Capital Projects Assurance Senior Director

The mandate

The Senior Director will establish independent assurance over major capital commitments from concept through benefits and closeout. Project reporting can be abundant while the evidence behind scope, contingency, schedule confidence, change and benefit readiness remains uneven. The role will focus audit attention at decision points where corrective choices still exist.

This permanent portfolio owns the capital-project audit universe, stage-based assurance, specialist evidence and issue follow-up. It must evaluate governance and financial integrity without becoming a project control office, certifying forecasts prepared by management or supplying staff to delivery teams.

The Senior Director may approve audit scope, require access to authorised evidence, determine ratings and escalate decision-gate concerns directly through the Chief Audit Executive. Project sponsors retain approval and delivery accountability. Internal audit cannot design the controls it will later assess.

The first year will map the portfolio, introduce gateway assurance, complete priority reviews and establish a benefits-validation path. Success means earlier challenge of optimism, clearer committee understanding of aggregate exposure and remediation that addresses root causes rather than producing more reporting.

What you will own

• Build a capital-project auditable universe covering exposure, stage, strategic dependency, uncertainty, delivery confidence and prior assurance.
• Design assurance gates for business case, mobilisation, contracting, execution, commissioning, benefit readiness and closeout.
• Test baseline integrity across scope, cost, schedule, contingency, change, risk and approved decision history.
• Examine forecast confidence and reference evidence without substituting internal audit's estimate for management ownership.
• Identify portfolio dependencies and resource contention invisible in standalone project reporting.
• Establish safe use of engineering, commercial and legal specialists with competence, objectivity and evidence expectations documented.
• Validate high-risk findings and claimed benefits through evidence of sustained control and realised outcome.
• Develop auditors capable of challenging complex projects while maintaining independence from delivery.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 17 years in internal audit, capital-project assurance or external audit of major programmes, including senior leadership.
• Current CA ANZ, CPA Australia, ACA, ACCA or equivalent audit qualification, with project-assurance certification advantageous.
• Evidence of an assurance intervention made early enough to change scope, contingency, sequencing or commitment.
• Deep knowledge of project baselines, estimate uncertainty, schedule confidence, change control, contracting, commissioning and benefits.
• A case where extensive project reporting concealed weak decision evidence or unsupported optimism.
• Experience directing technical specialists while retaining responsibility for the audit conclusion.
• A record of protecting independence when sponsors requested advisory help that would create later self-review.

Working terms and boundaries

• This is a permanent role with first-year gates after portfolio mapping, gateway launch, priority reviews and benefits-validation assessment.
• Audit scope, evidence and ratings are included; project controls, forecast ownership and delivery decisions remain excluded.
• Hybrid attendance is aligned to site evidence, governance observation and Audit Committee reporting, with safe-access protocols.
• Auditors may recommend control outcomes but cannot author business cases or operate project-management routines.
• Year-one completion requires operating gateways, concluded priority audits, validated issues and a credible specialist bench.

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 5 October 2026. Mandate reference AUD-PER-2026-MEL-34.