Vice President of Internal Audit

Vocalink Limited (VLL), a Mastercard company, is a Bank of England-regulated Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organisation, and its technology powers the U.K.’s real-time, batch, and cheque image clearing services, as well as over 47,000 ATMs. This enables payments of 90% of salaries, 70% of utility bills, most ATM transactions, and every cheque cleared in the UK.

Mastercard/Vocalink Internal Audit provides independent and objective assurance and advisory services to assess and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of governance, risk management, and internal control processes. The Vice President, Internal Audit is a senior leadership role within the function, reporting directly to the Head of Internal Audit for VLL. This is a pivotal leadership position responsible for shaping the team’s strategic direction, strengthening capabilities, and driving the continued evolution and maturity of the Internal Audit function.

The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting regulatory engagement, managing senior stakeholder relationships, and delivering a high-quality, risk-based assurance programme. The role also contributes to senior Vocalink governance forums and committees, providing independent insight, constructive challenge, and trusted advice to support effective decision-making and sound risk management.

They will also bring significant experience across both business and technology risk and control environments, enabling them to lead a diverse audit portfolio and provide holistic assurance across Vocalink’s business operations, technology landscape, and strategic change initiatives.

Stakeholders

• Establish and maintain collaborative partnerships with business management, including VLL executives and centralised functions, to support the identification, assessment and resolution of risk and control matters and drive scalable, and sustainable improvements.
• Lead and support senior stakeholder engagement across the VLL Executive Committee (ExCo), Board and management committees, the three lines of defence, and regulatory interactions with the Bank of England.
• Champion a strong risk and control culture and provide independent objective advice and constructive challenge to management.
• Identify and communicate key thematic observations, emerging risks, control trends, and business insights to senior management, committees, and the Head of Internal Audit to support informed, risk-based decision-making.

Audit Delivery

• Lead the development and execution of the VLL risk-based audit plan, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities, key business risks, regulatory expectations, customer obligations, and emerging industry developments.
• Contribute to the ongoing evolution and maturity of the Internal Audit function through quality assurance activities, methodology enhancements, innovation, and the adoption of leading audit practices.
• Ensure appropriate and proportionate audit coverage across strategic, financial, operational, technology, cyber, resilience, and compliance risk areas.
• Oversee the delivery of multiple complex and concurrent audits, applying sound professional judgement to assess the design and operating effectiveness of key control areas.
• Drive high standards of audit quality and reporting, ensuring audit conclusions are clear, evidence-based, risk-calibrated, and supported by practical and sustainable recommendations.
• Oversee the tracking, validation, and escalation of audit issues, working with management to ensure timely remediation and effective resolution of identified risks.
• Develop and maintain audit programmes and testing approaches aligned with Internal Audit methodology and Global Internal Audit Standards.
• Leverage data analytics, technology-enabled auditing techniques, and continuous monitoring capabilities to enhance assurance coverage, efficiency, and insight generation.

People

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing and inclusive team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and professional excellence.
• Provide effective coaching, mentoring, and performance feedback to support colleague development, succession planning, and talent management objectives.
• Build and maintain a high-performing talent pipeline ensuring the team has the skills, expertise, and capacity required to deliver the audit plan and meet evolving business and regulatory expectations.
• Promote continuous learning, innovation, and adoption of data analytics, emerging technologies, and modern audit techniques.
• Collaborate effectively with regional and global audit teams to optimise resources, share best practices, and deliver consistent, high-quality assurance outcomes.

Ability to identify and communicate thematic risks, emerging control trends, and forward-looking insights. Significant experience in Internal audit, Risk Management, or a related assurance function within a complex regulated environment, ideally within financial services, payments, critical national infrastructure related organisations. Experience overseeing audit issue management, including tracking, validation, escalation, and driving timely, sustainable remediation of identified control weaknesses. Experience leveraging data analytics, automation, and AI-enabled tools to enhance audit coverage, improve efficiency, and deliver deeper, more actionable insights. Demonstrates a growth mindset and commitment to continuous professional development, actively seeking feedback and opportunities to build on strengths, broaden expertise, and enhance leadership effectiveness. Strong understanding of governance, risk management, internal controls, and regulatory expectations within highly regulated environments. Relevant professional qualification (e.g., ACA, CA, ACCA, CIA, CISA, CISSP, or equivalent) with a strong understanding of the Global Internal Audit Standards and a commitment to ensuring audit activities are conducted in conformance with those standards. Experience engaging with regulators and supporting regulatory reviews, supervisory interactions, and remediation activities within a highly regulated environment. Proven track record of leading, developing, and motivating high-performing teams, including talent development, succession planning, and performance management. Extensive experience leading complex technology, business, operational, cyber, resilience, and integrated audits in dynamic and fast-paced environments. Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and challenge effectively at Executive Committee, Board Committee, regulator, customer, and senior management levels. Experience leading change assurance, advisory reviews, and strategic initiatives, providing pragmatic insight while maintaining independence and objectivity. Proven experience presenting to senior governance forums and developing high-quality committee papers, management reports, and strategic insights. Strategic mindset with the ability to align assurance activities to business priorities, product strategies, organisational objectives, and the evolving payments landscape.