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Digital Financial Audit - Data & Analytics Operations Manager

Recruiter
National Audit Office (NAO)
Location
Newcastle / London / Homeworking
Salary
£58,798 - £83,484 + benefits
Closing date
12 Oct 2022

Job Details

Job description

The DFA D&A Ops Manager’s primary purpose of is to provide specialist data and analytics (D&A) support to the NAO’s Financial Audit teams (FA teams) in their use of D&A tools, techniques and methods in the delivery of their audits. This support to be provided directly and through the effective and efficient management of the DFA D&A Ops Team, as well as working with other D&A teams across the NAO. In fulfilling this primary role there is also an expectation that the DFA D&A Ops Manager will provide vision and leadership on practical matters as to how data and analytics (D&A) tools and techniques can be used in the delivery of financial audits.

Responsibilities    

Reporting to: Director IT Audit (who leads the Digital Financial Audit Team).

This DFA D&A Ops Manager role is a wide-ranging role, requiring the holder of the role to provide the vision and leadership in the delivery, development and support for the use of data and analytics (D&A) in the delivery of Financial Audits. The role covers the following areas:

  • Directly, and through effective management of the DFA D&A Ops Team to work with Financial Audit teams (FA Teams) to support their use of current and future D&A approaches, tools and methods, through;
    • Working with FA teams to identify audit challenges where D&A solutions will provide quality, efficiency or value add;
    • Supporting the teams with the development, execution and application of analytics to address these audit challenges;
    • Assisting the Financial Audit (FA) Teams with obtaining, understanding, reconciling, transforming and ingesting the required data;
    • Providing training, guidance and support to FA Teams to build their data skills to increase their ability to be self-sufficient in using D&A applications (“apps”) developed for performing data analytics and in getting the data to feed into those apps;
    • Supporting the team with the development, execution and application of analytics to address these audit challenges;
  • Working with Data & Analytics stakeholders across the office to input into:
    • The design and development of new D&A tools for the FA service line;
    • The maintenance and improvement of existing D&A tools; and
    • Prioritisation of development effort in the maintenance, improvement and new developments of D&A related tooling
  • Working with the D&A Application Development Team within the NAO (called the Analysis Hub) who are tasked with the development of apps to ensure these apps meet the FA Teams priorities and needs
  • Working with the specialist Digital Services teams within the NAO, and technical external providers as needed, to ensure technical infrastructure meets the needs of the apps that have been developed and the business needs of the FA Team.
  • Building relationship with external organisations with specialist skills and tools, targeted at the financial audit industry. Using these relationships to build effective working partnerships with these third parties where these third parties have offerings which can be used to speed up the use of D&A based approach in our financial audits in a cost effective way.
  • Develop the annual operational plan for FA D&A Ops to ensure the staffing and external spend plans are reactive to the changing demands and requirements placed on the DFA D&A Ops Team

The holder of the role will also be expected to:

  • Provide the vision and leadership on operational D&A matters and so be capable of keeping the FA Service Line leadership informed on the leading and best practice techniques being used in the FA industry;
  • Work with FA Service Line leadership to determine the D&A tools and techniques needed to support the delivery of their audits;
  • Work with external organisations with market leading D&A tools and techniques to secure their tools and techniques where such tools and techniques will speed up the use by the NAO of market leading D&A tools and techniques.

Resources managed:

  • Day to day management of the FA D&A Ops Team which is currently a team of 3 FA D&A Specialists with the potential to grow this team in response to business need
  • In relation to these management activities, we would expect to holder of this role to be responsible for:
    • Agreeing performance targets and then regular reporting to the Director, Digital Financial Audit. This to be achieved through active engagement with the DFA Management Meeting and DFA Team Meetings;
    • Ensuring appropriate day to day management and oversight arrangements are in place appropriate to the internal matters of the day to day running of DFA D&A Ops and its activities;
    • Taking management responsibility for ensuring the setting up and running (e.g. agreeing agenda; sending our papers; producing minutes/actions arising) of relevant FA D&A Ops meetings that ensure effective coordination of activities, and reporting to key stakeholders, including agreeing actions that need to be taken;
    • Ensuring that there are regular FA D&A Ops related operational reports produced on FA D&A Ops on systems and activities for key stakeholders;
    • Implementing agreed escalation processes to deal with urgent issues that may arise in relation to the operation of key D&A Software tools such as AIMS and related apps (e.g. aborting go live of software/infrastructure changes);
    • Day to day line management of DFA D&A Ops;
    • Management of budget and resources to ensure that finances are managed within budget and resourcing levels are maintained within agreed budgeted level;
    • Oversee the annual operational planning for DFA D&A Ops. This to include forecasting staffing levels and external spend requirements needed to meet the demands on the team, and to make the business case for resources changes should those be required. Where resourcing/budget allocated from the operational planning process falls below the forecast need, taking action as needed to allow DFA D&A Ops to meet its user commitments within the budget and resourcing allocated, escalating any issues to Director, Digital Financial Audit as needed.

Skills required    

Work experience

  • Highly experienced in the use of data analytics for audit work and so be capable of providing solutions that address audit teams’ needs;
  • The role requires a good understanding of auditing (including financial auditing and its associated professional standards requirements) and the methods and techniques typically applied in the audit process;
  • An understanding of data structures as understanding this will be integral to helping develop such solutions. Our data analytics work typically involves the major ERP systems (e.g. SA, Oracle and others) so knowledge of these systems would be an advantage;
  • However, our around 400 audited bodies have a wide range of other finance systems so ability to deal with a range of systems will be required;
  • The NAO audit team uses IDEA and SQL to analyse data so knowledge of this tool would help. For application development we use R and Python. For data visualisation we use Tableau and Power BI, so knowledge of some of these tools / languages would be helpful;
  • An understanding of some of the key business processes operated by our clients (e.g. purchase to pay, order to cash and payroll) would also be helpful;
  • Given the NAO’s use of the Cloud, experience gained in a Cloud environment would be valuable.

Abilities

  • Enthusiasm and a commitment to providing excellent data & analytics offering;
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
  • Excellent presentational skills;
  • Able to communicate data & analytics technical matters succinctly and clearly with non-specialist staff ;
  • Is happy to work across teams with people of various backgrounds and seniority grades;
  • Good problem solver / logical thinker able to work through problems to identify root causes and solutions;
  • Brings new innovative and proactive ideas for improving data & analytics offerings.

Attributes

  • Intellectual curiosity, especially about data & analytics, technology and business process related matters;
  • Ability to work co-operatively and collaboratively as part of a team to deliver a team effort;
  • Drive and determination to overcome obstacles, resistance or challenges in order to achieve goals;
  • Commitment to personal development and keeping technical skills up to date;
  • Good communication skills and ability to flex these to address the various audiences from junior audit staff through to senior level client staff.

Educational requirements    

Are you interested?

To apply please visit our website and provide the following:

  • An up-to-date CV
  • Covering letter setting out briefly why you are suitable for the role (word limit: 1,000 words)

Nationality Requirements:

  • UK nationals
  • Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas. Please contact us should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.

Additional Details:

LOCATION: London/Newcastle. Our new ways of working will include a mix of time at your assigned office, time at client sites across the UK as required and working from home.

SALARY: £65,266 - £83,484 p.a. (London) or £58,798 - £73,091 p.a. (Newcastle)

ROLE TYPE: Permanent

FULL TIME/PART TIME: We have a number of positions available and strongly encourage individuals wishing to work with us on a part-time basis to apply and take advantage of our flexible working arrangements

Company

The National Audit Office (NAO) scrutinises public spending for Parliament. Our public audit perspective helps Parliament hold government to account and improve public services.

We audit the financial statements of all central government departments, agencies and other public bodies, and report the results to Parliament. Our other work comprises value for money studies, local audit, investigations, support to Parliament and international activities.

 

Company info
Location
London
United Kingdom

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