Lead Associate, Quality Controls and Internal Audits

Lead Associate, Quality Controls and Internal Audits

The Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) is a growing, not-for-profit organization, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, serving the automotive collision repair industry globally. The organization was established by representatives of the collision repair, automotive, and insurance industries in 1979 and has doubled its revenue over the last six years. Today, the I-CAR brand is stronger than it has been in 40 years of operation and has gained a worldwide reputation. There is momentum and excitement among its committed workforce, instructors and volunteers to continue to help the organization grow and expand its breadth of reach and scale. I-CAR leadership believes that the future of the organization will be importantly influenced by its continuing innovation and relevance of its products, technical programs and services.

Job Summary: The Quality Controls & Internal Audits Lead Associate reports to the Senior Manager, Quality and is responsible for working cross-functionally to understand each department's operations and creating strong, effective, and auditable controls. Notably this includes controls designed to ensure I-CAR is aligned with the latest SOC 2 standard. The Lead Associate will perform internal audits to verify those controls are being met and continually monitor I-CAR's adherence to the controls & SOC 2 requirements. The Lead Associate will have significant responsibilities in helping departments understand non-conformances found during audits and providing assistance in performing root cause analysis and resolving corrective actions. The Lead Associate will work especially closely with the IT department. Therefore the Lead Associate needs a solid understanding of concepts regarding IT security & operation, and the ability to interpret how policies & SOPs are intended to align to SOC 2 requirements. The Lead Associate does not need to be a programmer but must understand how software systems work well enough to perform in-depth audits on IT systems with assistance from those systems' daily users. This is a compliance and audit role. This is not an IT, system administration, or programming role.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute internal audits and control tests based on I-CAR's policies, SOPs, key controls document, and the SOC 2 standard
• Function as a subject matter expert on SOC 2
• Ensure that all SOC 2-relevant policies are aligned with each other
• Spearhead collecting evidence to support SOC 2 Type 2 external audits/accreditations
• Continuously monitor and report on the effectiveness of I-CAR's controls over time
• Understand departmental objectives and risks to continually update key controls document and audit templates
• Identify non-conformances/control failures/process deficiencies and work with departments to resolve
• Facilitate root cause analysis of why non-conformances occur and ensure appropriate corrective actions are implemented
• Perform other duties as assigned by management

Key Competencies:

• Experience with SOC 2 standard
• Ability to understand how various software systems operate including: Salesforce Learning Management System, Jira IT ticketing systems, document management systems, Sharepoint
• Understand IT security concepts including access management, risk mitigation, incident protection, and data protection
• Capable of communicating audit results & non-conformances, assisting in root cause analysis, analyzing corrective action effectiveness, and understanding other departments' activities with limited direct manager oversight
• Experience designing new controls and using data to evaluate their effectiveness
• History of managing audit cycles and performing audits
• Able to operate as a key contributor to a cross-functional team
• Ability to organize evidence across multiple systems and collate it into a single audit
• Experience with helping other people learn how to create high quality policies and SOPs
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Ability to work effectively with a diverse population

Computer Equipment and Software Requirements:

• Excellent Microsoft Office Suite skills especially Excel including usage of complex formulas
• Solid theoretical or practical understanding of relational databases

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) including risk assessment methodologies
• Creating complex reports in Salesforce
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills including using Power Query
• Experience in performing audits and working with other QMS features
• Experience with resolving non-conformances through 8D methodology
• Experience leading cross-functional teams for small-to-medium sized projects such as those resulting from corrective action implementation
• Experience gaining & maintaining external accreditations (especially IACET, SOC 2, or ISO 9001)
• Experience with statistics or Six Sigma

Experience and Training:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (preferred) or Bachelor's Degree in related field or equivalent work experience required.
• Experience with quality auditing processes and quality management systems
• 4-7 years of relevant experience internal or external audit experience or other quality or technical role required.
• Experience with I-CAR training programs is preferred
• Experience with automotive industry and/or collision repair techniques a benefit but NOT required
• Experience with ISO 9001 or similar quality management system standards is a benefit.

EEO Statement: I-CAR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state or local law, where applicable. Those with criminal histories will be considered in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws.