Senior Internal Auditor Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

Senior Internal Auditor Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides information about the senior internal auditor job description; it presents the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that commonly constitute the work description of senior internal auditors in most organizations.

This article also presents major requirements recruiters commonly set for hiring senior internal auditors; so if you are seeking this position, you need to have this information to make your application effective.

Please, continue reading to increase your knowledge of the senior internal auditor career:

What Does a Senior Internal Auditor Do?

The senior internal auditor leads a team of auditors to evaluate all processes and systems of an organization to assess its risks and internal controls for managing them.

They are responsible for performing financial, operational, compliance, and special audits on the firm’s businesses to identify risks and controls that may have an impact on the integrity of reported financial information or the achievement of business objectives.

They are also responsible for analyzing and examining the organization’s records to ensure they are complying with government regulations.

The senior internal auditor job description entails leading audit teams, monitoring the workloads of team members, and adjusting or redistributing assignments, taking into account the capabilities of team members and needs of the organization or clients’ expectations.

It also involves understanding the current business risks and controls to identify areas of risk that may require stronger controls; developing a comprehensive audit program for the company, and also prioritizing audit steps and test plans.

Senior internal auditors are responsible for utilizing various analytical methods for developing audit programs, testing execution, and issuing validation.

They are responsible for carrying out and documenting testing and walkthroughs of processes and controls, with appropriate validation.

They also validate and document remediation issues and improvement opportunities, as well as work together with process owners to develop practical recommendations.

The senior internal auditor work description also entails conducting internal audits and assessments, preparing, and reviewing work papers of other auditors to ensure that quality and objectives of audits are achieved.

They also carry interviews with all levels of personnel, from staff to executive management to evaluate processes and organizational systems.

Senior Internal Auditor Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The senior internal auditor performs various functions, including audits, either individually or as a part of a small team, and is responsible for the planning, execution and delivery of the final audit report.

They must understand the various risks, processes, and controls; IT systems, business performance metrics, and operational challenges; and business initiatives to successfully lead the audit team.

The key tasks, duties, and responsibilities that commonly make up the senior internal auditor job description are highlighted below:

• Responsible for documenting audit procedures following the department’s audit method
• Perform risk assessment of assigned department or functional area within required time-frame
• Responsible for establishing risk-based audit programs
• Collaborate with Audit Manager to determine the scope of review
• Carry out appraisal to determine the suitability of internal control designs
• Perform audit testing on specified areas to identify issues and report dimensions of risk
• Responsible for maintaining electronic work papers (using data analytics) and evidence to support findings and recommendations
• Responsible for communicating findings and suggestions to all levels of management
• Provide quality audit reports with succinct and practical suggestion which reflects the context in which the business operates
• Advance on the existing internal audit methods and programs to tackle all the key business risks.

Senior Internal Auditor Job Description for Resume

The senior internal auditor job description sample presented above can be applied in completing the work or professional experience section of a resume.

If you have worked in the capacity of a senior internal auditor or are presently holding the role with an organization and are preparing a resume for a new job, then you need to include the professional experience section to your resume to effectively highlight your experience of the job.

The senior internal auditor job description example above provides you the duties and responsibilities of the role that you can use in completing the professional experience section of your resume.

Senior Internal Auditor Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

The desire of recruiters when hiring for the senior internal auditor position is to attract candidates who can perform the obligations, objectives, and purpose of the role effectively in their organizations.

To enable them achieve this goal they commonly provide a list of requirements, which include skills, abilities, experience, education, etc. that prospective candidates for the senior internal auditor job must fulfill to qualify to access it.

Shown below are major recruiters’ requirements which applicants for the senior internal auditor position are usually expected to fulfill to access the job:

• Education: Applicants are required to have a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business
• Certification: Employers’ prefer applicants with advanced certifications like CPA, CIA, or MBA, or progress towards obtaining these certifications
• Knowledge: Applicants must possess at least 3+ years of work experience in a finance or internal audit department of a global organization and/or in a CPA firm. It is also essential for them to possess advanced knowledge of internal controls across the various business cycles (e.g. finance reporting, procurement, HR and payroll, etc.)
• Computer skills: They are required to have advanced Microsoft Office skills, especially knowledge of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint; Outlook and Access. Knowledge of SAP and Data analytics software, including ACL or IDEA is regarded as a plus
• Communication skills: The senior internal auditor job requires preparing and communicating audit programs, work-papers, and recommendations, and audit reports, as well as leading teams. Therefore, it is important that applicants have exceptional writing and verbal communication skills to succeed on the job
• Interpersonal skills: The role of a senior auditor is a leadership position, so it is essential that they have interpersonal skills to develop relationships, interact with teams, and promote open communication among teams
• Leadership skills: Applicants must be able to supervise the work of audit teams and motivate and work with them to achieve desired goals
• Analytical skills: Applicants need to be creative thinkers with strong risk awareness and thorough understanding of processes and controls. They must be able to identify problems and prioritize situations which require urgent attention.

Conclusion

To hire a senior internal auditor for your organization, recruiters or HR managers need to publish the job description for interested individuals to learn about the kind of duties and responsibilities they will be charged with if hired.

Having this information will help interested persons for the job to decide if they have the competence to succeed in it or not.

This will help the recruiter to find the best people for the job as only those who are confident that they have what is required to succeed on the job will apply.

To make an effective description of the senior internal auditor role for their organizations, recruiters or HR managers can apply the sample job description above as a template in making theirs.

Also, individuals interested in the senior internal auditor career will find this page helpful in learning about the duties commonly performed by this role. This will help them to make the best decisions concerning their career choice.

Did this post increase your knowledge of what senior internal auditors do? Please, leave a comment in the box below. You may also share your job description if you work as a senior internal auditor.