Senior Analyst / Senior Auditor (Performance Auditor)

Contract: Permanent Full Time

Location: London or Newcastle offices based with a minimum of 2 days a week attendance in either office.

Salary: Newcastle c£50,906, London c£56,561 plus Civil Service Employer Pension Contribution of 28.9%

We welcome applications from candidates who work part-time and are keen to support colleagues to work flexibly including on a job share basis.

Thank you for your interest in joining the National Audit Office (NAO) as a Senior Analyst / Senior Auditor (performance auditor). We are independent of government and the civil service, and we play a critical role supporting Parliament scrutinise how effectively the government spends public money. Our 2025-2030 strategy sets out our ambition to contribute to two distinct outcomes – helping to improve the productivity and resilience of public services and supporting better financial management and reporting in government.

Our strategy is also clear that government will need to innovate if it is to deliver effective and affordable public services. We will use our public audit perspective to highlight positive examples of innovation within the public sector and take account of government’s risk appetite in our audit approach. The recommendations from our work can result in financial savings and positive changes in government to improve services and ensure value for money for taxpayers.

You will tackle complex projects that inform debates and influence some of the biggest decisions that government makes. You will work with dedicated and talented people toward shared and important goals. By taking on new opportunities and challenges you’ll build a rewarding and fascinating career.

Each year we publish around 60 major value for money (VFM) reports looking at various government programmes and projects. VFM reports are multi-method reports often delivered at pace to achieve real impact. We write long form reports and other types of written communication on complex subjects in ways that non-specialist or technical audiences can understand. Our work can cover any area where government spends public money, ranging from government’s plans to build new hospitals to the use of data analytics to tackle fraud and error.

Our lessons learned reports bring together what we know on important recurring issues to make it easier for others to understand and apply the lessons from our work, such as government’s use of external consultants and key findings from the NAO’s financial audits.

We are looking to recruit several Senior Analysts and Senior Auditors. We are looking for people with strong analytical and communication skills as well as experience of project and people management, which can be drawn from a range of backgrounds including experienced analysts, value for money auditors, performance auditors and internal auditors.

More about the NAO, including some of our recent value for money reports, is available on our website www.nao.org.uk.

Relationships and Accountability

You will lead a team to deliver value for money work to time and budget. You will work with other people of all grades. You will work with Senior Audit Managers who support and manage the team to deliver high-quality reports. The Director is accountable for the overall quality and impact of the audit. You will commonly meet and interact with senior people in the NAO and in government bodies.

The people we are looking for

This role operates within the NAO’s hybrid working model, with a minimum expectation of two days per week working from the office (or at an audited body), in line with our organisation wide approach. We are committed to supporting flexible ways of working and actively encourage applications from candidates seeking part time hours. Working patterns, including office days, are agreed with the line manager. Based in either our London or Newcastle office, you’ll join a collaborative and supportive environment that values work life balance, flexibility and professional development.

A strong academic background and experience in leading research/performance audit projects and producing high quality, accessible written outputs.

For Senior Analysts this means either:

• A minimum of a 2:1 degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., social research methods, mathematics, statistics, economics, management science/operations research), or a research based postgraduate qualification, and relevant experience; or relevant experience in research, analysis or performance audit. This may include but is not limited to experience in management or other consultancy or working as a researcher.

For Senior Auditors this means:

• An ACA qualification or other professional qualification (e.g., ACCA, CIPFA, CIA, MIIA, CIMA) with relevant experience working in performance and/or internal audit.

Abilities

It will be essential that you can demonstrate the ability to:

• Balance tasks and priorities to lead a complex, challenging portfolio of work including supporting the work and development of others.
• Use your technical knowledge and expertise to deliver high quality work across our VFM reports and wider work.
• Scrutinise a wide range of government and third-party information sources and consider reliability and usefulness.
• Make sound judgements and reach clear conclusions that are clearly evidence based.
• Analyse complex ideas or proposals using a wide evidence base to develop meaningful recommendations.
• Communicate complex audit findings in well-structured written outputs which add value for the client and can engage a wide audience including non-specialist/non-technical audiences.
• Think creatively and innovatively in how you work.
• Engage effectively with colleagues and clients at all levels, including specialist NAO teams and the people we audit to create impact through your work.
• Influence and add value by building your understanding of the challenges faced by the people we audit.

Visa requirements

Please be aware that we do not provide sponsorship for work visas for this position. Applicants must already meet the nationality requirements outlined above. If you have any questions regarding your eligibility, please contact the HR Service desk should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.