Senior Audit Manager — Finance Audit

JCW is partnering with a leading international insurance organisation to hire a Senior Audit Manager for their U.S. Internal Audit team based in the Greater Chicago area.

This is a risk-based finance audit role. You will be identifying and assessing the key financial risks across the business and building audit plans around them, not simply working through a SOX control inventory. The scope spans financial reporting integrity, actuarial and reserving risk, treasury and liquidity risk, expense and procurement controls, reinsurance and settlement risk, investment accounting, and financial governance across a complex international insurance structure.

This is a high-visibility position with direct exposure to global stakeholders, offering real leadership responsibility and long-term career progression.

This role sits within an expanding U.S. Internal Audit function at a well-established global insurer. The mandate is risk-based finance audit. Your starting point is the financial risk universe, not the control framework. You will identify where financial risk is most concentrated, design and execute audits that test whether those risks are being managed effectively, and translate findings into insight that drives genuine improvement in financial governance and decision‑making.

You will act as a strategic partner to the CFO organisation, Finance, Actuarial, Tax, and Treasury functions.

• Develop and maintain a risk-based finance audit plan, continuously updated to reflect the evolving financial risk landscape across the organisation
• Lead audits across high-risk finance areas including financial close and reporting, actuarial reserving, treasury and liquidity management, investment accounting, reinsurance settlements, tax, and expense management
• Evaluate whether financial risks are adequately identified, owned, and mitigated, going beyond control testing to assess risk culture and governance effectiveness
• Challenge the adequacy of financial risk frameworks, escalation processes, and management information used by CFO-level leadership
• Assess SOX/ICFR compliance where applicable, but within a broader risk-based context and not as the primary audit driver
• Provide forward-looking insight on emerging finance risks, regulatory developments including IFRS 17, and areas of growing financial risk concentration
• Manage audit engagements end-to-end including scoping, planning, fieldwork, reporting, and presenting findings to senior finance stakeholders
• Mentor and develop junior team members, building a high-performing risk-focused finance audit capability

• 10+ years in internal audit or financial risk, with a track record of delivering risk-based finance audits rather than purely controls testing
• Strong understanding of financial risk identification and assessment across financial reporting, actuarial/reserving, treasury, investments, and reinsurance
• Ability to build and execute a risk-based audit plan and articulate why certain risks warranted audit attention
  • Technical accounting knowledge across IFRS/GAAP, financial close, management reporting, and balance sheet substantiation
• SOX/ICFR experience is an asset, but candidates who have moved beyond pure SOX work into broader risk-based finance audit are strongly preferred
• Familiarity with insurance-specific finance risks including reserving uncertainty, reinsurance recoverability, investment portfolio risk, and premium/loss recognition
• Ability to engage and influence CFO-level stakeholders across a global organisation •
• CPA, CIA, or ACA/ACCA strongly preferred;
  Big 4 or large insurer background highly regarded
• Excellent analytical, communication, and written reporting skills

JCW is an equal opportunity recruiter. We welcome applications regardless of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race.