Head of Internal Audit

The Head of Internal Audit owns the charter. That single document defines the function's mandate, its access rights, its independence and its reporting line to the Audit Committee — and defending it is the substance of the job. Everything else, from the plan to the budget to the team, follows from how much standing the function is given and how carefully that standing is used.

The seat is judged on judgement rather than throughput. Which risks are worth the Committee's attention, when to escalate over a CEO's objection, when a finding is material enough to reopen a decision, and whether the function's opinion on the control environment is genuinely reliable. In Singapore this is a small, visible community, and reputation carries between roles.

Scope is typically group or regional: a Southeast Asia or Asia-Pacific mandate, a small in-house team, co-source arrangements for IT, data, forensic or specialist reviews, and a direct line to the Audit Committee Chair. In banks and insurers the role additionally answers to MAS expectations on the independence, resourcing and competence of the internal audit function.

Where this sits: the top of the Internal Audit & Risk pathway, above Internal Audit Manager and Risk Manager. Peer seats elsewhere on the platform are Head of Finance and Financial Controller in the Accounting pathway, and Audit Partner in the Audit pathway.

• Own the internal audit charter, mandate and independence, and review both annually with the Audit Committee.
• Set the multi-year and annual audit strategy, and secure Committee approval of the plan and resourcing.
• Report directly to the Audit Committee Chair on results, themes, disputes and the state of the control environment.
• Provide an annual opinion or assessment on the adequacy of governance, risk management and internal control.
• Own the function's budget, headcount, co-source panel and technology investment.
• Lead or commission investigations into fraud, misconduct and whistleblowing reports.
• Maintain conformance with IIA standards, including periodic external quality assessment.
• Build the function's talent pipeline and succession, and represent it with regulators and external audit.

• A degree in accountancy, business, finance or information systems.
• Twelve or more years across internal and external audit, including several years of plan and team ownership.
• CIA plus CA (Singapore) or ACCA; CRMA, CISA or FRM depending on the group's risk profile.
• Demonstrated Audit Committee reporting experience, including at least one contested escalation.
• Experience leading or commissioning investigations, and managing co-source relationships.
• Regional mandate experience and credibility with regulators where the group is supervised.

• Start with the charter. Explain how you would test the function's real independence in the first ninety days.
• Bring a genuine escalation. A position you held against executive resistance, and how the Committee resolved it.
• Give your annual opinion method. How you aggregate audit results into a defensible view of the control environment.
• Show you can resource honestly. Where you would co-source, and where in-house capability must be built.
• Ask the Committee Chair question. Frequency of private sessions without management present is the clearest measure of standing.