Group Statutory Audit Quality Director

The mandate

The Director will strengthen the quality of group statutory audits where scope, component evidence, consolidation and central judgement must form one defensible opinion. The role is not portfolio production oversight alone. It owns methodology interpretation, engagement challenge, root-cause learning and the conditions under which group teams may rely on work performed elsewhere.

This permanent appointment will connect audit quality standards to real file decisions: scoping, materiality, significant-risk response, component involvement, consolidation evidence and review of estimates. It must preserve professional scepticism when deadlines, dispersed teams and familiarity encourage unsupported reliance.

The Director may require additional work, block internal quality clearance, refer unresolved judgement to the appropriate technical forum and recommend changes to engagement leadership or resourcing. Statutory signing responsibility remains with the licensed engagement partner; the quality role does not substitute for that accountability.

The first year will deliver a risk-based inspection programme, refreshed group-audit guidance, calibration of difficult judgements and remediation of recurring file weaknesses. Success means repeat issues decline because root causes change, not because reviewers learn to describe the same evidence more elegantly.

What you will own

• Refresh group-audit guidance covering scope, component competence, communication, involvement, review and evaluation of aggregated evidence.
• Inspect a risk-based selection of files for planning logic, materiality, significant risks, consolidation, estimates and opinion support.
• Establish quality gates before critical reporting dates, with explicit criteria for additional work and technical escalation.
• Calibrate engagement teams on contradictory evidence, management bias, component exceptions and aggregation of uncorrected differences.
• Analyse inspection themes by behavioural, methodological, capacity and supervision root cause rather than file symptom alone.
• Require remediation owners to demonstrate changed practice through live engagements and follow-up inspection.
• Protect audit independence in commercial, staffing and timetable decisions, escalating threats through formal governance.
• Develop senior reviewers and technical leaders capable of sustained challenge across multi-jurisdiction audits.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 18 years in statutory external audit, including Director or partner-level group-audit quality responsibility.
• Active Chartered Accountant Ireland, ACA, ACCA or equivalent audit qualification, with eligibility or experience appropriate to licensed statutory practice.
• Evidence of blocking or conditioning audit clearance because component or consolidation evidence was insufficient.
• Deep command of ISA group audits, materiality, component involvement, estimates, consolidation, differences and auditor reporting.
• A root-cause remediation example that changed engagement behavior and survived later inspection.
• Experience resolving commercial and timetable pressure without compromising engagement-partner accountability or independence.
• A record of developing technical reviewers who can challenge senior engagement leaders with precision and proportionality.

Working terms and boundaries

• This ongoing role has first-year gates after inspection design, guidance release, first calibration cycle and remediation backcheck.
• Quality clearance and technical escalation are included; only the licensed engagement partner signs the statutory opinion.
• Hybrid work involves scheduled file reviews, judgement panels and periodic travel for component-quality observation.
• Compensation and performance assessment cannot reward retention or fee outcomes in ways that impair objective quality decisions.
• Year-one completion requires inspected priority files, reduced recurring defects, verified remediation and a sustainable reviewer 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-DUB-26.