Lead – Internal Audit (Offsite / Continuous Controls Monitoring)

HDFC Bank Limited; Maharashtra; Remote; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

HDFC Bank Limited in Maharashtra seeks a Zonal Head – Internal Audit to lead mystery shopping and service quality assurance across channels, ensuring customer protection and regulatory compliance.

You will design reviews, steer teams, analyse insights, and collaborate with Compliance, Risk and Ops to strengthen control effectiveness and customer-centric governance across branches and digital touchpoints.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of experience in Internal Audit, Risk Management, Analytics, Compliance, Fraud Risk Management, Financial Controls, or related assurance functions within a bank or financial institution.
• Minimum 3–5 years of experience leading audit engagements, monitoring teams, analytics functions, or risk reviews.
• Strong exposure to data analytics, continuous monitoring, exception management, risk assessment, or audit automation.
• Experience in thematic reviews and stakeholder management preferred.

Responsibilities

• Mystery Shopping Programme Management: Develop and manage the Bank's mystery shopping framework and annual review plan.
• Execution & Quality Assurance: Lead mystery shopping reviews across customer journeys and assess adherence to processes and standards.
• Conduction & Compliance Risk Assessment: Identify mis-selling, incomplete disclosures, and regulatory non-compliance; escalate significant concerns.
• Analytics, Reporting & Insights: Analyse outcomes, prepare dashboards and management summaries; present insights to audit leadership.
• Thematic Reviews & Stakeholder Management: Lead thematic reviews and engage with business, operations, and risk teams.

Skills

Mystery Shopping

Service Quality Reviews

Stakeholder Management

Analytics

Regulatory Compliance

Education

CA / MBA (Finance or Marketing) / CIA / CISA

Certifications in CX, Service Quality, Risk Management, Compliance

Job description

Job Name: Zonal Head – Internal Audit (Offsite / Continuous Controls Monitoring)

Job Title: Zonal Head – Internal Audit (Offsite / Continuous Controls Monitoring)

Business Unit: Internal Audit

Job Purpose:

To lead the Bank's Mystery Shopping and Service Quality Assurance programme by independently assessing customer experience, sales practices, service standards, process adherence, regulatory compliance, employee conduct, and customer protection controls across physical, digital, telephonic, and assisted channels.

The role is responsible for designing and executing mystery shopping reviews, identifying service and conduct risks, evaluating customer experience outcomes, and providing actionable insights to strengthen customer-centricity, regulatory compliance, and control effectiveness across the Bank.

Job Responsibilities

Actionable

Mystery Shopping Programme Management

• Develop and manage the Bank's mystery shopping framework and annual review plan.
• Identify high-risk customer journeys, products, channels, and processes for coverage.
• Establish review methodologies, assessment parameters, scoring criteria, and reporting standards.
• Ensure adequate coverage across branches, contact centres, digital channels, and servicing units.

Execution & Quality Assurance

• Lead mystery shopping reviews across customer acquisition, onboarding, servicing, complaint handling, and product fulfilment journeys.
• Assess adherence to approved processes, service standards, regulatory requirements, and customer protection principles.
• Evaluate quality of customer interactions, disclosures, product suitability assessment, and conduct standards.
• Review evidence, findings, scores, and observations generated by team members or external agencies.

Conduct & Compliance Risk Assessment

• Identify instances of mis-selling, unsuitable product positioning, incomplete disclosures, unfair customer treatment, process deviations, and regulatory non-compliance.
• Assess customer conduct risks and behavioural trends.
• Escalate significant concerns requiring management intervention.
• Support root-cause analysis of recurring service and conduct issues.

Analytics, Reporting & Insights

• Analyse mystery shopping outcomes, trends, recurring gaps, and risk indicators.
• Prepare dashboards, scorecards, thematic reports, and management summaries.
• Present insights and recommendations to audit leadership and stakeholders.

Thematic Reviews

• Lead thematic reviews arising from mystery shopping findings.
• Assess recurring service deficiencies, conduct concerns, customer-impact themes, and process weaknesses.
• Identify systemic issues across products, channels, branches, and geographies.
• Recommend sustainable corrective actions.

Stakeholder Management

• Engage with Business, Operations, Customer Experience, Compliance, Risk Management, Quality Assurance, and Training teams.
• Discuss findings and challenge management responses where required.
• Support tracking of remediation actions arising from reviews.
• Participate in governance discussions relating to customer experience and conduct risk.
• Lead and develop mystery shopping analysts and reviewers.
• Ensure consistency, objectivity, and quality of reviews.
• Drive capability building in customer experience assessment, conduct risk identification, and review methodologies.
• Ensure adherence to Internal Audit standards and quality expectations.

Educational Qualifications

Key Skills

CA / MBA (Finance or Marketing) / CIA / CISA or equivalent professional qualification

Preferred:

Certifications in Customer Experience, Service Quality, Risk Management, Compliance, Audit, or Banking Operations.

Technical Skills

• Mystery Shopping & Service Quality Reviews
• Customer Conduct & Regulatory Compliance
• Data Analytics & Trend Analysis

Behavioral Skills

• Stakeholder Management
• Analytical Thinking

Experience Required:

• 8–10 years of experience in Internal Audit, Risk Management, Analytics, Compliance, Fraud Risk Management, Financial Controls, or related assurance functions within a bank or financial institution.
• Minimum 3–5 years of experience leading audit engagements, monitoring teams, analytics functions, or risk reviews.
• Strong exposure to data analytics, continuous monitoring, exception management, risk assessment, or audit automation.
• Experience in thematic reviews and stakeholder management preferred.

Key Performance Indicators

• Timely execution of approved mystery shopping plan.
• Quality and impact of observations and recommendations.
• Identification of material customer conduct and service quality risks.
• Effectiveness of thematic reviews and actionable insights generated.
• Sustainability of corrective actions arising from reviews.
• Team capability development and quality of review outcomes.