External Audit Expert Analyst, Gartner - Remote US

Title: External Audit Expert Analyst, Gartner

About The Function

Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who use exceptional research and analytical skills to create frame-breaking insights, market predictions and smart how-to guidance for a broad range of world-leading organizations. They are a trusted source of advice for clients, reinforcing Gartner’s value every day via consultative virtual and in-person meetings, sales support interactions and Gartner conferences to discuss complex client challenges and recommended actions.

About the Role: 

We’re looking for a forward-thinking External Audit Expert to join the Gartner Finance Practice at the Senior Principal level.

As an External Audit Expert you will regularly meet with Finance leaders including CFOs and Corporate Controllers, along with their peers and teams, to advise on external audit-related challenges and questions. If you’ve spent a good part of your career directly providing external audit services to clients (e.g., CPA backgrounds and Big 4 experience a plus) or supporting external audit work from within a finance department, and if you’re interested in advising others to generate the most value from their external audit activities, then this expert role is for you.

 The successful candidate should be comfortable discussing and researching topics including:

• Typical external audit project scope, cost drivers and workflows
• The current state, direction and trends within the external audit services market
• The impact of recent regulatory and disclosure changes on finance teams
• The evolving role of technology (including automation and AI/ML) in delivering audit work
• The relationship among finance, audit, risk management and other functions within a business

Additional career exposure to other corporate finance priorities and processes, including overall function transformation; planning, budgeting, and forecasting; the record-to-report process; technology strategy, selection and deployment; and business partnership beyond the Finance function (e.g., CIO, CDO, CDAO) will also be valuable.

What you’ll do / Key Responsibilities:

• Create unique, defensible and consumable “must-have research” content that directly addresses the external audit priorities and opportunities of finance leadership teams.
• Serve as a leading authority on external audit topics, such as: audit services market developments, cross-industry audit fees and benchmark data, differentiation drivers across various audit service models, offerings and providers, corporate financial and risk management strategies, and changing financial and non-financial disclosure requirements.
• Stay abreast of broader research perspectives and trends in the external audit space to act as an internal advisor on how external audit developments are impacting the finance function.
• Provide current and prospective clients …