Audit Committee Assurance Challenge Director

The mandate

The Audit Committee wants an independent challenge to whether assurance presented across financial, operational, compliance and change risks is coherent enough to support its oversight. Reports arrive from multiple providers, but differences in scope, evidence, rating and timing make gaps and duplication difficult to see.

The standing question is where the Committee may be relying on assurance whose purpose, independence or evidence does not match the risk. The Director will spend two days a week reviewing papers, meeting assurance owners and supporting the monthly committee cadence, with two deeper mapping workshops during the term.

This is an influence-only role with no line authority, audit-opinion power, management responsibility or right to commission work directly. Recommendations route through the Committee Chair. Internal audit, external audit and management providers remain accountable for their own conclusions and methods.

The six-month appointment ends after a closing coverage review and method transfer. Renewal requires a new oversight question. Conflicts include current work for assurance providers or accountable executives, recent authorship of reports under review and relevant financial interests; all must be disclosed, with recusal where independence could reasonably be questioned.

What you will own

• Catalogue material assurance sources by objective, risk covered, period, evidence, independence, conclusion and intended committee reliance.
• Identify overlaps that consume attention without improving confidence and gaps where no provider addresses the committee's actual question.
• Test whether ratings with similar labels represent comparable evidence and residual exposure across different providers.
• Review twelve committee papers for scope limitation, stale evidence, management dependency and unsupported assurance language.
• Recommend reliance criteria that distinguish independent assurance, management validation, certification and progress reporting.
• Facilitate two workshops where directors map coverage against current risks and decide what additional assurance is proportionate.
• Establish a concise exceptions view for conflicting opinions, delayed reports, access restrictions and unvalidated remediation.
• Transfer the assurance-map maintenance and challenge prompts to the committee secretariat before closure.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 18 years in internal audit, external audit, risk assurance or committee support with direct board exposure.
• Current ACA, ACCA, CPA, CA Singapore or equivalent recognised audit qualification; CIA experience is advantageous for internal-assurance reliance.
• Evidence of identifying an assurance gap hidden by multiple overlapping reports and changing committee coverage.
• Deep understanding of independence, scope, evidence sufficiency, ratings, reliance and three-lines accountability.
• A case where you challenged comforting assurance because its objective or period did not address the committee's decision.
• Experience influencing assurance providers without taking ownership of their work or compromising their reporting lines.
• A conflict record suitable for access to confidential reports and readiness to accept topic-specific recusal.

Working terms and boundaries

• The engagement operates two days weekly for six months, including monthly meetings and two scheduled mapping workshops.
• There is no line authority, report approval, audit opinion, direct commissioning right or management accountability.
• Conflicts are refreshed before each report set; the Chair determines restrictions, alternative review or recusal.
• Reperformance, statutory audit and operation of internal audit are excluded from the advisory scope.
• Completion requires a current assurance map, twelve reviews, adopted reliance criteria and independent secretariat maintenance.

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-SIN-20.