We’re looking for people with a range of backgrounds and experiences so we can combine the very best expertise across various disciplines to support our audit work. 

Of course, experience of performance, best value or financial auditing is valuable, but not everyone who joins us needs to have this before they arrive - we offer excellent opportunities for learning and development once you are here.  You can find more information about Audit Scotland’s work on our website.  

We are Audit Scotland. We're Scotland’s public sector auditor, independent of government. We employ more than 320 talented professionals who know that their work helps ensure the efficient delivery of public services in Scotland. We believe that public money (around £57 billion a year) should be spent wisely. 

There's plenty of change ahead, and the need for robust public audit that provides assurance about public spending and helps public services improve is more important than ever. We want to make sure Scotland makes the very best of the opportunities and that change is delivered well – transparent financial reporting and delivering value for money are key to this.

There has never been a more interesting or important time to join us. We offer a rewarding place to work, a supportive and open culture, and a wide range of professional development opportunities. Benefits include 42 days of annual leave including public holidays, personal development allowances and flexible working hours. We’ve also been named one of the top 40 workplaces in Scotland and the UK’s fourth best accountancy workplace in the Sunday Times’ 2021 Best Companies awards.

Overall purpose of the role

Our Performance Audit and Best Value Group (PABV) delivers audit products on issues such as public bodies’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, health and social care integration, digital transformation, community empowerment, inequalities, skills and training, economic development, and climate change. Our Best Value audits of councils look at important issues like how well they perform in delivering services to their communities. Our work programme is dynamic and refreshed on a regular basis to respond to changing circumstances.

Our work involves identifying audit risks affecting the Scottish public sector, scoping audit work to ensure it focuses on what matters, developing audit methodologies, gathering and assessing evidence (quantitative and qualitative), forming judgements and conclusions, and writing clear, evidence-based reports for the public and Scottish Parliament that include recommendations for improvement to public bodies.

As an Audit Officer in PABV, you will help deliver high-quality performance and best value audit work and help develop our work programme through research and data collection, and analysing, summarising and presenting information. You will contribute to planning, developing and delivering our audits to a world-class standard. You’ll build relationships and liaise with audited bodies and stakeholders, providing assurance which helps support improvement and focus on what’s important.

How you can help us

As a key team member working across a range of audits, you will:

• support the planning, development and delivery of audits
• gather audit evidence through a variety of approaches, evaluate the findings, and discuss with the audit team and audited bodies
• conduct data analysis using appropriate techniques to answer audit questions, and present findings with clarity
• assist with audit fieldwork, and summarise evidence and analysis to identify key themes and make audit judgements
• assist in the drafting and clearance of audit outputs
• keep up to date with new methodologies/analytical techniques as appropriate and share this knowledge with colleagues
• establish and maintain effective working relationships with audited bodies and stakeholders
• contribute to post publication activity, such as preparation for committees at the Parliament or audit committees in public bodies, presenting at conferences or producing data packs for publication on our website
• work flexibly as a member of teams working on audits, programme development and improvement projects
• collaborate with colleagues across Audit Scotland to support our one organisation ambitions and maximise the impact of our work.

Specific knowledge and experience

Essential 

• You are educated to degree level or have demonstrable, relevant experience of working in one or more of the following areas: audit and scrutiny, research, strategy and policy, data analytics, service delivery, or business management.
• You are proficient in using Microsoft Office.
• You are data-literate and have developed research and analysis skills, including experience using data analysis tools (either code-based, interactive, or otherwise).
• You have good problem-solving skills that can generate effective solutions for audited bodies, stakeholders and colleagues.
• You have good communication skills and can summarise analysis clearly and present it in a way that is easy to understand.
• You have good time management skills and can manage a varied workload and conflicting priorities.
• You are capable of building and maintaining effective relationships with people internally and externally, showing empathy and understanding.

Desirable 

• You have experience communicating your findings in an engaging way using visualisations, BI tools, or other appropriate means.
• You have experience in understanding and analysing financial statements. You may be working towards a financial qualification (CIPFA, ICAS, other CCAB, CIMA or equivalent).

Interested? Next steps 

Click the APPLY  button to complete an application form. If you wish, you can also share your CV. We offer a range of benefits, please visit our careers page for more information at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/careers. 

Our application deadline is Sunday 30^th January 2022 at midnight. We’ve reserved weeks commencing 7^th February 2022 and 14 February 2022 for virtual interviews to take place.  As part of the interview we will ask you to undertake an Microsoft Office-based assessment. 

Diversity and Inclusion 

We value the unique perspective a diverse workforce brings to what we do. Therefore, we’re keen to increase representation in our workforce and support progression of minority ethnic groups. We are also a proud disability confident employer. 

How we work 

We employ more than 320 people in a wide variety of roles, based at our offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, at sites across Scotland and working from home. This isn’t your typical work from home or work from office type job. We’re flexible about working patterns and we’ve transformed how we deliver high-quality public audit. We support you to work in the ways that achieve the best results for you, your team and the business, including your physical location and how you manage your hours. Put simply, we trust you to do your job, and want you to have the ability to have a rewarding work-life balance and best support your individual circumstances, be that childcare, adult carer responsibilities or managing disabilities. 

We welcome applications from across the UK. Some travel to our offices or client sites will be necessary at times, but you don’t need to live in Scotland to work for us.