Audit Committee Accounting Policy Adviser

The mandate

The standing question for this advisory appointment is whether significant accounting policies and judgments are reaching the audit committee with enough independent challenge, comparative reasoning and decision-useful clarity. The Adviser will help the Chair test the quality of the governance process without becoming a shadow controller, preparer or assurance provider. Influence must come through precise questions and evidence, not line authority.

The cadence comprises a fortnightly working session with the Chair or delegate, a monthly review of the judgment pipeline and scheduled attendance at committee meetings. Before each formal meeting, the Adviser will review selected papers for factual completeness, articulation of alternatives, consistency with policy and visibility of dissent. Written observations will identify gaps but will not rewrite management’s conclusions.

Particular attention will fall on judgments whose significance arises from uncertainty rather than size: policy elections, changing estimates, unusual contract terms, presentation decisions and conclusions that depend heavily on management intent. The Adviser should enable the committee to separate technical permissibility from reporting quality and to ask what evidence would cause a conclusion to change.

No executive or operational authority transfers with this appointment. Management owns the accounts, the external assurance provider owns its opinion, and the committee retains all decisions. The Adviser must not instruct employees, approve entries, negotiate with assurance teams on management’s behalf or represent that advice constitutes assurance.

The six-month term should leave a sharper decision protocol: a judgment-paper standard, a forward agenda, a record of questions and dispositions, and an assessment of whether recurring weaknesses have improved. Independence and conflicts are central; current financial interests, recent engagements and privileged relationships relevant to the confidential organisation must be cleared before access is granted.

What you will own

• Assess whether the committee receives significant accounting matters early enough to influence analysis rather than ratify completed decisions.
• Design a concise judgment-paper standard covering facts, authoritative basis, alternatives, sensitivity, contrary evidence and reconsideration triggers.
• Challenge selected papers for internal consistency and surface questions the committee should resolve before accepting management’s recommendation.
• Maintain a forward view of emerging interpretations and policy choices that may require governance attention during the six-month term.
• Facilitate two committee education sessions using anonymised fact patterns and decision principles rather than organisation-specific advocacy.
• Track management’s response to agreed questions and report whether the underlying governance weakness has closed or merely been reworded.
• Advise the Chair privately when information asymmetry, compressed timing or unresolved dissent threatens effective oversight.
• Decline any request that would blur advisory review with preparation, management approval or independent assurance.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate sustained experience advising boards or audit committees on significant accounting policy and estimation judgments.
• Provide an example where your questions changed the governance route or disclosure quality without your holding executive authority.
• Show current command of US GAAP and IFRS interpretation, including how you distinguish a defensible answer from high-quality reporting.
• Explain how you protect independence when prior client relationships, confidential information or competing appointments create perceived conflicts.
• Evidence concise paper review: isolating missing facts, unsupported assertions and decision triggers without redrafting management’s work.
• Describe an instance where management and assurance views diverged and you helped a committee understand the disagreement neutrally.
• Show availability for the stated cadence and scheduled travel without delegating core judgment review to junior staff.

Working terms and boundaries

• The retainer purchases two adviser days each week for six months, including preparation, fortnightly sessions and scheduled committee attendance.
• The Adviser has no line authority, ledger access by default, approval right, management representation duty or assurance responsibility.
• Advice will be documented to the Chair; management remains accountable for analysis, entries, statements and disclosures.
• Unscheduled crisis attendance requires mutual agreement on priority and a written adjustment if it displaces contracted work.
• All actual, potential and perceived conflicts must be declared and cleared before restricted papers are provided.

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 FNA-ADV-2026-NYC-03.