Internal Audit Manager

The U.S. Internal Audit Program Manager will play a key role in driving and executing program risk management oversight across GiveDirectly’s cash transfer projects within the U.S. Primary responsibilities will include leading end-to-end fraud and risk management (including prevention, detection, resolution, and risk management innovations), coordinating with internal and external stakeholders where necessary to ensure proactive risk prevention, early detection and mitigation, recruiting and managing internal audit teams, and driving operational excellence and improvement.

The Internal Audit Program Manager will work closely with all the U.S. program leadership team (Program Managers, Senior Managers, and Program Director) and the Country Director, as well as cross-functionally with finance, Data, and technology teams while coordinating risk management initiatives. We are looking for candidates who are highly independent and solutions-oriented, have experience driving operational excellence and improvement, are comfortable assessing and developing effective workflows in technology tools, and who thrive in fast-paced environments.

The Internal Audit Program Manager should be able to:

• Build and manage work plans, budgets, and report out (internally and externally) on Internal Audit metrics / KPIs and staffing projections
• Oversee operational metrics to ensure program excellence and drive improvement
• Manage steady state programs with little supervision, escalating and seeking support, particularly during launch and close, or in the instance of adverse events or sensitive risk challenges
• Communicate clearly and effectively, internally and externally, about project goals and how they connect to team and org-wide strategy and impact
• Be a strong team manager – Build a culturally, ethically, and value-aligned country internal audit team with high professional growth and development trajectory.

Reports to: Senior Manager, Internal Audit

Level: Manager

Travel Requirement: This role may require travel 3-4 times per year to states where projects are actively running, especially for high-risk/sensitive case investigations or for specific risk spot checks, as well as team gatherings Exact amounts of travel will vary for different project locations within the US.

What you’ll do:

This position will primarily be the Internal Audit (program risk management) focal point for the entire US operations, and will be working closely with a team of independent and firewalled staff, remotely located and assigned to different projects. This role will be expected to work closely with all the country project stakeholders as a primary conduit between the firewalled internal Audit team and the rest of the program implementation team.

Project Design - prevention & mitigation of risks (30%)

• Represent IA in country project design conversations, including development of strategic risk management measures and new project scoping.
• Oversee new project risk scoping exercises and ensure a full risk scoping report is submitted to the Internal Audit Director and Country Director for all new projects
• Work with the Internal Audit Senior Manager to develop project-specific Internal Audit proposals detailing audit rates, audit approaches, e.t.c. for new projects and ensure these are discussed with and signed off by the Country Director
• Ensure that customized risk registers are created for all new projects; ensure that risk registers for ongoing projects are updated regularly
• Lead in the review of relevant tech implementation tools, e.g. enrollment surveys, to better align them to risk detection, mitigation and prevention.
• Overall owner (accountable) of country project workbooks detailing Internal Audit references, including tech-related requirements, and recipient audit plans.
• Develop project workplans, detailing internal audit workload and staffing/resourcing estimates.

Systems-oriented risk monitoring (45%)

• Define and/or review project risk classifications based on projects and the implementing location
• Owning and monitoring Internal Audit defined metrics / KPIs in the US, including owning the correction of dropping or critically missed metrics
• Create and maintain reports and dashboards that reflect team performance in relation to the set metrics, and ensure tracking and proactive resolution for cases/issues open for investigation.
• Take the lead in investigating suspected sensitive fraud cases related to the GiveDirectly implemented cash programs, including proactively communicating the same to the country leadership, the Internal Audit Senior Manager / Director for the necessary escalation and/or resolution.
• Monitor the traffic and trends of risk reporting and flag high-risk projects to the CD and IA SM/IAD
• Provide the lead in examining and spot-checking the quality of the program implementation team’s data against set GD data quality standards and report any cases of inconsistency.
• Lead the development of risk escalation protocols for different types of risks and monitor the implementation of the protocols by both the IA team and the program implementation teams
• Lead the internal audit team in the detection of risks such as safeguarding, fraud, abuse, and undeclared conflicts of interest; by ensuring confidential reporting, proactive detection, in-depth investigations, and case management of the risks whenever they occur.
• Build and manage in-country project-related stakeholder relationships; working with different in-country teams to ensure IA deliverables are tracked as per the work plan.
• Where relevant, build in-country relationships with fraud management stakeholders (for example, technology vendors and payment partners) for sustainable fraud resolutions in-country
• In collaboration with the IA Senior Manager, hold and/or facilitate weekly (or bi-weekly) risk discussion meetings with the Country Director, Program Director, IA Director in each country you are assigned

People management and culture building (20%)

• Directly manages Internal Audit Associates and/or project coordinators assigned to all US country projects
• Conduct regular check-ins with Direct Reports
• Set performance metrics and individual goals
• Conduct performance reviews for direct reports every quarter and provide a report of the same to the IA -SM / IA-Director and CD where relevant.
• Develop a team with a high capacity for problem solving, critical thinking, and strong analytical and communication skill.
• Conduct staff career growth needs assessments (through structured surveys, 1:1 sessions with direct reports and regular skip-level meetings with skip reports where relevant) and liaise with the country HR lead to deliver robust professional development sessions internally and externally
• Directly responsible for hiring Internal Audit Associates and/or Coordinators in line with the project-specific workloads and resourcing needs.
• Model ethical behavior that encourages the team to adhere to GD policies and to also report misconduct within GD staff, partners, community and recipients
• Act as the custodian of ‘Recipients First’ Value within the team by ensuring compliance to policies and protocols of GiveDirectly
• Maintain an active, visible and consistent commitment to a common standard of behavior that is required throughout every aspect of the organization as stipulated in the Code of Conduct Statement
• Manage a team that is driven by individual accountability, involving moving beyond corporate ‘rules-based’ behavior to ‘values-based’ behavior that promotes a greater focus on promoting individual integrity.
• Identify subcultures within the organization that may result in safeguarding and fraud risks to recipients
• Conduct annual training to country Programs teams on fraud mitigation requirement