About the job

Job summary

We are an executive agency of His Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury), established in April 2015 to improve the quality of internal audit provided to central government. 

Most of the Agency’s people are professionally qualified internal auditors, accountants or investigators. 

Many are also specialists in areas including counter fraud, project management, digital and commercial audit. 

We lead both the Government Internal Audit Profession and the Government Internal Audit Function. 

Our workforce brings with it a unique depth of experience gained in a wide range of government departments, related bodies and other sectors. 

This enables us to offer a high-quality service based on cross-government insight and a strong understanding of our customers’ business. 

In GIAA, we aim to be a great place to work and to ensure that we have the capability and capacity to make even more of a significant contribution to achieving A Brilliant Civil Service over the coming years. 

Our initial focus was on becoming “a single audit practice”. We are now focused on taking GIAA to the next level so we can provide better insights and better outcomes for government.

Job description

Operational Director, Economic and Business Affairs responsibilities:

• Lead a group of SCS1 Group Chief Internal Auditors and a wider directorate, ensuring they have the support needed for effective delivery and strong customer relations.
• Drive continued improvements in customer impact and quality, while being sensitive to the seniority and experience of other professional internal audit staff within your area of responsibility.
• Manage resources across the directorate to achieve smoother audit delivery, improved productivity, and efficiency, in line with agreed requirements, and support others in doing through effective collaboration.
• Harness insight across your portfolio, and with the other Operational Directors, looking for synergies and common causes to improve strategic risk management in government.
• Manage strategic relationships across your portfolio of organisations in support of your Group Chiefs.
• Lead engagements personally as necessary, on a risk basis.
• Contribute to leading and delivering the vision and strategy across the Agency, leading projects suited to your strengths and interests.
• Act as part of the collective leadership of the Agency, as a member of the Executive Committee. You will live the Agency’s values at all times, internally and externally

Person specification

You will be required to write a statement of suitability of up to 1,250 words setting out how your skills and experience meet the following criteria:

We are looking for a proven internal audit leader who can deploy strong professional skills to customers and holds the ability to embed new and more efficient ways of working.

The appropriate candidate will be able to demonstrate evidence of their success in the following areas:

1. Experience of carrying overall responsibility for the provision of internal audit services for an organisation.
2. Evidence of operating with a strong commercial antennae and improving delivery and productivity through the effective management of resources.
3. Credible operational experience at the most senior levels and across organisational boundaries with the ability to positively lead and embed cultural change.
4. Sensitive leadership and people management skills that create a sense of common purpose and engagement while also being prepared to manage any sustained poor performance.
5. A strong customer focus and track record of driving continuous improvement in audit quality and customer impact in an operational context.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £97,000, Government Internal Audit Agency contributes £26,190 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Recruitment Timeline

Closing date: 28 July 2024

Shortlisting: 08 -13 August 2024

Interviews: w/c 02 August 2024 (up until 13 September 2024)

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. 

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, 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.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.