Senior Audit Manager, Grade 6

The role

Salary: £75,695 - £82,326 (£79,816 - £87,681 London)

A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to join at the minimum of the salary range, although we have limited discretion to agree a higher starting point dependent on the successful candidate’s current salary, skills, and experience. Annual pay awards are made in line with current Civil Service directives. Existing civil servants will be appointed in line with the normal civil service pay rules.

As a Civil Service employee, you will also be entitled to a large range of benefits including a competitive contributory pension, an in-year reward scheme and flexible working. Further details on these benefits plus many more are detailed later in the pack

This role is being offered on a permanent basis.

You may be allocated to client specific teams or our central resourcing team. All Senior Audit Managers have a strategic leadership and delivery role within the Agency and will be responsible for delivering a high-quality, impactful audit programme.

You will lead and manage a portfolio of audit delivery, including delivering individual audit engagements from planning through to reporting, providing people management, engagement supervision and oversight to teams delivering individual

engagement in a matrix model and fulfilling the role of Head of Internal Audit (HIA – the equivalent of the Chief Audit Executive in the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector for Arms Lengths bodies (subject to appropriate opportunities being available).

This role requires a deep understanding of your clients’ operations, key risks and priorities whilst building strong, productive relationships at all levels. You will be an experienced, confident and strategic leader providing portfolio direction and alignment, adept at fostering a culture of continuous improvement, upholding quality assurance, championing innovation and driving professional development and learning for our people. You will identify key risks and engage with stakeholders with credibility and impact, working closely with colleagues including Group Chief Internal Auditors (GCIAs) to shape and drive the implementation of an audit strategy and plan.

This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider Civil Service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government. GIAA’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully

Role responsibilities

• Take a strategic leadership and delivery role leading and managing a portfolio of audit delivery from planning through to reporting. Acting as the engagement supervisor for all audits within your agreed allocation. You will drive the continuous professional development of our people including effective allocation of audit resource based on skills, capacity, and priorities to optimise overall Agency delivery
• Shape and drive the implementation of an audit strategy and plan, identifying key risks, you will engage stakeholders with credibility and impact and work closely with colleagues including Group Chief Internal Auditors (GCIAs).
• Have a key role in upholding quality assurance and strengthening the function, including championing the development of a risk-orientated culture. You will ensure timeliness of each review in line with budget and compliance with GIAA audit methodology and systems.
• Provide portfolio direction and alignment you will foster a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and learning, ensuring audit services remain responsive to risk priorities.
• Fulfil the role of Head of Internal Audit (HIA – the equivalent of the Chief Audit Executive in the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector) for Arm’s Length Bodies (subject to appropriate opportunities being available).
• Provide leadership and oversight as a People Manager and/or Engagement Manager in a matrix model for a team of auditors across multiple regions. (Specific training will be given if you are allocated a People Manager role due to Line Management responsibilities)
• Support the GCIA in reporting to audit committees including the development of audit strategies and plans, progress reporting and delivering opinions on the effectiveness of governance, risk management and internal control.
• Lead the strategic management of client relationships, including regular engagement with senior client management and audit committees, factoring in, where appropriate, attendance at ARACs and preparation of ARAC papers.
• A smaller proportion of your time will focus on delivering audits in the highest risk or most complex areas.

Candidate qualifications

All candidates will need to demonstrate full current membership of a recognised professional accountancy/audit body, either:

Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors UK & Ireland and must hold chartered auditor/CMIIA designation or the MIIA designation where you are qualified under the previous exam route and did not apply to make this chartered. If you have passed all the CMIIA/MIIA exams but do not hold the designation, you are not eligible to apply.

Other Institutes of Internal Auditors that are part of IIA Global, If you studied with the Institute of Internal Auditors in another country, you must hold the equivalent of the MIIA designation. You should verify this with the IIA UK & Ireland prior to submitting your application, by emailing membership@iia.org.uk

No other level of internal audit qualifications meet the requirements of this post.

Or

Accountancy, fully qualified, current member of one of five CCAB bodies (ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAS, Chartered Accountants Ireland or CIMA)

Person specification

You will be required to write a statement of suitability of up to 1,000 words setting out how your skills and experience meet the following criteria:

1. Significant experience in effective decision making, successfully planning, managing, and delivering a portfolio of risk-based internal audits to time, quality and budget including the ability to assess skills and resource gaps in audit service delivery.
2. Leading and supporting change at a team and organisational level, adopting a continuous improvement approach which contributes to the wider corporate responsibilities of the organisations.
3. Strong strategic thinking skills and an ability to interpret complex, conflicting information and make sound judgements. The ability to build and maintain strong relationships across an organisation at all levels, influencing senior stakeholders to adopt good practice internal control, risk management and governance processes.
4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to interpret complex audit judgements and deliver insight for senior and specialist audiences.
5. Proven track record in successfully leading, managing and developing teams in a matrix management setting either as an engagement supervisor or people manager.

Further guidance on how to complete your statement can be found within the application form on the Civil Service Jobs website.

Job location

Birmingham, Bootle, Bristol, Croydon, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Reading or Swansea

GIAA expects employees to maintain a regular presence at their contractual designated work location and to travel to other GIAA locations or client sites as required for critical meetings and field assignments. Consequently, the contractual location must be selected from those advertised and be within a reasonable daily commuting distance from the employee’s home address.

Existing GIAA employees appointed into this new role will be allowed to remain at their current workplace location.

Recruitment process

The closing date for this role is 04 November 2026

We encourage applications from all backgrounds, and we welcome applications from candidates who wish to work flexibly, for example, part-time, term time or job share working.

Candidates applying under the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) will be offered an interview if they meet the minimum required standard (a score of 4 or more for the application sift).

We will consider any reasonable adjustments to enable an applicant with a disability to deliver the requirements of the post.

Shortlisting

You will receive an acknowledgment of your application via email. A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the person specification.

In the event of a large number of applications, GIAA reserve the right to raise the minimum pass level. We are only able to provide feedback for candidates invited to attend an interview, although you will be able to view your score from the sift via the Civil Service Jobs website.

Interview assessment

Interviews will be held on Teams.

Candidates invited to interview will be required to give a short presentation to the interview panel followed by questions. At interview you will be assessed on experience, strengths and the following technical skills:

• IA client relationships
• Producing a proportionate, well rounded audit plan
• Professional and quality standards

Each assessment criterion will be scored out of seven. The minimum pass mark is four. The exception to this is Strengths which will be scored out of 4 and does not have a minimum pass mark.

For further details regarding the assessment criteria please refer to the success profiles page on gov.uk.

Appointments will be made in strict merit order. In the event of a tie the following order of evidence will be used to appoint.

• Technical skills score
• Experience score
• Presentation score
• Statement of suitability score

Successful candidates who are not appointed may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months.

Expected timeline:

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below indicative timetable:

Closing date: 04 November 2026 Shortlisting: w/c 16 November 2026 Interviews: From 23 November 2026

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