Senior Internal Auditor

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

This is a hybrid position and you will be required to attend the office at least two times a week in London. This role may require travel (to other UK offices, and potentially other global office locations) but we anticipate this would be no more than 10-15%.

Internal Audit (IA) is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to help Howden Group and its entities accomplish its strategic objectives by bringing a detailed, focused approach to evaluate and improve the efficiency of risk management, control and governance processes. IA reports functionally to the Howden Group Audit Committee and administratively to the Group CRO. The goal of our function is not to find fault, but to help management and the businesses succeed in delivering their objectives successfully. We accomplish this by utilising our diverse range of skills to challenge the status quo and bring insight and value alongside our core assurance work.

The key role deliverables are:

• Assisting with the delivery of a range of diverse internal audits from within the Group Audit plan; assessing business processes and risks and evaluating internal controls to provide an independent appraisal of the internal control environment. Recommendations to improve processes and controls, and contribution towards greater business efficiency will be key outcomes.
• Creating and maintaining positive relationships with key partners within the business, including Senior Management.
• Contributing to the continual improvement of the function through innovation and efficiency, including challenging current methods.

Training and development will be fully supported, but driven by the candidate, ensuring that skills and expertise remain current and can drive value.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assisting with the delivery of a range of diverse internal audits across the Group Audit plan. The role involves assessing business processes and risks and evaluating internal controls to provide an independent appraisal of the overall control environment. Key outcomes of your work will be recommendations to improve processes and controls, and a contribution towards greater business efficiency and operations.
• Creating and maintaining positive relationships with key partners within the business, including senior management.
• Contributing to the continual improvement of the Internal Audit function through innovation and efficiency, including challenging current methods.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Professional qualification within either finance/business or insurance industry viewed favourably.
• Experience within an internal or external audit environment OR experience working within the insurance industry within a compliance, operational, or front-office broking or underwriting role.
• Ability to perform risk assessments, develop audit programmes and execute testing independently.
• Experience evaluating the design and effectiveness of internal controls and strong risk-based auditing and root cause analysis capabilities.
• Understanding of technical auditing concepts, internal control systems and/or Insurance/Reinsurance industry experience, including regulatory requirements.
• Relevant professional qualification (e.g., CIA, ACA, ACCA, CISA) and/or insurance qualification (e.g., Cert CII, Dip CII, ACII) desirable.

Skills and Attributes:

• Strong organisational skills with excellent time management.
• Strong communication skills (written and oral) – including ability to write-up workpapers to support IA opinion.
• Ability to demonstrate credibility and generate rapport in dealings with stakeholders.
• Ability to empathise with auditees and strong negotiating and influencing skills.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify practical and commercially appropriate recommendations which address identified risks.
• Proficient in Microsoft applications, especially Excel.
• Experience in data analytics/AI capability viewed favourably.
• Highly motivated and able to self-start; co-operative and encouraging teammate.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. Yes, we offer all the usual rewards and benefits - including great healthcare provision, a wide variety of wellbeing offers, competitive salary, generous pensions and more - but we know you expect all that. What you might not expect is a job where everyone has a voice, where volunteering in the community is part of the paid day job, and where everyone is encouraged to play a part towards our sustainability goals. We want people who want to make a difference - not just in the workplace, but in the industry and in the wider community.

Our culture: People First. Our core values shape how we work, collaborate and grow. We are an independent business with people at the heart of everything we do, combining the scale and opportunity of a global organisation with the entrepreneurial spirit and close-knit culture of a smaller firm. Often described as the "biggest small company in the world", we offer the unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact while working alongside talented colleagues across a diverse and growing international business. The focus on being a People First business has always been at the very heart of the Group; Our vision was to build an independent business with a unique culture and one that would survive and thrive as a business controlled by the people working for it. And finding the most talented and entrepreneurial people to join the Group has been and will continue to be key.

Diversity & Inclusion. At Howden, we consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness and respect, regardless of their age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or family circumstances.

Reasonable adjustments. We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours or hybrid working. If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.