External Audit Independence Governance Director

The mandate

The committee seeks independent advice on whether external-audit independence threats are identified, evaluated and resolved before commercial, personal or network relationships compromise judgement. The standing question is not whether declarations have been collected, but whether the full relationship population and resulting safeguards support objective statutory work.

Two days a week will cover monthly committee review, analysis of selected difficult cases and two control workshops. Advice will test financial interests, business relationships, non-audit services, partner tenure, fee dependency, employment links and network considerations without disclosing any firm or audit client publicly.

The Director has no line authority, engagement acceptance power, service approval or disciplinary responsibility. Recommendations route through the Independence Committee Chair. Licensed engagement partners and authorised governance bodies retain their statutory and organisational decisions.

The eight-month appointment ends after a complete annual confirmation cycle and a closing effectiveness review. Renewal requires a newly stated question. The adviser must disclose their own financial, professional and family relationships relevant to matters reviewed; uncertainty is resolved by restriction or recusal before confidential access.

What you will own

• Map independence obligations to relationship populations, ownership, detection controls, evaluation and approval routes.
• Review twenty complex cases for threat identification, significance, safeguards, documentation and timely disposition.
• Test whether non-audit-service descriptions, delivery locations and network participation are complete enough for evaluation.
• Assess partner rotation, cooling-off, employment and close-family controls for both formal compliance and practical objectivity.
• Challenge fee and commercial pressures whose cumulative effect may not be visible in engagement-level approvals.
• Facilitate two workshops using borderline cases to calibrate judgement and escalation across independence owners.
• Recommend monitoring for late declarations, data gaps, approval overrides, recurring exceptions and safeguard expiry.
• Deliver a closing opinion on control effectiveness and transfer the challenge register to committee owners.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 18 years in statutory audit, professional ethics, audit regulation or independence governance.
• Current Swiss recognised audit-expert, CPA, ACA, ACCA or equivalent licensed-audit standing appropriate to independence interpretation.
• Evidence of identifying an indirect or network relationship missed by ordinary confirmation and changing an engagement decision.
• Deep knowledge of financial interests, business relationships, services, rotation, employment, fees and safeguard evaluation.
• A case where you advised against a commercially attractive service because threats could not be reduced acceptably.
• Experience advising governance bodies without becoming the acceptance, disciplinary or engagement decision owner.
• Complete readiness to disclose personal and professional relationships and recuse from any affected case.

Working terms and boundaries

• The engagement operates two days weekly for eight months, including monthly committee and two calibration workshops.
• There is no line authority, service approval, engagement acceptance, discipline or statutory signing power.
• Conflicts are assessed before case access and refreshed continuously; the Chair determines restriction or recusal.
• The adviser will not design commercial offerings, negotiate fees or serve as engagement quality reviewer on cases examined.
• Closure requires twenty documented reviews, completed confirmation-cycle observation, control recommendations and accepted transfer.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 7 October 2026. Mandate reference AUD-ADV-2026-ZRH-28.