[Hiring] Lead Specialist, Internal Audit, Controls, Compliance and Risk @Pearson

Role Description

Pearson Virtual Schools operates audited platforms that serve schools, teachers, and students, in which audit readiness and a defensible control environment are not optional. This role is the dedicated owner of audit response and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) for our platforms.

As Staff, Governance, Risk & Compliance, you own the response across the internal audit lifecycle, SOC 2 (Types 1 and 2), the risk register, and the business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) program. You set evidence and attestation standards across service owners, translate findings into tracked remediation, and partner with internal audit, cybersecurity, privacy, risk, and legal.

This is a senior individual contributor role. It sits independently of the operational security team; it assures that the team operates the controls, and you independently verify and attest to them. You also have a dotted-line relationship to the Lead, Service Operations & Cyber Risk for day-to-day coordination.

Key Responsibilities

• Internal Audit & SOC 2 Leadership
  • Lead the response across the audit lifecycle, including planning, fieldwork coordination, and reviewing draft observations, root causes, and risks.
  • Challenge observation and management action plan ownership, wording, and feasibility, and draft and submit audit-closure proposals with stakeholder alignment.
  • Own SOC 2 (Type 1 and Type 2) coordination, including planning and bringing additional platforms into scope. Review evidence and send weak submissions back for rework.
  • Work with partner teams to ensure resources are assigned and aligned, and continually work with them on gaps and help them close them.
• Controls, Evidence & Remediation
  • Set standards for evidence, attestation, and documentation across services.
  • Translate findings into structured remediation plans with owners, due dates, and evidence requirements, tracked to closure.
  • Maintain the audit-action tracker and hold action owners accountable, challenging weak ownership and unrealistic timelines.
  • Coordinate audit actions owned by other teams across the organization and keep them visible to closure.
  • Govern the configuration management database (CMDB, the inventory of services and their dependencies) for audit scope, keeping ownership and classification accurate. Solution Architecture operates and maintains it.
• Risk & Resilience Governance
  • Own the risk register, including quality, owners, clear write-ups, closure, and escalation of risks beyond tolerance.
  • Turn access-review and vulnerability gaps into formal risks or audit actions where appropriate.
  • Govern the business continuity and disaster recovery program, including impact analyses, coverage and gaps, vendor continuity, annual reviews, and tabletop exercises, and executive attestation.
• Cross-Functional Influence & Reporting
  • Partner with internal audit, cybersecurity, privacy, risk, and legal to close findings and prevent repeat observations.
  • Prepare audit and GRC status updates for monthly operations reviews, covering open actions, overdue items, blockers, and risks.
  • Advise service owners and coach peers on governance expectations, acting as an objective assurance partner.

Qualifications

• 5 or more years in internal audit, controls, compliance, or risk (IT audit or GRC strongly preferred)
• Hands-on coordination of SOC 2 (or SOX) programs, including evidence and attestation management
• Demonstrated ownership of a risk register and the risk-management lifecycle
• Experience governing or supporting business continuity and disaster recovery (impact analyses, plans, tabletops, attestation)
• A professional qualification is expected or strongly preferred (CISA, CIA, CRISC, ACA/ACCA, or CISSP)
• Proven ability to challenge peers and leaders and to represent the organization to external auditors
• Experience in EdTech, SaaS, regulated, or highly distributed environments is a plus; familiarity with NIST CSF or ISO 22301 is a plus
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree a plus

Key Behaviors & Attributes

• Independent & Objective: You bring professional skepticism and integrity, and you hold the line on audit-readiness.
• Business-Enabling: You approach assurance as a means of enabling the business, not policing it, while staying objective.
• Influence Without Authority: You push peers and leaders to own and close actions, challenging weak ownership and unrealistic timelines.
• Continuous Improvement: You bring proven GRC frameworks and improve governance without slowing delivery.
• Collaborative: You partner across security, engineering, privacy, legal, and internal audit to build a consistent control environment.

Key Relationships

• Direct Reports: None. This is a senior individual contributor role.
• Peers: The security operations lead, incident and service operations leads, manager of data governance, internal audit leads, and cybersecurity leads
• Cross-functional: Internal audit, cybersecurity, privacy, risk, legal, engineering, product, and service owners
• External: External auditors and vendors

Pearson is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.