Director, Internal Audit and Controls

Azenta Inc.

At Azenta, new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking are driving our future. Our customer focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo with novel thinking and collaborative work relationships.

All we accomplish is grounded in our core values of Customer Focus, Achievement, Accountability, Teamwork, Employee Value and Integrity

Job Title

Director, Internal Audit and Controls

Job Description

At Azenta, new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking are driving our future. Our customer-focused culture encourages employees to embrace innovation and challenge the status quo with novel thinking and collaborative work relationships. 

Azenta Life Sciences is a global leader in the life sciences space with headquarters in Burlington, MA, and offices and operations worldwide. We are a market leader in automated bio sample management solutions and genomic services across areas such as drug development, clinical and advanced cell therapies for the industry's top pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and healthcare institutions globally.   We provide unparalleled capabilities with our lab analysis, sample management and storage services, informatics software, and consumables, with the largest installed base managing over 1 billion samples globally.

How you will make an impact:
The Director, Internal Audit and Controls will be responsible for leading and improving an internal audit program to support Azenta’s transformation journey.  This role reports to the Audit Committee with an administrative reporting line to the Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer.  This role has leadership responsibility for the internal audit function, including implementing and ensuring appropriate internal controls and processes are in place as the company continues to grow and maintaining efficient and effective governance.  The role will oversee the annual Audit Plan with a focus on Financial, Operational, Compliance and Strategic risks, including a focus around Sarbanes-Oxley ("SOX") compliance. The successful candidate will serve as an internal advisor to business leadership and ensure the audit team is seen as a forward-thinking business partner. The audit team must add value by not only proactively identifying and assessing potential control issues, but also creating the appropriate strategies to mitigate potential risks. The successful candidate must be capable of building internal and external relationships to develop an internal audit function that helps architect and add value versus solely monitor internal controls.

What you will do:

• Responsible for leading a flexible, risk-based Global internal audit strategy and the continuation of financial, operational, compliance and strategic audit plans by working with both business and IT colleagues and stakeholders to lead the planning, fieldwork, and reporting of integrated audits and other projects.
• Actively participates in applicable executive management forums and Audit Committee meetings to report the progress of the department relative to the annual audit plan and any audit issues that arise.
• Lead the development and implementation of detailed test plans to assess the current control environment to identify areas of control weakness / gaps for the internal audit plan, including SOX initiatives.
• Oversees control testing across the business. Effectively develops and communicates timelines and role assignments to ensure a timely and accurate consolidation of internal audit and SOX results while driving accountability across the business.
• Works regularly with internal business process owners to assess design and operating control failures through review of root cause assessments. Effectively communicates findings and practical recommendations, helps guide remediation efforts to closure, and advises on control requirements for new systems or process design. Follow-ups on required remediation to ensure control gaps are adequately addressed and aligned to completion dates.
• Maintains current understanding of all related internal systems and processes, and external regulatory requirements; Acts in accordance with all corporate policies and practices, and ensure work follows all internal policies and external regulatory requirements.
• Works closely with the Company's external auditors, including coordinating the annual risk-based audit plan and SOX initiatives, with the objective of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the audit function by maintaining or exceeding the current level of external auditor reliance.
• Develops relations