ESG Assurance - Senior Manager - Financial Services

Quality is at the heart of what we do. Combining passionate people with leading technology, we work together to build trust in society. We put the team first and solve important problems by challenging the organisations we audit and being open to challenge ourselves. We take pride in our work and the profession, recognising audit as a deep specialism. It's a really exciting time to be joining us. We're growing our teams across all areas of our Audit practice and investing a huge amount in our people, their skills and the technology available, as we continue to radically modernise our business and the way we serve our clients.
Introduction

Trust is a valuable commodity. It is not given or kept easily. And when it comes to trust, what matters to stakeholders is changing. They want to know that companies are who they say they are, and do what they say they do. That is why today, organisations are being judged on more than financial performance, with reporting on other areas playing a more important role in building stakeholder trust.

Independent, high quality assurance is increasingly expected. Corporate reporting remains the first port of call for investors trying to understand business performance and prospects - and the risks associated with them.

About the team

Within PwC's Stakeholder Assurance practice, you'll have the opportunity to work with a market leading team and across a diverse portfolio of clients, from owner managed businesses, private equity backed companies, to large multinational and listed groups.
We work with well-known clients across a broad range of clients including FTSE listed, global private companies, private partnerships, funds and Private Equity and Venture Capitalist backed companies. You'll work across a wide variety of industry sectors including:

• Asset and Wealth Management: Real Estate, Hedge Funds, Pensions, Private Equity, traditional Asset and Wealth management, as well as technology and asset servicing businesses; and/or
• Banking and Capital Markets: Established global banking clients to emerging FinTechs and start-ups looking to disrupt the traditional financial markets; and/or
• Insurance: Life, Non-Life, London Markets and Broking.

You'll also have the opportunity to work on global projects, collaborating with PwC colleagues and clients all over the world.

Your Role

As a Senior Manager within Stakeholder Assurance, you'll lead teams that mainly focus on developing and delivering our Non-financial reporting products, though individuals should expect to deliver non-financial assurance more broadly, including Third Party assurance and Regulatory assurance . Non-financial reporting includes ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance), Sustainability and Climate Change related reporting, key performance indicators, operational performance metrics, regulatory disclosures and other areas where stakeholders of our clients are increasingly seeking to build trust and provide transparency

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Be at the forefront of innovation in reporting and assurance, providing a broad and differentiating experience to the typical financial auditor;
• Have variety in what you do, working across all three Stakeholder Assurance propositions and an even broader set of products, in an area that constantly evolves in response to our clients evolving needs and business risks;
• Develop and progress , in a rapidly growing area of our business;
• Develop client proposals and propositions more broadly ; and
• Spend every day working on our purpose , to build trust in society and solve important problems.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities will include:

• Understanding of complex client processes and designing and developing suites of assurance work over them;
• Leading the planning and delivery of assurance or similar assignments for a range of governance, risk, regulatory, operational and financial purposes;
• Building and maintaining effective working relationships with clients;
• Managing teams to deliver a project both on time and on budget;
• Coaching and developing junior team members;
• Conducting work in accordance with a range of assurance standards;
• Developing and supporting new opportunities and propositions; and
• Building a network of external contacts through attending external and PwC hosted events.

About you

We're looking for someone who is a high performing Senior Manager and is passionate about the role assurance plays, and who can leverage their experience to challenge existing reporting and build PwCs profile and position in the marketplace. You will have experience in understanding an organisation's risks, risk management priorities, controls, regulatory environment, data, reporting, and the diverse needs of its critical stakeholders. This experience could be gained through external audit, internal audit or risk management.

Essential skills and experience

To succeed in the team, you will have a demonstrable skills and experience as follows:

• Chartered Accountant / ACA / ACCA / ICAS qualified accountant (or international equivalent) or have equivalent work experience in Audit (including international candidates who technically qualify in their home country by experience);
• Senior Manager level experience
• Leading the planning of complex non-financial assurance engagements including the identification of risk and controls and the performance and review of relevant audit testing in line with PwC and regulatory standards;
• Coaching and developing junior team members;
• The ability to apply independent judgement during engagements and to support conclusions reached by management;
• Identifying and effectively reporting issues and recommendations for improvement to clients;
• Assurance experience, including performing walkthroughs and evaluating controls;
• Market development, including experience of identifying opportunities, building and managing client relationships, leading / being involved with tenders and/or significant client pitches;
• Strong business awareness, sound reporting and documentation skills and the ability to work under your own initiative;
• A willingness to learn new skills and help develop and innovate new client propositions; and
• Budgeting and managing project finances.

Desirable skills and experience

• A passion for ESG, Sustainability and Climate Change;
• Knowledge and experience of ESG, Sustainability and Climate Change subject matter and reporting developments in this area;
• A good understanding of the current regulatory environments and interest in the future of sustainability reporting including TCFD, Green Taxonomy, SDG goals, Green Finance and the impacts that these may have on companies and their broader stakeholders.
• Knowledge and understanding of some key non-financial assurance reporting and assurance, standards such as ISAE 3000.
• Experience of working within the financial services sector is preferred, although candidates with other experience will be considered; and
• Working flexibly across a variety of multi location teams.