Sr. Technical Program Manager, Data & Audit Readiness

Favia; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Payward is seeking an experienced program manager to join the Data & Audit Readiness team. You will serve as the coordination layer between the Data team and internal Audit, Risk, Security, Finance, Compliance, and external auditors.

You will own inventories, playbooks, catalogs, and access processes that keep the Data team's systems audit ready, translating audit engagements into coordinated, well-documented responses. This role reports to the Director, Regulatory Analytics & Reporting.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of program or project management, audit coordination, or data governance in regulated environments.
• Experience with SOC, SOX, IT general controls or regulatory audit frameworks.
• Coordinating audit engagements or liaising with Internal Audit, Risk, Compliance, or external auditors.
• Strong organizational skills with inventories, playbooks, or documentation for recurring processes.
• Familiarity with data cataloging, tagging, or governance practices for audit readiness.
• Understanding of data access management and fit-for-purpose access evaluation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication to satisfy technical and auditing stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Act as the program management layer for the Data team during audits, interfacing with audit and risk functions.
• Own audit readiness as a continuous, always-on practice with inventories, playbooks, and catalogs.
• Create and manage an inventory of audit tests, requested items, and response playbooks.
• Maintain a catalog of data sources in scope with readiness status and improvement areas.
• Align with Finance, Security, and Compliance to provide coordination during audits.
• Implement tagging and governance to identify datasets considered audit ready.
• Manage the auditor data access role to ensure access is fit for purpose.

Skills

Program management

Audit coordination

Data governance

Cross-functional coordination

Documentation

Data cataloging

Data access management

Communication skills

Tools

AuditBoard

Jira

Workiva

Job description

The Team

Payward's Data team builds and operates the data infrastructure, pipelines, and analytics platforms that power decision-making, reporting, and controls across the business. The team partners closely with functions across the company, including Risk & Audit, IT, Finance, and Engineering, to make sure the data those functions depend on is reliable, well-governed, and ready to stand up to scrutiny.

This role sits within the Data & Audit Readiness team and is dedicated to acting as the program management and coordination layer between the Data team and internal Audit, Risk, Security, Finance, Compliance, and external auditors. You will own the inventories, playbooks, catalogs, and access processes that keep the Data team's systems and datasets audit ready, translating audit engagements directly into coordinated, well-documented responses. This is a hands‑on coordination role where you will build the inventories, playbooks, and governance processes that let the Data team turn audit requests into a repeatable, provable state of readiness.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports, sitting under the Director, Regulatory Analytics & Reporting.

The opportunity

• Act as the program management layer for the Data team during audits, interfacing with internal Audit coordination teams (Risk and Security), Finance, Compliance, and external auditors.

• Own audit readiness as a continuous, always-on practice. Proactively maintaining inventories, playbooks, and catalogs between audits, not only once one is actively underway.

• Create and manage an inventory of audit tests, expected requests, and response playbooks for Data team–owned systems and processes.

• Maintain a catalog of data sources in scope for audit, including known issues, readiness status, and areas for improvement, supported by ongoing testing including mock testing and identification of areas requiring reengineering.

• Align closely with business stakeholders such as Finance, Security, and Compliance to provide guidance and coordination support during audit activities.

• Implement tagging and governance processes, in collaboration with Data Governance, to identify endorsed datasets and tables considered "audit ready."

• Manage the auditor data access role to ensure access is fit for purpose.

What you bring

• 7+ years of experience in program or project management, audit coordination, or data governance, ideally within a regulated or heavily audited environment in financial services.

• Experience with SOC, SOX, IT general controls, or other regulatory audit frameworks.

• Experience coordinating audit engagements or acting as a liaison between technical teams and Internal Audit, Risk, Compliance, or external auditors.

• Strong organizational skills, with experience building and maintaining inventories, playbooks, or documentation for recurring cross-functional processes.

• Familiarity with data cataloging, tagging, or governance practices, and how they support audit readiness and control certification.

• Understanding of data access management principles and the ability to evaluate whether access is fit for purpose.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce documentation that satisfies both technical stakeholders and auditors.

Nice to haves

• Familiarity with audit management platforms (e.g., AuditBoard, Jira, Workiva).

• Knowledge of automated control design and control automation.

• Prior experience building or scaling a SOC, SOX or a control system in a hyper-growth or first-year SOX company.

• PMP, CAPM, or similar program/project management certification.

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Our commitment

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.