Audit Quality Inspector

Location: Birmingham

Salary: £92,071.60

Closing Date: 12/01/2025

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mission is to serve the public interest by setting high standards of corporate governance, reporting and audit and holding to account those responsible for delivering them. We are the UK Competent Authority for audit regulation. We also set the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes as well as UK standards for accounting, auditing and actuarial work, and monitor and take action to promote the quality of corporate reporting and operate independent enforcement arrangements for accountants and actuaries. Further information about our role can be found at www.frc.org.uk.

Audit Quality Review (AQR) is made up of suitably qualified and skilled staff with previous audit experience, including sector and IT specialists. It undertakes inspections monitoring the quality of Public Interest Entity (PIE) audits, but specifically those for UK listed entities. AQR also performs full scope inspections of the major Local Audits, National Audit Office, third-country audits and certain Crown Dependency audit firms and staff participate in the monitoring activity performed by the Audit Market Supervision (AMS) team, who take a cross-market approach to areas of importance to audit quality and firm resilience. This includes, but is not limited to, AMS firm-wide inspection work to ensure compliance with ISQC1.

As a member of the AQR team, successful candidates will participate in reviews of audits conducted by the Big 4 and other large audit firms, demonstrating their technical experience and personal skills in dealing with senior partners and staff at those firms

The Role:

The role provides an insight into how the major firms operate and how they are responding to current issues in the profession and changes in regulatory requirements. Successful candidates will also have the satisfaction of being able to influence the practices and procedures of the major audit firms to enhance quality. The successful candidate will:

• Conduct audit file inspections, focusing on larger UK listed entities. File inspections include analysis of audit workpapers, information gathering through informal and formal questioning of the audit team, discussion with the audit firm of potential issues identified, and conclude with final written reporting.
• Conduct inspections of firm-wide procedures at the major audit firms as required and visiting audit firms and reviewing their processes and audit methodologies.

The Person:

An accountancy qualification coupled with membership of ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS or ICAI (or equivalent) are required as well as significant experience at least at Audit Senior Manager or above level in the external audit profession, being essential.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A professional accountancy qualification (ACA, ACCA, or equivalent).
• Significant post qualification experience in the audits of listed and other public interest entities.
• Strong technical auditing and accounting skills.
• A demonstrable interest in an audit firm’s audit quality initiatives.
• Broad business knowledge and interests to facilitate working across multiple sectors.
• Ability to understand and assess significant volumes of information quickly and through this identify aspects of potential audit quality concern.
• Ability to build constructive and professional relationships with senior audit team and audit firm personnel.
• Ability to challenge the judgements made and quality of work performed by audit teams authoritatively, and to present and discuss issues arising on their merits in a calm and professional manner.
• Strong written and oral communication skills including report drafting, presenting AQR findings accurately, fairly and convincingly.
• Enthusiasm to work collaboratively with AQR and other FRC colleagues.
• Effective project and time management skills.

Please apply by following the link our website https://www.frc.org.uk/frc-for-you/careers and uploading a copy of your CV and covering letter as a single document upload. In the covering letter, please set out, by reference to the person specification above how you meet the required skillset.

• How you meet the required skillset
• confirm that you have the right to work in the UK, and
• tell us where you heard about this job

Rewards and benefits

• The FRC offers remuneration packages, including 30 days annual leave, ability to buy extra leave.
• Generous employer pension contribution of 10%.
• Staff Employee Assistance Programme including confidential counselling and work life services.
• The FRC offers staff the opportunity to save at least 25% on the purchase of a new bike through the Cycle to work scheme.
• The FRC has a strong work/life balance ethos.

The FRC believes that equality of opportunity and diversity is important in the work that we do and we are strongly committed to being an inclusive employer. Our values of being fair and independent supports this commitment. We're a signatory to the Government's Disability Confident scheme, which means that we guarantee an interview to any disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Equal opportunities monitoring is an important means of demonstrating and implementing our commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and diversity. Completing our diversity form will assist the FRC to identify any barriers that prevent access to employment and career development for certain groups of people, and to develop solutions, such as action plans, new policies and practices.

The role is based in our central Birmingham office. The post holder should be able to work flexibly to support the team’s activities and also provide cover within the FRC as necessary. The FRC operates a hybrid working arrangement with its workforce. The FRC operates a hybrid working arrangement, with a expectation that 40% of a person's working time will be located at one of our offices per week, with precise arrangements to be agreed between the employee and the line manager.