Accounts Commission

Controller of Audit

Location: Base location will be our Edinburgh or Glasgow offices, and we support hybrid and flexible working patterns.

Salary: Pay band:  £98,446 - £130,284 (Salary on appointment is open to negotiation dependent on experience.) We also offer a comprehensive benefits package.   

The Accounts Commission holds councils and other local government bodies in Scotland to account and helps them improve by reporting to the public on their performance. Operating impartially and independently of councils and the Scottish Government to deliver robust audit, the impact of our work has arguably never been more important as pressures around funding, deepening inequalities and increased demand on services - alongside the multiple impacts of Covid-19 and the urgent need to address climate change - have placed significant stress on councils. Councils are critical to Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic and so they need a strong relationship with their communities, working with them to design and provide good public services, improving the quality of life for individuals and communities.

Required by statute, the Controller of Audit is regarded by the Commission as the lead professional role in Scotland in reporting on the audit of local government. Committed to working with influence and impact, one of the most critical issues we look at relates to how well councils fulfil their statutory duty of Best Value. We also frequently work with the Auditor General for Scotland, who is responsible for auditing the Scottish public sector beyond local government, to publish joint reports on a national basis on matters affecting public services.

In this role, you will be accountable to the Commission for the quality of the Controller’s products and professional judgements.  This will require you to work and collaborate with a range of partners, not least senior leaders and teams at Audit Scotland (which provides services to the Commission and the Auditor General), and audit firms who also carry out some of our audit work.

In your current capacity as an audit, finance or other senior leader performing a relevant role in, or with the public sector, you will bring strong organisational performance management and service improvement credentials to this role, along with an appreciation of how the sector works, the services it provides and the political environment in which it operates.

We’re looking for a strong relationship builder who will be credible in a range of contexts. Strategic working relationships with colleagues at Audit Scotland will be critical to delivering a work programme that delivers on all fronts, along with the relationships you form with senior stakeholders in Scottish local government and Scottish Parliament.

The success of this role is fundamental to the success of our organisation and the fulfilment of our purpose. The quality of the work you do and the judgements you make must be highly credible if they are to make a lasting difference to the use of public money.

If this sounds like the right role for you at an important time for the sector we serve, we look forward to hearing from you.

To apply or for more information, please click Apply below. For an informal discussion about the role, contact our recruitment partners, GatenbySanderson. Duncan Ewart on 07471 037071 or Stephanie Wilson on 07880 382745

Closing date: Friday 3 June, 17:00