Senior Director-Internal Audit (Network)

You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely - even if they're daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love - driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together - lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere & always. Want in? Join the #VTeamLife.

What you'll be doing...

As a Senior Director of Internal Audit, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the internal audit organization's mission to be a best-in-class audit function that adds value and improves operations by providing independent, objective assurance. You'll serve as a visionary leader and trusted partner overseeing the Network and Technology Internal Audit team, evaluating and improving internal controls, processes, and risk management frameworks while reporting directly to the SVP Internal Audit.

Strategic Audit Leadership & Execution

• Direct the development and execution of dynamic, risk-based audit plans across network and operational business units, ensuring engagement scope and testing approaches align with industry best practices and key enterprise risks.

• Collaborate with executive and senior leadership to align engagement coverage with strategic business objectives, continuously adjusting as risks shift to ensure agile risk assurance and maximum business value.

• Oversee the execution of operational and technology-based engagements, ensuring compliance with IIA Global Internal Audit Standards and established methodologies.

• Direct advisory engagements and special projects that provide proactive risk insight during major transformation initiatives-providing an early risk and controls perspective in the design phase rather than after the fact.

• Represent Internal Audit in enterprise transformation forums (e.g., Tiger Teams) and executive governance groups, bringing an early risk and controls perspective into design and decisions.

• Provide final quality review of comprehensive, insightful audit reports and executive communications, ensuring results clearly articulate business impact and strategic risk rather than just control failures.

• Ensure proper vetting of observations and adequate follow-up on corrective action plans through to successful remediation.

• Oversee the use of Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP) results to identify and implement areas of continuous improvement across the audit process.

Technology, AI & Digital Transformation

• Drive digital transformation within the audit function by championing the team's responsible adoption of self-service data analytics tools (e.g., SQL/BigQuery, Qlik, Alteryx, Python, Snowflake or similar) and enterprise GenAI assistants to boost coverage, efficiency, and predictive risk insight without compromising evidence standards.

• Direct the assessment and governance evaluation of AI-enabled and automated decision-making systems, ensuring robust control frameworks, ethical compliance, and data privacy across AI pipelines.

• Lead the strategy and implementation of continuous risk assessment, continuous auditing, and automated evidence-gathering methodologies to shift from point-in-time reviews to real-time risk detection.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Strategic Alignment

• Establish and maintain strong collaborative partnerships with executive leaders across business units, serving as a trusted advisor to guide the business in navigating emerging risks.

• Lead quarterly discussions and proactive communications with executive leadership on audit plans, priority findings, and strategic risk trends.

• Coordinate with Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance, and first, second, and fourth lines of defense to support a comprehensive, integrated view of enterprise risk.

• Offer guidance in legal, ethical, and security investigations of compliance issues.

• Solicit feedback from stakeholders following engagements and track the business impact of audit commitments.

• Champion outcome-based KPIs aligned with the vision of the Internal Audit SVP that measure value delivered, not only activity completed.

People Leadership

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Directors, Associate Directors,Senior Managers, Managers, and Consultants, guiding their career growth through thoughtful placement, stretch assignments, and leadership opportunities.

• Responsible for overall team talent management, including hiring, onboarding, promotion recommendations, performance evaluations, and ongoing coaching.

• Foster a culture of leadership, accountability, and continuous improvement, empowering direct reports to excel in their roles and drive the team's success.

• Build a durable leadership pipeline: develop successors, rotate talent across teams and into the business, and share operational and technical knowledge across teams.

Where You'll Be Working...

This hybrid role will have a defined work location that includes work from home and assigned office days as set by senior leadership.

What we're looking for...

You lead with care and candor, comfortable having hard conversations directly while building genuine trust with executive leaders at the highest levels. You don't stop at "what broke"-you dig into why it matters, connecting findings to real business and strategic impact. You operate with an AI-first, data-driven mindset, treating advanced analytics and generative AI as core drivers of audit coverage and efficiency. You bring deep industry acumen, critical thinking, and visionary leadership to help executive leaders navigate complex risks, transform audit processes, and build high-performing teams.

You'll need to have:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience, and ten or more years of progressive experience in internal audit, risk management, finance, or a related field, including at least four years in a management role.

• Deep expertise in internal audit principles, risk management frameworks (e.g., IIA standards), and relevant industry regulations.

• Proven track record of leading complex, high-risk audit engagements and directing risk-based audit plans across operational, financial, and technology domains.

• Exceptional leadership and executive presence, with a proven ability to establish rapport, trust, and confidence with executive leaders, influence positive change, and navigate hard conversations.

• Seasoned people leader with demonstrated experience managing, coaching, and developing talent across all organizational levels.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with extensive experience communicating risk, business impact, and strategic audit findings to executive leadership.

• Demonstrated business acumen-able to translate audit findings into strategic business context, enterprise priorities, and actionable recommendations.

• Working understanding of self-service data analytics tools (e.g., SQL/BigQuery, Qlik, Alteryx, or similar) sufficient to direct strategies and review team execution.

• Strategic familiarity with AI-enabled tools (e.g., enterprise GenAI assistants) and foundational understanding of AI governance frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF) to champion responsible AI adoption and assess risk in automated systems.

• Sound judgment regarding auditor independence, objectivity, and risk governance across the lines of defense.

• Willingness and ability to travel up to approximately 25% of the time.

Even better if you have one or more of the following:

• Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g., MBA, MS in Accounting).

• 4+ years of experience leading teams of 5 or more direct reports.

• Professional certification such as CPA, CIA, CISA, CISM, CRISC, AAIA or CISSP.

• Experience working in the telecommunications industry, network operations, or a similarly regulated enterprise environment.

• Prior work experience in a Public Accounting environment specializing in operational audit.

• Hands-on experience or strategic familiarity with advanced data science and automation platforms (e.g., Python, Snowflake, Databricks) within an audit or risk function.

• Experience assessing AI-enabled decision systems, automated data pipelines, or building/piloting agentic AI solutions in audit execution.

Verizon is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to veteran status, disability or other legally protected characteristics.

Our benefits are designed to help you move forward in your career, and in areas of your life outside of Verizon. From health and wellness benefit options including: medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, AD&D insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance and group home & auto insurance. We also offer a matched 401(k) savings plan, up to 8 company paid holidays per year and up to 6 personal days per year, paid parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition assistance, plus other incentives, we've got you covered with our award-winning total rewards package. Depending on the role, employees have the opportunity to receive compensation in the form of premium pay such as overtime, shift differential, holiday pay, allowances, etc. Newly hired employees receive up to 15 days of vacation per year, which grows with additional service. For part-timers, your coverage will vary as you may be eligible for some of these benefits depending on your individual circumstances.