Director of Audit Support, Division of Strategic Operations

Job Description

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nations largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and education programs for tenants and building owners.

The Office of Policy & Strategy (OPS) leverages its expertise to guide and support HPD and its many Offices in their efforts to deepen their impact, optimize their efficiency, and become more data-driven, compliance-attentive, climate-adaptive, and mission-focused. To do so, OPS collaborates with staff and senior leadership from across the Agency, as well as with representatives from other Agencies. OPS carries out its work through delivery of rigorous data, policy, and financial/credit analysis; technical and statistical research; compliance awareness and adherence; and techniques in program visioning and design to all of HPDs areas of practice.

Within the Office of Policy and Strategy, the Division of Strategic Operations & Analytics (SOA) works to increase HPDs impact by analyzing and improving operations agency-wide. As part of that work, SOAs Audit Support team helps agency staff and leaders to manage and coordinate program audits from City, State, and Federal funding and oversight entities; creates and enforces policies and procedures to make the program audit process as efficient and streamlined as possible; and helps ensure that conditions discovered in the context of audits are addressed through revised program practice.

Your Impact:

As a member of Audit Support, the Director will spearhead program audit work for the agency by:

- preparing for, strategizing, and responding to auditor requests and reports.

- supporting program staff in implementing audit recommendations.

- serving as an expert conduit between program staff, auditors, and other audit stakeholders.

Through work, the Director and all of Audit Support help protect resources critical to HPDs mission of ensuring that New Yorkers have safe, stable, affordable housing.

Your Role:

Reporting to, and working closely with, other staff members in Audit Support, the Director will be one of the primary staff charged with leading HPDs management of, and coordination around, audits conducted by entities that fund and govern program activity and agency commitments. The Director holds a key role in ensuring the efficiency of audits, the accuracy of information transmitted to auditors, and the strength of relationships with and between auditing entities and HPD staff.

Key responsibilities include:

- Managing all aspects of externally-initiated program audits, including (but not limited to):

- Fielding communication from auditing entities prior to, between, and during audits, which will include:

- Coordinating audit conferences (entrance, exit, and periodic),

- Responding to requests for program materials and documents,

- Providing or organizing orientation to program systems and technology, and

- Answering general inquiries about previous audit findings / recommendations, and program progress.

- Preparing materials for submission to auditors during audits. This task may include:

- Supporting program staff in the collection and organization of existing program materials and data; help to develop custom explanations and context for these materials as needed.

- Creating, or working with other SOA analysts to create, condensed, synthesized, or specific analyses (qualitative and quantitative) of program data in response to audit-specific questions.

- Discussing preliminary audit findings and summaries with auditors and program staff to clarify the agencys positions, resolve misunderstandings about data, and promote collaborative practice between auditors and the agency.

- Assisting in the preparation of agency responses to audit reports; collaborating with program staff to produce responses that diplomatically reflect the agencys degree of concurrence with audit findings, and that describe acceptable, feasible, and relevant commitments related to audit recommendations.

- Leading and coordinating processes to streamline program audit work, including (but not limited to):

- Creating materials to simplify and automate periodic audit and oversight requirements (including NYC Directive 1 and HUD Single Audit); orienting program staff regularly to the use of these materials and incorporating staff feedback to refine them.

- Fostering relationships between audits with key audit representatives from City, State, and Federal funding / oversight entities to ensure their ongoing satisfaction with program operations and promote audit efficiency.

- Advising staff on the implementation of commitments to audit recommendations and/or addressing and help alleviate roadblocks to implementation.

Preferred skills

The ideal candidate will be inquisitive and solution-oriented, with the following skills:

- Ability to thoughtfully investigate agency processes, draw conclusions, and develop responsive plans.

- Ability to manage multiple time-sensitive, complex projects related to business operations, ideally in a public or nonprofit agency, and to coordinate with various parties to help complete them.

- Strong communication skills, specifically: the ability to describe findings and issues to various audiences, compellingly and persuasively, in email, memos, and presentations, as well as one-to-one in-person.

- Ability to analyze datasets using Excel, and to draw conclusions from investigation of data.

- Interest in improving government practice and in devising solutions that support the advancement of affordable housing efforts through examination and strengthening of internal controls.

Please note: Only candidates in a permanent Admin Management Auditor or comparable civil service title will be considered.

Qualifications

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college including or supplemented by 24 credits in accounting, including one course each in advanced accounting, auditing and cost accounting and five years of full-time experience in management auditing, EDP auditing, financial accounting and/or financial auditing, at least 18 months of which must have been in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity or in the supervision of several teams of auditors; or

2. A valid Certified Public Accountant License or a certificate as a Certified Internal Auditor and four years of full-time experience as indicated in "1" above, at least 18 months of which must have been in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity or in the supervision of several teams of auditors.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.