Finance Quality Assurance, Monitoring & Testing Sr. Lead Analyst - Senior Vice President

The Issues Quality Assurance (IQA) team, part of Finance QA Testing and Validation group within the Finance Chief Operating Officer (COO) organization is responsible for the design and implementation of risk and control frameworks that span the Finance function globally. The IQA Team manages the quality and control of documentation across the issue management lifecycle. This will include all aspects of the lifecycle from identification, planning, monitoring, and remediation and ensure that issue responses, action plans and documentation in each step are held to the highest standard.

The Role and Candidate:

The IQA Lead will have responsibility for overseeing the quality of documentation and artifacts which evidence the completeness and accuracy of work done to complete audit, regulatory, first and second line issues as they go through the issue remediation lifecycle. IQA Lead will oversee a portfolio of issues across Finance departments and will serve as the first line of defense for Quality Assurance and Control for Finance owned Issues and CAPs, across all issue sources (IA, Reg, Self-identified, other) across the issue management lifecycle. The IQA team will engage directly with issue owners and coordinators and partner with Finance function Control officers.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong and disciplined analytical skills, developed through a consulting, audit, controls, QA or other similar function. The IQA Lead will be highly organized and take a structured approach to ensuring Issue Owners have completed all necessary steps and protocols in accordance with policies and procedures. The IQA Lead will be curious and diligent, ensuring thorough evaluation of documentation and artifacts, rigorous audit planning and pre-validation testing. The Lead will demonstrate excellent people skills, given the level of interaction with senior managers, various business units, auditors, and regulators. This is not a check the box control role – a successful analysts will go beyond the technical requirements to understand the spirit of the issue at hand and provide effective challenge to issue owners on the work completed and submitted. Candidates will also demonstrate a good understanding and prior expertise in driving partnership required across the first, second and third lines to complete remediation effectively.

This role requires compliance with Citi’s Transformation Program Office and the related, centralized processes and procedures required to effectively manage the oversight and execution of the Transformation Action Plan. The Candidate will need to successfully partner with stakeholders across the organization. Mature communication and diplomacy skills are required to guide, influence and achieve agreements with other colleagues and Senior Managers across LOBs and Functions.

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated candidate to leverage their experience across a wide range of control issues and their remediation, across multiple finance processes and varying levels of complexity. This is a new team and process offering that unique opportunity to craft.

Responsibilities:

• Lead governance and policy forums and discussions with partners and internal customers

• Work with partners across the firm to ensure adherence to evolving policy and guidance

• Ensure reporting and metrics are consistent, sustainable and drive performance improvement

• Provide support for MRA oversight governance

• Manage effective reviews and challenge to ensure issue opening (before submission), monitoring and pre-validation, pre-closure reviews occur and are of high quality focusing on:

• Root cause assessment
• Completion criteria
• Dependency evaluation
• Sustainability
• Risk reduction
• Action plan quality
• Liaise with issue owners and coordinators to ensure evidence and artifacts are aligned and sufficient to meet IA validation requirements
• Performs reviews of consent order scoping and strategy documentation, providing observations and concerns regarding risk and key control design, implementation, and sustainability readiness.
• Applies comprehensive understanding of concepts and procedures within own area and basic knowledge of other areas to resolve issues that have impact beyond own area.
• Builds and manages relationships and works with stakeholders to ensure program scope definition meets business objectives.

• Leads the execution of Control Design and Operating Effectiveness Testing  
• Establishes and oversees the application of firmwide policies and procedures, control standards, operational risk policies, technology and tools, and governance processes to create lasting solutions for minimizing losses from failed internal processes, inadequate controls, and emerging risks.