to ensure the audit product meets appropriate quality standards and to facilitate team development.
• Client management – act as the key contact for allocated council Assistant Directors and shared service client managers.  Attend senior management team meetings to present the outcomes of internal audit work, attend audit committee meetings as the head of internal audit for allocated clients and present audit progress reports and annual opinion statements.  Deliver awareness raising for teams of managers and elected Members on audit and governance matters.  Consider requests for amendments to audit plans or additional work in conjunction with the Assistant Director and liaise with the client to agree a solution.
• Monitoring and Quality Assurance – Ensure all audits are completed within agreed Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (QAIP) through regular monitoring of work across the team.  Initiate service development project groups to take forward service improvement projects and oversee the delivery of outcomes from these.  Maintain workplan document and review on a regular basis to identify any emerging issues.  Guide the team to ensure deadlines are met and liaise with clients over any issues around deadlines or work quality.  Monitor and report on the performance of the team through regular client liaison meetings and attendance at Standards and Audit Committee.
• Other - To undertake any other duties within the team commensurate to the post, as required, and to be rotated to other posts within the department as required in line with the business needs of the department.

 

Person Specification

Information for Applicants

The person specification provides an outline of the experience, skills, and abilities we expect the successful applicant to possess. You should match your own skills, experience, and abilities to those listed below. Tell us in what way you meet the requirements.

Essential Criteria

• CCAB/CIMA accounting qualification or MIIA (or equivalent CIIA qualification)
• Degree

Skills and abilities (All tested in application, interview and assessment).

• Demonstrable success at inter-agency working establishing and building partnerships and productive working relationships within a complex policy and service environment with senior managers and councillors, and a wide range of other bodies, such as partner organisations, communities, public agencies and statutory bodies.
• Able to work under sustained pressure
• Considerable interpersonal skills including the ability to persuade, negotiate and influence
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with proficiency in ICT

Experience and Knowledge: (All tested in application, interview and assessment).

• Significant relevant experience in a management position with a record of measurable success leading and developing a significant organisational function or service in a large multi-disciplined organisation with comparable scope, budgets and resources including experience of producing a full statement of organisational accounts and all arrangements leading up to that.
• Evidence of successful resources management in a multi-disciplinary environment, as well as a successful track record in managing large budgets, business planning, quality and performance management including developing strategic financial plans, planning formulating and monitoring complex revenue and capital budgets with varied funding streams and partners.
• Experience of delivering internal audit within a local authority or similarly complex organisation.
• Substantial generalist internal auditing experience at a management level
• Experience of leading teams of professional internal audit staff
• Experience of identifying and developing opportunities for innovation, improvement and change and evidence of successfully instigating and transforming financial services into a leading edge service provider. 
• Political awareness
• A high level of financial awareness and ability to understand the financial implications of strategy and policy and experienced in developing and writing strategic financial plans, ensuring they balance the support for the organisation’s strategic aims and objectives with the resources available to it

Values: (All tested in application, interview and assessment).

• To behave in accordance with our values.
• Commitment to the principles of agile working including the ability to work flexibly with regards to both hours of work and location of work including remote and home working as required.
• Understanding of and commitment to principles of equality and diversity and compliance with Thurrock Council policies.