Quality Assurance Inspector

About The Institute

The world of professional accountancy is changing at an unprecedented pace, adapting to its crucial role in climate reporting, AI and emerging technologies, increasingly sophisticated regulation, and evolving ways of working. This pace of change ensures that the non-stop demand for professional accountants and their services will continue to grow and expand to 2030 and beyond.

Chartered Accountants Ireland, the longest established and fastest growing professional accountancy body on the island of Ireland, is changing rapidly too, drawing on best-in-class organisational design and state-of-art digital solutions to provide forward-looking education, support, and regulation to members, firms, and students in the years ahead. We are embarking on a business transformation programme, the most exciting and ambitious in our 135-year history.

Institute Values

The Institute seeks to ensure an environment based on its values of Innovation with Ambition, Collaboration for Impact, Speed and Simplicity, Trust, Inclusion, and For Tomorrow, For Good. Candidates should be able to demonstrate how these may apply to them in the role for which they are applying and how their previous experience is relevant to them.

The role:

The Professional Standards Department of Chartered Accountants Ireland, along with the relevant compliance and disciplinary committees is responsible for the delivery of the Institute’s regulation and disciplinary obligations which derive both from statute in Ireland and the UK and its own Bye-Laws & Regulations.  In this regard, the Institute is subject to oversight by a range of State agencies in both jurisdictions, including the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

Quality Assurance inspections are the means by which the Institute ensures professional services provided by members and member firms are of a high standard, by monitoring compliance with relevant regulatory requirements through a system of returns and inspections and taking regulatory action when necessary.

All members who hold a Practising Certificate (PC) and their firms are included within the Institute’s programme of Quality Review. The Professional Standards team is seeking to recruit a Quality Assurance Inspector, to contribute to this ongoing regulatory function.

Key Responsibilities:

Main duties and responsibilities of the role include:

• Conducting monitoring visits to Chartered Accountant Ireland member firms
• Reviewing firms’ processes and methodologies in relation to practicing activities
• Reviewing firms’ compliance with the Institute’s rules and regulations
• Critical assessment of the work carried out by practicing firms including judgements made by principals on key issues including audit, accounting, investment business and anti-money laundering issues
• Interviews with principals and other team members
• Reporting on the visit including findings and recommendations to the firms
• Adding value by making recommendations to firms aimed at improving quality

You will perform a wide range of challenging work and gain:

• A unique insight into how firms operate and respond to current issues facing practice
• An up-to-date knowledge of business, accounting, and regulatory compliance issues of relevance to the profession
• A detailed knowledge of relevant disciplines, including one or more of statutory audit, non-audit services, investment business and anti-money laundering requirements.

The candidate 

Required competencies

• The successful candidate must be a member of a Recognised Accountancy Body/Recognised Supervisory Body with a minimum of 5 years’ post qualification experience in a practice or regulatory environment.
• An excellent knowledge of professional, technical and ethical standards together with excellent organisational, communication and influencing skills and a good level of IT literacy will be required.  
• The candidate should be able to demonstrate ability/provide evidence of communicating effectively on sensitive matters with credibility at all levels.
• Demonstrable experience of report writing for technical and other professional audiences
• Have an analytical and process-driven approach, while being capable of exercising judgement.   
• Experience of management of multiple deadlines.
• Requirement to travel (predominantly within island of Ireland) – full clean driver’s licence.

Members of the Quality Review team are primarily home-based, with a certain amount of travel required.  Many monitoring visits take place either remotely or via a hybrid approach which involves a combination of home-based and on-site reviewing.

Personal profile:

• Highly motivated with the consistent ability to meet or exceed goals by working in a collaborative manner with their team and peers.

• The candidate must be capable of working on their own initiative.  They must be able to take ownership of the role and be capable of making key decisions while also actively collaborating within a team focused on results and targets.
• A strong focus on attention to detail and results is required.
• An ability to take on new duties and support others when required within the team.
• Ability to quickly build rapport and develop effective working relationships with others.
• Ability to multi-task, delegate and adapt to changing contexts and priorities of PSD.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to identify relevant data to use in planning and decision making.
• Ability to understand, adapt to and interact with diverse people, teams, perspectives and cultures.

Flexible work arrangements

The Institute is seeking and encourages applications from experienced candidates who may be looking for flexible work arrangements. If such arrangements are being sought please bring these to the attention of your interviewer.

The Institute will use the information which you have provided in this form to respond to your request or process your application and will hold and protect it in accordance with the Institute's privacy statement, which explains your rights in relation to your personal data.  By submitting this application acknowledge you have read our privacy statement.

Chartered Accountants Ireland is an equal opportunities employer.

How to apply:

Applications, including curriculum vitae, should be sent directly via email to hr@charteredaccountants.ie or alternatively be sent via post to:

Human Resource Department
Chartered Accountants Ireland,
Chartered Accountants House,
47 Pearse Street,
Dublin 2