Data Analyst/IT Auditor (Internal Audit)

Help shape the future of assurance at a time of significant organisational transformation, regulatory change and increased public scrutiny. As part of the Internal Audit, Assurance and Controls team, you’ll help provide the credible, effective assurance the Board and Executive need. With recent investment in dedicated data analytics resources, you’ll join a team focused on embedding analytics to deliver richer insights and make assurance work more efficient and effective.

Working alongside the Data Analytics Manager, you’ll help put data and technology at the heart of a progressive, data-driven Assurance, Audit, and Controls function. You’ll explore structured and unstructured information using advanced analytical techniques, visual storytelling, automation and artificial intelligence. Partnering with assurance colleagues, you’ll help develop analytical tests, investigate exceptions and explain what the results do—and don’t—demonstrate. You’ll also help colleagues make effective use of data and approved technology through reusable tests, practical guidance and hands-on support. 

What you will be doing as Data Analyst / IT Auditor (Internal Audit)
Supporting Internal Audit and Assurance team members

• Work across the Internal Audit, Assurance and Control team in a collaborative way to transform risk-based assurance hypotheses into practical analytical tests

Lead specific data-focussed audit & assurance engagements

• Plan and deliver assigned data-driven engagements in accordance with the Assurance, Audit and Controls methodology

Data access and understanding

• Build effective working relationships with data owners, digital and system teams, and subject matter experts to obtain data through agreed governance routes
• Understand how the data is created and used, handle it securely, and document its source, context and limitations.

Data Analytics and AI strategy delivery

• Deliver agreed actions from the function's Data Analytics and AI strategy. Trialling and embedding new use cases, supporting their rollout across the teams in line with agreed guidance, and tracking actual adoption and benefits.
• Build and maintain documented, version-controlled analytical tests, templates and prompts that colleagues can review and reuse, developing selected tests into recurring analytics where justified

Analytics standards and reusable assets

• Applying the function’s approved Data Analytics and AI methodology, standards and controls consistently.
• Building and maintaining a library of reusable analytical tests, templates and prompts, with sufficient documentation and version control to support review, repetition and reuse. 
• Where justified by business need, value and available data, developing selected tests into recurring or scheduled analytics that support continuous assurance, auditing or monitoring.

Location: Hybrid, Clearwater Court, Reading

What you should bring to the role
Essential skills and experience

• Experience using data to test a process or control, investigate exceptions, and distinguish a genuine issue from a data-quality problem or an item needing further validation, preferably obtained within a second or third line role.
• Excellent communication skills and experience of explaining technical data principles and analytical results to non-technical stakeholders, in writing and in meetings. 
• Experience of documenting analysis so that the source data, transformations, analytical logic and results provide a clear evidence trail and can be independently reviewed and reproduced by another colleague.
• Experience of helping colleagues use data and analytical tools appropriately and with greater confidence, through formal or informal coaching, practical guidance or knowledge sharing.
• Experience of planning and prioritising analytical work across multiple concurrent activities, managing dependencies and communicating risks to agreed delivery timescales.
• Data literacy, strong: understanding of the end-to-end data analysis lifecycle, including defining data requirements, identifying appropriate data sources, preparing and analysing data, interpreting and validating results, and communicating conclusions and limitations appropriately.
• SQL, proficient: writing queries to extract, join, filter, and summarise data from databases, or data platforms.
• Excel, proficient: use for analysis and reconciliation including Power Query, lookups, pivot tables, and conditional logic.
• Power BI, proficient: maintaining and developing reports and models.
• Microsoft 365 suite, proficient: confident in everyday use of Teams for collaboration. Forms for gathering information and making data requests, and Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook for reporting and communicating results.

Desirable skills and experience 

• Regulated environments and regulatory reporting: experience working in a regulated utility or other regulated business, particularly working with data reported to a regulator or board.
• Experience of obtaining datasets from ERP platforms, business software systems, and data storage, understanding how the data is created and used, and assessing its completeness, quality and suitability before relying on it for analysis.
• Databricks, working knowledge: finding and understanding data through Unity Catalog and querying data using SQL and/or Python notebooks.
• Python, working knowledge: data analysis using libraries such as pandas, particularly within Databricks notebooks.
• SAP, working knowledge: SAP ECC and common modules.
• Power Automate and Power Apps, working knowledge
• Microsoft 365 Copilot, working knowledge

Experience in every desirable technology is not required. Equivalent tools, transferable analytical experience and the ability to learn new platforms will also be considered.

What’s in it for you? 
Make your mark in a brand-new role where you can drive positive change in a mission-driven environment. You’ll work alongside a collaborative team, build strong relationships and expand your knowledge as you develop your career.

• Competitive salary of  £46,400 - £65,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus bank holidays) 
• Performance-related pay is directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Personal Medical Assessments – Open to all once a year
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of your and your family’s health and well-being, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job, and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values.

Working at Thames Water
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and