Internal Auditor – Data Analytics

About the role

The University of the Free State seeks an Internal Auditor with strong data‑analytics capabilities to support risk‑based audit planning and continuous auditing across the institution. The role combines traditional internal audit duties with advanced analytics to enhance governance, risk management and control effectiveness.

Key responsibilities

• Plan and conduct risk‑based internal audit engagements, developing objectives, scopes, programmes and testing procedures.
• Perform operational, financial, compliance and performance audits and prepare comprehensive working papers and reports.
• Extract, validate, analyse and interpret institutional data to support audit analytics, continuous auditing and risk‑based planning.
• Develop and apply audit analytics, dashboards, automated tests, trend analysis and anomaly detection using tools such as Power BI, ACL, IDEA, SQL and Excel.
• Assess strategic, operational, financial, compliance and technology risks, identifying control gaps and emerging fraud indicators.
• Present audit findings, recommendations and data‑driven insights to management and contribute to stakeholder engagement and committee reporting.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of the Internal Audit function through enhanced methodologies, automation and emerging technologies.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree or Advanced Diploma (NQF Level 7) in Internal Auditing, Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Data Analytics or a related field.
• Minimum two (2) years of relevant experience in internal auditing, audit analytics or a related assurance environment.
• Experience applying data analytics to audit or assurance engagements and working with ERP systems, databases or business information systems.

Required skills

• Proficiency with Power BI, ACL, IDEA, SQL and advanced Excel for data analysis and audit automation.
• Experience using ERP systems and business information systems for data extraction and testing.
• Strong competency in MS Office applications.

What we offer

• Pension scheme and medical aid scheme.
• Group life insurance, housing allowance and leave entitlements.
• Service bonus and study benefits.