Senior Audit Manager Sustainability Reporting and Assurance

Salary: Newcastle range; £63,691 - £75,641, London Range; £71,000 - £84,000
Civil Service Employer Pension Contribution of 27.1%

Thank you for your interest in joining the National Audit Office (NAO) as Senior Audit Manager for our work on sustainability reporting and assurance. This job description will give you a better idea of who we are, what you will do when you join us, and what we offer. It also gives more details about the application process.?

Our position is unique, and our work is very influential. Totally independent, we examine public spending for Parliament. This means we work for, and for the good of, everyone in the country. We want our work to have greater impact and make a bigger difference to the outcomes and value for money that government achieves on the issues of greatest importance to the UK, both now and in the longer term.

Sustainability reporting requirements are evolving rapidly for both the public and private sector. The National Audit Office has an important part to play in helping to ensure that the system of public sector sustainability reporting that develops is useful, reliable and proportionate. This stems from our remit to examine Value for Money on behalf of Parliament, as well as our financial audit of around 400 public sector accounts.

We are looking for someone with the experience to shape and lead our programme of work on sustainability reporting and assurance. Drawing on your specialist knowledge you will lead our engagement on these issues with senior stakeholders in government and the private sector as well as with national and international standard-setters and expert communities. You will manage a team to deliver relevant, high quality, impactful reports for Parliament and good practice outputs, and you will play a central role in the development and application of our sustainability assurance methodology.

Alongside this role we are also recruiting for two other roles on sustainability reporting and assurance to create a new team who will lead our work in this area. The other Senior Audit Manager role available is a more technical one, focused on sustainability assurance methodologies. The third role is for a Senior Auditor/Senior Analyst who will work in a flexible way across all aspects of our work on sustainability reporting and assurance.

This is an exciting time to join this new team and build a rewarding and fascinating career at the NAO. For more information on the work of the NAO, including our 2022 report on measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions and the other sustainability reporting and assurance roles available see our website.?

The role

Responsibilities

In this role you will:

• develop a medium-term influencing plan for our work on sustainability reporting and assurance;
• build external networks with expert communities, standard setters and representative bodies;
• manage a team to plan, research and draft reports for Parliament and good practice guides in line with our quality standards, and engage with external clients and stakeholders to disseminate our work effectively;
• lead the development of a learning and professional development plan for sustainability reporting and assurance skills at the NAO;
• develop and maintain your own sustainability reporting and assurance knowledge and skills, keeping abreast of developments in the field, and providing advice to teams across the NAO;
• be an effective team leader and people manager, ensuring the coherence of our approach in this area, and working with teams across the NAO to harness relevant expertise;
• contribute to the development of our methodological approach to sustainability assurance and relevant assurance work

You will also contribute to the NAO’s wider work, including Value for Money studies, investigations, correspondence (from the public and MPs) and other work to support Parliamentary Select Committees.??

Relationships and accountabilities

Reports to: Head of Environment and Climate Change on a day-to-day basis, and to the relevant Executive Director on work related to methodological development for sustainability assurance.

Internal relationships: Heads of specialist hubs/functions, audit teams covering a range of audited bodies, service line leads for value for money and financial audit, external communications and Parliamentary relations. You will work particularly closely with the NAO’s Financial and Risk Management hub.

External relationships: External experts within government and in external organisations. National and international standard-setters.

Staff resources managed: You will manage a small team, drawing in others across the NAO where needed on a project basis.

The role can be delivered from either our London or Newcastle offices.

Skills required

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the ability to:?

Desirable

• Draw on a sound knowledge of good practice in sustainability assurance and reporting and an up to date understanding of the challenges of non-financial reporting in public sector organisations
• Draw on a demonstrable track record of setting up a functions/team/a practice

Essential

• Be highly credible in representing the NAO’s work and unique position for sustainability reporting and assurance
• Critically challenge existing reporting and help to develop future assurance methodologies and quality practices
• Oversee the production of a range of well-produced written outputs which support our findings and recommendations and are designed to engage a wide audience.?
• Make sound, independent judgements and act with authority when advising others
• Build and maintain effective relationships both internally and externally, drawing on excellent communication, relationship management and influencing skills to work collaboratively across all organisational levels
• Lead, develop and motivate diverse teams and support all colleagues to deliver great work and achieve their potential.?
• Work collaboratively and flexibly to ensure the office achieves its objectives and to support the wellbeing and development of colleagues.
• Show creativity and innovation in how we do our work and build insights and support teams to do so.

Attributes

In addition, we are looking for the candidates with the following attributes:??