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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Auditor

💰 $70,000 - $120,000

AuditInformation SecurityComplianceRisk Management

🎯 Role Definition

An IT Auditor independently plans, performs, and reports on IT and technology-related assurance engagements across infrastructure, applications, cloud, and third‑party environments. The role verifies the design and operating effectiveness of IT general controls (ITGC), application controls, identity and access management (IAM), change management, backup/recovery, and cybersecurity controls. IT Auditors translate technical findings into business risk exposure, collaborate with cross‑functional teams to drive remediations, and support compliance programs (SOX, PCI‑DSS, ISO 27001, GDPR). Strong analytical thinking, control testing methodology, and stakeholder management are required to influence leadership and improve the control environment.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior IT Auditor / Internal Auditor (IT-focused)
  • IT Security Analyst or SOC Analyst
  • Systems Administrator or IT Support with audit exposure

Advancement To:

  • Senior IT Auditor
  • IT Audit Manager / Lead Auditor
  • Director of IT Audit / Head of IT Risk
  • Chief Audit Executive / Head of Risk & Compliance

Lateral Moves:

  • IT Risk & Compliance Analyst
  • Information Security Consultant
  • GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Plan, scope and lead end‑to‑end IT audit engagements including risk assessment, control identification, tests of design and operating effectiveness, evidence collection and audit documentation in line with professional standards and enterprise audit methodology.
  • Design and execute IT general controls (ITGC) testing over identity and access management, privileged accounts, user access provisioning and deprovisioning, segregation of duties, and access reviews to ensure appropriate authorization and least privilege.
  • Assess application controls and business process system controls (e.g., order to cash, procure to pay, payroll) by developing test scripts, performing substantive testing, reconciling data and validating control completeness and accuracy.
  • Perform technical and operational cybersecurity audits including vulnerability assessment review, patch management processes, endpoint protection, network segmentation and intrusion detection system controls to evaluate cyber risk posture.
  • Evaluate cloud security controls for platforms such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) assessing identity and access management, encryption, logging, configuration management, and third‑party integrations.
  • Conduct SOX IT controls testing and remediation support, prepare SOX workpapers, and liaise with external auditors to ensure compliance with Sarbanes‑Oxley requirements and internal control frameworks.
  • Review change management and release processes, including change approvals, segregation of duties in promotions, testing evidence, rollback plans and emergency change workflows to mitigate production risk.
  • Audit backup, data retention, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity processes, validate recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO), and test DR execution results and remediation plans.
  • Perform vendor and third‑party risk assessments covering Service Organization Control (SOC) reports review, contract control requirements, vendor security posture and monitoring gaps that affect enterprise risk.
  • Execute configuration and hardening reviews of servers, databases, network devices and cloud resources against industry benchmarks and policies (CIS Benchmarks, vendor hardening guides).
  • Leverage data analytics, scripting (IDEA, Python, SQL) and automated audit testing tools to analyze large datasets for anomalies, duplicate transactions, segregation of duties violations, and control bypasses.
  • Prepare clear, business‑focused audit reports and executive summaries that quantify risk, prioritize findings, recommend pragmatic remediation actions and include management responses and target dates.
  • Facilitate remediation workshops with IT, application owners and business stakeholders to agree time‑bound action plans, define remediation testing criteria, and track closure of audit findings.
  • Monitor and report on control remediation progress, maintain audit issue tracking, perform follow‑up testing and update stakeholders and audit leadership on risk reduction progress and residual risk.
  • Assess logging, monitoring and SIEM configurations, review alerting processes and incident response playbooks to ensure timely detection, escalation and forensics readiness.
  • Conduct penetration testing coordination and results review with security teams and third‑party testers; validate remediation effectiveness for high and critical vulnerabilities.
  • Perform role‑based and privileged access reviews, recommend role redesign and compensating controls, and verify enforcement of privilege elevation controls and Just‑In‑Time access solutions.
  • Review and evaluate encryption, key management practices, certificate lifecycle management and secure transmission controls to protect data at rest and in transit.
  • Support compliance assessments for GDPR, HIPAA, PCI‑DSS and industry‑specific regulatory requirements by mapping controls to regulatory requirements and identifying gaps and remediation strategies.
  • Maintain current knowledge of emerging technologies (cloud native architectures, containers, serverless), cyber threats, industry standards (NIST, ISO 27001) and regulatory changes; adapt audit programs accordingly.
  • Provide mentoring and practical guidance to junior auditors, review workpapers for quality and consistency, and contribute to continuous improvement of audit methodologies and automation of audit workflows.
  • Collaborate with internal audit, legal, privacy and business continuity teams to integrate IT audit activities into enterprise risk management and corporate compliance initiatives.
  • Participate in enterprise risk assessments, provide input on control design for new projects, major implementations and M&A due diligence to embed risk controls early in projects.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad‑hoc IT risk reviews, compliance inquiries and management‑requested assurance projects.
  • Assist IT and security teams with pre‑implementation control reviews for major system upgrades, cloud migrations and SaaS procurement to reduce post‑go‑live control gaps.
  • Perform periodic configuration audits and spot checks of privileged accounts, firewall rules, and database security settings.
  • Provide input to policy and standard development for IT security, access management, change management and incident response.
  • Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by recommending automation, monitoring and control design changes to reduce manual controls and improve efficiency.
  • Participate in cross‑functional change review boards or security review committees as audit representative to provide independent risk perspectives.
  • Maintain audit tools, templates and analytics libraries; test and validate new audit tooling or data connectors before production use.
  • Deliver internal training sessions on common IT control deficiencies, audit readiness and remediation best practices to IT and business audiences.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • IT audit planning and execution: audit scoping, risk assessment, test design, sampling, evidence collection and audit reporting.
  • Familiarity with audit standards and frameworks: COSO, COBIT, NIST CSF, ISO 27001 and SOC reporting.
  • SOX IT controls testing experience, including control matrix maintenance and SOX workpaper preparation.
  • Cloud security assessment experience (AWS/Azure/GCP): IAM, security groups, encryption, logging and cloud configuration management.
  • Application controls testing and understanding of enterprise systems (SAP, Oracle, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics).
  • Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) controls testing.
  • Vulnerability and patch management assessment, including review of vulnerability scan results and remediation tracking.
  • Data analytics for audit: SQL, Excel advanced functions, familiarity with IDEA, ACL, Power Query or Python scripting for audit analytics.
  • Logging, monitoring and SIEM evaluation; incident response process and forensic readiness understanding.
  • Knowledge of encryption, key management, TLS/SSL, database security and secure coding fundamentals.
  • Vendor risk assessment and SOC 1/SOC 2 report review and interpretation.
  • Change management, release management and DevOps control understanding including CI/CD pipeline security considerations.
  • Experience with audit management and issue tracking tools (e.g., TeamMate, AuditBoard, Galvanize/HighBond, Jira).
  • Familiarity with regulatory requirements (PCI‑DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) and industry compliance mapping.
  • Basic penetration testing concepts and ability to interpret vulnerability/pen test results and remediation effectiveness.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to translate technical findings into business risk language for executives.
  • Critical thinking and analytical mindset with attention to detail and evidence‑based judgment.
  • Stakeholder management and influence: able to negotiate remediation timelines and drive closure with IT and business owners.
  • Project planning and time management to execute multiple audits and ad‑hoc requests concurrently.
  • Intellectual curiosity and continuous learning mindset to keep pace with emerging technologies and cyber threats.
  • Professional integrity, objectivity and discretion when handling sensitive control weaknesses and confidential information.
  • Coaching and team collaboration skills to mentor junior auditors and work effectively across cross‑functional teams.
  • Adaptability in fast‑changing environments, including mergers, cloud adoption and rapid digital transformation projects.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Information Security, Accounting, Finance, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Information Security, Cybersecurity, Accounting or MBA is a plus.
  • Professional certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CRISC, CIA or CPA preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Information Systems / Information Technology
  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Accounting / Finance
  • Cybersecurity / Information Assurance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7 years of progressive experience in IT audit, internal audit with IT focus, information security or risk and compliance roles.

Preferred: 3–5+ years of hands‑on IT audit experience including SOX testing, cloud security assessments, application controls testing, and experience working with external auditors. Candidates with CISA, CISSP or equivalent professional credentials and experience in enterprise environments (multi‑cloud, hybrid IT, ERP systems) are highly preferred.

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