Head of Internal Audit

Our client is a high-growth international technology group whose expansion has reached the point where it needs a dedicated, independent assurance function. This is a build role. You will set up Internal Audit from scratch and decide how it is structured, how it works, and how it earns credibility with the business.

The function will report administratively into the governance, risk and compliance area. Clear reporting lines will protect its independence and give it direct access to the leadership it oversees. The client wants assurance that is practical and commercially minded. It should give leadership a clear picture of the most significant risks and the controls around them, and help the organisation tighten its processes as it scales.

The role:

• Hire a team, set its working practices and grow it in step with the business, creating a culture where rigour and collaboration go hand in hand.
• Define how assurance is delivered across the group, from audit methodology and governance through to the use of analytics and digital tools that extend reach.
• Map where the organisation’s biggest exposures sit, then decide which areas the audit programme should cover this year and in the years ahead.
• Take reviews from first scoping conversation to closed actions, covering subsidiaries in several countries as well as central functions.
• Test whether controls, risk processes and governance hold up in practice, and work with the people who own them on fixes that will last.
• Keep the executive team informed about significant exposures, offering an independent view and pushing back where the evidence calls for it.
• Maintain close working relationships with finance, legal, HR, risk and operational heads, without letting proximity erode objectivity.

What you’ll need:

• Senior audit leadership experience, ideally gained in a business that is international, complex or expanding fast. Having created or reshaped an audit function yourself is essential.
• Solid technical grounding across control frameworks, ERM, governance standards and the regulatory landscape, applied through a risk-based audit approach.
• The ability to absorb unfamiliar processes quickly, separate the material from the minor, and give recommendations that people can act on.
• Credibility at board and executive level, with the confidence to disagree constructively and the judgement to stay impartial.
• A management style that develops people and builds strong, cohesive teams.
• An appetite for analytics-driven and technology-enabled auditing.
• Absolute discretion and integrity.
• Professional qualifications such as CIA, CISA, CRMA or ACCA are welcome.
• Fluent German and English.