Specialities · Audit
Audit, controls and compliance recruitment for financial and professional services and GCCs
From internal and IT audit to forensic audit, internal controls, SOX and compliance, we help insurers, banks, consultancies, capability centres and the major professional services firms hire the assurance professionals who keep organisations well governed. We work across India and the Middle East, where governance reform continues to drive demand.
What audit and compliance roles does EliteRecruitments recruit for?
EliteRecruitments recruits across internal audit, external audit and audit support, IT audit, forensic audit, internal controls and SOX, and compliance and financial crime. It serves insurers, banks, consultancies including the major professional services firms, and corporates, across India and the Middle East. Roles span from auditor and senior auditor to audit manager, head of internal audit and chief audit executive, and equivalent compliance roles.
Since 2014
recruiting across audit and risk
80%
screening ratio, candidates we submit get interviewed
85%
joining ratio, offers that become joiners
India and ME
the two markets we are growing audit into
Our audit depth
Where a well run organisation proves it is well run
Internal audit, controls and compliance are the second and third lines of defence, and the people who staff them need a rare mix of technical rigour, independence and the judgement to know what actually matters. They are not easy to find, and the strongest ones are rarely on the open market.
Audit has also changed in what it is for. The best audit functions no longer just test controls and report issues after the fact. They help boards understand risk, challenge assumptions and strengthen governance, which is why employers increasingly want auditors who can influence the business, not only document it. Boards do not buy audit for its own sake. They buy the governance and assurance it provides, and they hire the people who can deliver that.
We have recruited in audit and risk since the firm’s early years, placing professionals across internal audit, IT and application audit, SOX compliance, enterprise and technology risk, and the controls functions around them. A growing number of audit functions now want data and analytics capability inside the team, which is one reason our audit and analytics practices increasingly work together.
The audit and compliance roles we recruit
Audit is not one job
It spans the people who test controls from the inside, the external auditors who give independent assurance, the technologists who audit systems and cyber risk, the investigators who follow fraud, and the compliance professionals who keep the firm on the right side of its regulators.
Internal audit
Internal auditors, senior auditors, audit managers, heads of internal audit and chief audit executives, across operational, financial and risk based internal audit. The second and third line of defence roles boards and audit committees now watch closely.
External audit and audit support
External and statutory audit professionals and audit support staff, including assurance teams within the major professional services firms, from associate through senior manager. In India, statutory sign off is reserved for ICAI members with a Certificate of Practice, so much of this hiring is for the engagement teams delivering IFRS, group reporting and assurance work.
IT audit and technology risk
IT auditors, IT audit managers and technology risk specialists, a long undersupplied area where the growth of cyber and information risk has sharply increased demand. These professionals bridge the technical, financial and business domains, and are among the hardest audit hires to make well.
Internal controls and SOX
Internal controls specialists, SOX and ICFR professionals, and controls transformation roles. We recruit for new SOX and controls readiness teams as well as established controls functions, including the financial governance work between finance and audit.
Forensic audit and fraud
Forensic auditors and fraud, investigation and integrity specialists, the people who follow the money when something has gone wrong. Increasingly important across financial services and corporates, and a genuine specialism within our audit practice.
Compliance and financial crime
Compliance officers and managers, regulatory compliance specialists, and financial crime, anti money laundering, anti bribery and sanctions professionals, from analyst through to head of compliance, especially in regulated financial services.
Relevant certifications we see across these roles include CIA, CISA, CPA, CA, ACCA and CFE. Enterprise, quantitative, market and credit risk sit on our Risk and Financial Advisory page.
Middle East and India
A fast growing audit and governance market
The Middle East has become one of the strongest markets in the world for audit, controls and compliance hiring, and the reason is regulatory. In Saudi Arabia, corporate governance reform under Vision 2030 has made internal audit a requirement: reported regulatory changes that took effect in January 2024 now oblige listed companies to maintain an internal audit unit, an internal audit plan and internal audit reporting, with audit committees and risk and compliance functions to match. In the UAE, listed companies face their own audit committee and governance requirements, and the wider region’s IPO activity and diversification are driving demand across banking, insurance and corporates.
Building whole functions, not filling vacancies
Many organisations in the region are building entirely new internal audit, governance, controls and compliance functions for the first time, which creates demand across whole teams rather than single vacancies. We help meet it through our existing presence in the UAE and the strong India to Middle East talent corridor, connecting experienced Indian and regional professionals with employers across the Gulf. In India, audit hiring continues to grow across the professional services firms, the banks and insurers, and the global capability centres running internal audit centres of excellence and controls testing from India.
Who we serve
Who we build audit, controls and compliance teams for
Insurance and reinsurance
Internal audit, controls, governance and regulatory compliance for complex operating environments.
Insurance industryBanking and financial services
Internal audit, financial crime, technology audit, SOX and compliance teams.
Banking industryThe major professional services firms
Audit, assurance, controls and advisory teams across IFRS, group reporting and assurance support.
Consulting industryGlobal capability centres
Internal audit, governance, compliance operations and controls testing run from India.
Global Capability CentresWhy our placements hold
Independence and judgement, not just certifications
Audit and compliance hiring has a particular trap. A candidate can hold the right certifications and have audited the right things, and still lack the independence, judgement and communication that the role actually demands. An auditor who cannot challenge a senior stakeholder, or a compliance officer who cannot translate a regulation into a practical control, looks fine on paper and fails in the role. Our process is built to test for exactly those qualities before any profile reaches you.
That discipline is why our placements last. We screen at an 80 per cent rate and our candidates join at an 85 per cent rate, and since 2014 we have had to return fewer than fifteen fees because a placement left early. For audit and compliance roles, where independence and trust are the whole point, that reliability matters more than usual. See how we work →
Your specialist
Led by a founder who knows this work first hand
Founder
Shagun Gupta
Founder, oversees all four core practices
EliteRecruitments was built by Shagun Gupta, who founded the firm out of actuarial and has recruited across actuarial, risk, analytics and audit, the four disciplines at the centre of the business. She stays close to the actual work rather than managing it from a distance, and presides over all four practices while staying closest to the senior and most complex searches.
Practice lead
Mansi Mittal
Leads the audit and compliance practice, under Shagun
Mansi Mittal leads our audit and compliance practice. She joined EliteRecruitments in 2022 and brings a strong banking and BFSI background to audit and risk hiring, recruiting across internal audit, IT audit, controls, forensic audit and compliance. Her strength is aligning a candidate’s experience and aspirations with what a client’s assurance function genuinely needs, and reading the fit that makes a placement last.
She and her team work directly with hiring managers and audit committees, so when you talk to us about an audit or compliance role, you are talking to someone who understands assurance work and the market for it.
Proof
When we place, they tend to stay
Fewer than fifteen fees returned since 2014. Representative mandates, shown as role, sector and location, without names, counts or salaries:
Head of Internal Audit
IT Audit Manager
SOX and Controls Lead
Compliance Manager
Illustrative of the role types we recruit. Specific anonymised placements to be confirmed before publishing.
Shagun has always been a delight to work with. She understands the requirement of the role well and suggests candidates accordingly. She is very professional in her approach and I have been able to hire good candidates through her firm.
Success story
Challenge. A global insurer was building an internal audit function in its India capability centre and needed auditors who understood both financial services risk and the technology environment they were auditing.
Approach. We mapped the audit talent pool, assessed genuine risk based audit capability rather than checklist experience, and matched candidates who could operate independently from day one.
Outcome. The core audit team was hired, and the function has since expanded under the same senior hires.
Illustrative format. To be replaced with a real anonymised audit placement before publishing.
IT audit talent for a new technology risk function, closed at speed ahead of a regulatory deadline.
SOX and controls specialists placed for a bank’s India centre, all with genuine financial services backgrounds.
More examples are on our Success Stories page.
Related intelligence
Insights from the audit, controls and compliance practice
Middle East
Why the Middle East is hiring auditors
How governance reform in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is driving demand for internal audit, controls and compliance talent.
Read the articleIT audit
IT audit and the rise of technology risk
Why IT auditors are in short supply, and what that means for hiring.
Read the articleMethod
How specialist recruitment actually works
Why the strongest assurance professionals are rarely on the job boards, and how specialist sourcing reaches them.
Read the articleView
Why AI cannot replace recruitment agencies
What human judgement adds in roles where independence and trust are the whole point.
Read the articleHow to work with us
Capability build first, with a 90 day guarantee
Capability build recruitment comes first for a reason: when you are standing up a new audit, controls or compliance function, which is exactly what many firms in the Middle East and the capability centres are doing now under new governance rules, we help you hire the whole team rather than one role at a time. Alongside it we offer retained search for senior hires such as heads of audit and chief audit executives, contingency for active roles, and recruitment process outsourcing where you are hiring at volume.
Whichever way we work, our placements come with a 90 day guarantee. If a placement does not work out within 90 days, we replace them. Since 2014 we have had to return fewer than fifteen fees, because our process is built so the guarantee rarely needs to be used. Explore Capability Build Recruitment →
One connected ecosystem
Audit rarely sits on its own
The same firms strengthening internal audit are usually building their risk and financial advisory functions, hiring the analytics and data professionals whose work increasingly underpins audit, and, in insurance, relying on the actuaries whose models the audit and controls teams test. These functions are one connected assurance and control ecosystem, and we recruit across all of them.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What audit and compliance roles does EliteRecruitments recruit for?
Does EliteRecruitments recruit audit talent in the Middle East?
Do you recruit IT audit and technology risk roles?
Do you recruit compliance and financial crime professionals?
Do you recruit for GCC audit teams?
How does EliteRecruitments assess audit and compliance candidates?
Do candidates pay any fees?
Start a conversation
Talk to us about audit and compliance hiring
Whether you are building an audit, controls or compliance function under new governance rules, hiring a hard to find IT auditor or head of audit, or weighing your own next move in assurance, we would like to help.
Thank you, we will be in touch shortly.
Your note goes to Mansi and Shagun directly.