Senior Audit Manager

The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is driven by its unparalleled access across government to build ‘better insights, better outcomes’ for our clients.

This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider civil service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government.

The Agency’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully, and continue developing professionally.

You may be allocated to client specific teams or our central resourcing team. All Senior Audit Managers have a strategic leadership and delivery role within the Agency and will be responsible for delivering a high-quality, impactful audit programme.

You will lead and manage a portfolio of audit delivery, including delivering individual audit engagements from planning through to reporting, providing people management, engagement supervision and oversight to teams delivering individual engagement in a matrix model and fulfilling the role of Head of Internal Audit (HIA – the equivalent of the Chief Audit Executive in the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector for Arms Lengths bodies (subject to appropriate opportunities being available).

This role requires a deep understanding of your clients’ operations, key risks and priorities whilst building strong, productive relationships at all levels. You will be an experienced, confident and strategic leader providing portfolio direction and alignment, adept at fostering a culture of continuous improvement, upholding quality assurance, championing innovation and driving professional development and learning for our people. You will identify key risks and engage with stakeholders with credibility and impact, working closely with colleagues including Group Chief Internal Auditors (GCIAs) to shape and drive the implementation of an audit strategy and plan.

This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider Civil Service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government. GIAA’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully

• Take a strategic leadership and delivery role leading and managing a portfolio of audit delivery from planning through to reporting. Acting as the engagement supervisor for all audits within your agreed allocation. You will drive the continuous professional development of our people including effective allocation of audit resource based on skills, capacity, and priorities to optimise overall Agency delivery
• Shape and drive the implementation of an audit strategy and plan, identifying key risks, you will engage stakeholders with credibility and impact and work closely with colleagues including Group Chief Internal Auditors (GCIAs).
• Have a key role in upholding quality assurance and strengthening the function, including championing the development of a risk-orientated culture. You will ensure timeliness of each review in line with budget and compliance with GIAA audit methodology and systems.
• Provide portfolio direction and alignment you will foster a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and learning, ensuring audit services remain responsive to risk priorities.
• Fulfil the role of Head of Internal Audit (HIA – the equivalent of the Chief Audit Executive in the Global Internal Audit Standards in the UK Public Sector) for Arm’s Length Bodies (subject to appropriate opportunities being available).
• Provide leadership and oversight as a People Manager and/or Engagement Manager in a matrix model for a team of auditors across multiple regions. (Specific training will be given if you are allocated a People Manager role due to Line Management responsibilities).
• Support the GCIA in reporting to audit committees including the development of audit strategies and plans, progress reporting and delivering opinions on the effectiveness of governance, risk management and internal control.
• Lead the strategic management of client relationships, including regular engagement with senior client management and audit committees, factoring in, where appropriate, attendance at ARACs and preparation of ARAC papers.
• A smaller proportion of your time will focus on delivering audits in the highest risk or most complex areas.

All candidates will need to demonstrate full current membership of a recognised professional accountancy/audit body, either:

Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors UK & Ireland and must hold chartered auditor/CMIIA designation or the MIIA designation where you are qualified under the previous exam route and did not apply to make this chartered. If you have passed all the CMIIA/MIIA exams but do not hold the designation, you are not eligible to apply.

Other Institutes of Internal Auditors that are part of IIA Global, If you studied with the Institute of Internal Auditors in another country, you must hold the equivalent of the MIIA designation. You should verify this with the IIA UK & Ireland prior to submitting your application, by emailing membership@iia.org.uk

No other level of internal audit qualifications meet the requirements of this post.

Or

Accountancy, fully qualified, current member of one of five CCAB bodies (ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAS, Chartered Accountants Ireland or CIMA)

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Recruitment Timeline

• Closing date: 04 November 2026
• Shortlisting: w/c 16 November 2026
• Interviews: From 23 November 2026

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline.

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs profile.

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Eligibility Statement

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. Checks will be performed as part of pre-employment checks in line with this. Please refer to the Candidate FAQ document attached to the advert for more information.

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, individuals appointed to the Treasury group will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Security Check (SC)

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. In exceptional circumstances, for example if you have been working abroad on a government posting, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case-by-case basis once the advert closing date has passed.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.