Senior Director - Internal Controls

What ICON can offer you:
Our success depends on the quality of our people. That's why we've made it a priority to build a diverse culture that rewards high performance and nurtures talent.

In addition to your competitive salary, ICON offers a range of additional benefits. Our benefits are designed to be competitive within each country and are focused on well-being and work life balance opportunities for you and your family.

Our benefits examples include

• Various annual leave entitlements
• A range of health insurance offerings to suit you and your family's needs.
• Competitive retirement planning offerings to maximize savings and plan with confidence for the years ahead.
• Global Employee Assistance Programme, LifeWorks, offering 24-hour access to a global network of over 80,000 independent specialized professionals who are there to support you and your family's well-being.
• Life assurance
• Flexible country-specific optional benefits, including childcare vouchers, bike purchase schemes, discounted gym memberships, subsidized travel passes, health assessments, among others.

Visit our careers site to read more about the benefits ICON offers.

Senior Director - Internal Controls - Dublin - Hybrid

ICON is a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation united by a mission to bring new medicines and treatments to patients faster.

As a values-driven organisation, integrity, collaboration, agility, and inclusion are at the heart of how we work and interact with each other, customers, patients and suppliers.

The Senior Director, Internal Controls provides enterprise leadership for the design, implementation, monitoring and continuous improvement of the internal control framework over financial reporting. The role supports management in maintaining a robust, sustainable and well-governed control environment aligned with SOX and the COSO Internal Control - Integrated Framework.

The role leads the second-line internal controls and SOX compliance programme, working closely with Finance leadership, process and control owners, Internal Audit, external audit and other assurance providers. The Senior Director promotes clear accountability, timely escalation and disciplined remediation while helping embed effective controls into day-to-day business processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the enterprise internal controls and SOX compliance programme, including governance, risk assessment, scoping, planning, execution, monitoring and reporting.
• Develop and maintain a clear internal controls framework, methodology, policies, standards and guidance aligned with SOX and COSO requirements.
• Oversee the design and transformation of the second-line SOX testing model, including roles, responsibilities, governance and quality expectations.
• Coordinate annual and quarterly control certification activities and support management's assessment of internal control over financial reporting.
• Provide oversight and challenge of control design, implementation and operating effectiveness across key financial and technology processes.
• Drive consistent documentation standards for process narratives, process flow diagrams risk and control matrices, walkthroughs, design assessments, operating effectiveness testing and test plans, evidence and conclusions.
• Establish clear reporting and escalation processes for deficiencies, remediation actions, risks and recurring themes.
• Partner with control owners to strengthen controls and integrate control execution into normal business processes.
• Work closely with internal audit and the external auditor to facilitate an effective and efficient SOX integrated audit.
• Promote technology driven and innovative approaches to delivering the internal controls mandate.
• Promote a strong culture of accountability, transparency and ownership for internal control responsibilities.

SOX Programme Leadership

• Lead the SOX risk assessment, materiality and scoping process in coordination with Finance leadership, Internal Audit and external audit.
• Maintain the master inventory of in-scope processes, risks, controls, systems, reports and control owners.
• Oversee walkthroughs, testing of design and operating effectiveness, quality review and timely resolution of testing matters.
• Ensure appropriate treatment of information produced by the entity, information used in controls, segregation of duties and key report dependencies.
• Monitor programme milestones, resourcing, testing progress, open issues and readiness for quarterly and annual reporting.
• Coordinate with IT control stakeholders to ensure appropriate alignment between business process controls, IT general controls and automated controls.

Deficiency Evaluation & Remediation

• Lead the timely identification, evaluation, aggregation and communication of internal control deficiencies.
• Establish disciplined remediation governance, including clear ownership, milestones, evidence requirements, validation and closure criteria.
• Provide constructive challenge where remediation is delayed, insufficiently evidenced or does not address the underlying control risk.
• Support root cause analysis and the development of sustainable corrective actions that reduce the risk of recurrence.
• Prepare clear, decision-useful reporting for senior management and relevant governance forums.

Stakeholder Management & Governance

• Build effective relationships with Finance, Technology, Legal, Risk, Internal Audit, external audit and other assurance functions.
• Clarify responsibilities across the first, second and third lines and support effective coordination between assurance providers.
• Advise senior leaders and control owners on control design, risk mitigation and practical implementation matters.
• Support Audit Committee and executive-level reporting through concise analysis of programme status, deficiencies, remediation and emerging risks.
• Act as a credible and independent-minded adviser while remaining pragmatic and solutions focused.

Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, coach and develop the internal controls and SOX compliance team.
• Define team roles, responsibilities and performance expectations and ensure the programme has appropriate capability and capacity.
• Develop training and practical guidance for leaders, control owners, performers and reviewers.
• Promote standardisation, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement across the control community.
• Use technology, workflow tools and data analytics to improve programme efficiency, visibility and insight.