ISQM1 Director

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high-growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams leading them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

The Quality and Risk Management Team (QRM) provides leadership, guidance, and tools to help partners and staff manage quality and risk matters. The team is comprised of an Advisory and Compliance Team, a Chief Information Security Office Team, an Economic Crime Team, a Legal Team including a Commercial & Contracts Team, plus the Quality Monitoring Team. The team works closely with the firm’s Technical Standards Group, Ethics Team, and the firm’s leadership.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

International Standard of Quality Management (UK) 1 (ISQM1) requires BDO LLP to design and implement a system of quality management to ensure that the Firm and our personnel fulfil responsibilities in accordance with professional standards and other requirements and that reports issued are appropriate in the circumstances. ISQM1 also requires ongoing monitoring and an annual evaluation of the system of quality management under a reasonable assurance framework.

ISQM1 was implemented as at 15 December 2022 and evaluated for the first time during 2023, and BDO continues to work on the enhancement of its system of quality management to support its desire to improve and sustain audit quality and drive a consistent quality standard across all areas of assurance work.

BDO is looking for a lead Director to take responsibility for the ongoing leadership and development of the system of quality management under ISQM1.  This is a high profile opportunity within BDO, offering significant interaction with senior partners of the firm. The Director will work closely with the two partners who lead the team, the Monitoring and Remediation Committee and the Committees with ultimate and operational responsibility for the firm’s system of quality management. The role also requires this individual to be innovative in order to drive towards a sustainable and technology enabled approach, and a natural networker in order to successfully engage with and influence a diverse group of senior stakeholders.

There may be scope in the future to expand this role to contribute to the design and implementation of a system of quality management across the whole firm.

Key elements of the role:

• Drive the overall strategy to continually improve the design of the firm’s system of quality management;
• Develop, implement, and direct the monitoring of the firm’s system of quality management including developing appropriate KPIs and reporting to the firm’s leadership;
• Identify areas for improvement and introduce ideas to better use technology;
• Build and develop the resources needed to support on the above;
• Work with relevant senior stakeholders and partners to remediate any gaps identified in the firm’s system of quality management including from regulator inspection findings, internal testing and business changes;
• Prepare the annual monitoring report to provide information for the overall evaluation of the firm’s system of quality management;
• Prepare the required disclosures on ISQM1 for the firm’s annual Transparency Report; and
• Work with the firm’s regulators, the FRC, to respond to information requests on the system of quality management.

Requirements:

• A strategic thinker with excellent communication and influencing sills who is confident to engage with a variety of senior stakeholders;
• Experience of working in a large professional services firm and an understanding of the regulatory environment;
• Significant understanding of controls and their application in the workplace including design, sufficiency, operating effectiveness, deficiencies, and recommendations;
• SOX or previous ISQM1 experience desirable;
• Experience and successful track record in establishing and developing detailed monitoring programmes within professional services or similar industry;
• Strong networking skills and ability to develop strong rapports with key stakeholders;
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal and communication skills both written and verbal;
• An individual that can drive creative thinking and connect ideas and insights from other projects in the quality initiatives as well as role model resilience and maintain a calm demeanour when under pressure;
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, ever-changing, rapid-growth environment with multiple projects and tasks;
• Ability to proactively apply your skills to a broad range of components of a system of quality management to see the macro position;
• Ability to coach, develop and manage people as well as work independently; and
• Significant experience of simultaneously driving multiple work streams to a successful outcome.

Core competencies required: