Sr. Technical Program Manager, Data & Audit Readiness

Payward's Data team builds and operates the data infrastructure, pipelines, and analytics platforms that power decision-making, reporting, and controls across the business. 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.

Responsibilities

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

Requirements

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 have

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