Audit Lead

Finova is the UK's largest financial services technology provider, supporting one in every five mortgages nationwide. Our agile, cloud-native solutions enable over 60 banks, building societies, specialist lenders, equity release providers and a network of 2,400+ brokers to stay ahead in a competitive market.

About the Role:

The Audit Lead is responsible for managing client audits on Finova, as well as our internal audit programme. This role will cover the planning, coordinating, and delivering the organisation's audit activities across internal operations and client engagements. This role ensures a consistent, risk aligned audit approach, high quality evidence management, strong stakeholder engagement, and clear linkage between audit findings, risk management, and control improvements. The position also plays a key role in enhancing audit processes, documentation, and reporting across ISO and broader assurance requirements.

• Annual Audit Planning & Governance: Own and manage the annual internal and external audit schedule, ensuring coverage of internal audits, client audits, third party audits, and readiness checks. Maintain a forward looking Internal Audit Programme aligned with enterprise risk assessments, ISO frameworks, and regulatory expectations. Coordinate and oversee multiple audit assignments from planning to completion, ensuring delivery within agreed budgets and timescales. Report to monthly risk governance meetings with updates on inflight and upcoming audits, issued reports, and associated findings or actions.
• Audit Delivery & Client Management: Act as the principal client contact throughout the audit cycle, developing strong, trusted advisor relationships and providing insights on best practices and compliance approaches. Deliver client audits end to end, including facilitating walkthroughs and SME sessions, preparing management responses, and agreeing remediation plans. Produce high quality audit reporting-findings, risk ratings, dashboards, and insights-and present outcomes to senior leadership and risk committees. Collaborate with colleagues across assurance, advisory, and consulting to deliver integrated, holistic client solutions.
• Embedding Audit Outcomes & Framework Integration: Embed audit outcomes into the Risk Framework, ensuring findings, actions, and issues are captured, tracked, and linked to the Risk Ledger and due diligence updates. Own and continually refresh the audit and due diligence evidence repository.
• Quality, Methodology & Continuous Improvement: Develop and enhance audit SOPs, templates, evidence standards, and automated workflows to improve consistency, control maturity, and efficiency. Stay current with industry trends and regulatory changes affecting internal audit, applying insights to strengthen the audit approach.
• Leadership, Coaching & Team Development: Lead, coach, and mentor audit teams, providing guidance, technical support, and opportunities for growth. Line manage internal audit and due diligence resources. Participate in teamwide training, knowledge sharing, and professional development activities.

About You:

• ACA, ICAS, ACCA (or equivalent) qualified.
• Strong technical knowledge of auditing, with proven experience managing audit engagements and client portfolios.
• 4-6 years of External Audit, Internal Audit, or closely related assurance experience.
• Demonstrated ability to design, implement, and manage audit schedules and programmes.
• Strong knowledge of audit standards, frameworks (e.g., ISO, regulatory), and risk based audit methodologies.
• Excellent people management and leadership skills, with experience coaching and guiding audit teams.
• Highly organised, proactive, and able to manage multiple concurrent deadlines effectively.
• Strong analytical, communication, and governance reporting skills.
• Ability to partner with senior stakeholders, influence risk culture, and build trusted advisory relationships.
• Experience in SaaS or software development environments preferred.

What We Offer:

• Hybrid working: At Finova, we believe the best outcomes come from working together - and having the flexibility to work in a way that suits both our people and our business.
• Holiday: 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, bank holiday trading and holiday purchase options, the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to 4 weeks per year.
• Looking After You: Life Assurance, Group Income Protection, Private Medical Insurance, a pension scheme via Salary Exchange, an Employee Assistance Programme, and access to a Virtual GP.
• Family-Friendly Policies: Enhanced maternity and paternity pay, as well as paid time off for fertility treatments and pregnancy loss.
• Extra Perks: Cycle to Work Scheme, discounts on shops, restaurants, and gym memberships, free fresh fruit daily, and opportunities to join colleague networks and social groups.
• Giving Back: One paid volunteering day annually and the Give-As-You-Earn scheme to support your favourite charities.

Equal Opportunity Statement: We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. If you're passionate about this role but don't meet all the criteria, please reach out - we'd love to discuss how your skills and experiences align with our needs.