SOX Audit Expert

Job description

**Engagement:** 2 weeks · 8 hours/week **Compensation:** Competitive hourly rate ## **The Opportunity** We are building an AI-native platform for SOX control testing — one where an AI agent reads an audit workpaper, classifies every sheet, extracts sample rows, identifies exceptions, and generates PCAOB-defensible narratives. Automatically. The engineering is working. What it needs now is an expert who can tell us when it's **right** and when it only *looks* right. This is not a training role. This is not a data labeling role. This is the role where a seasoned auditor looks at what the AI produced, applies the kind of judgment that comes from years of real engagements, and tells us exactly where professional standards would push back — and why. Your input directly shapes how AI handles SOX compliance for public companies. That influence starts on day one. **What You Will Actually Do** **Review AI-generated workpaper interpretations against real audit standards.** The system parses uploaded Excel workpapers and makes decisions: which tab is the testing table, which rows are samples, which variance is an exception. You will tell us when those decisions are audit-defensible and when they are not. **Define ground truth across control types.** Reconciliation controls, management review controls, IT access reviews, three-way match, segregation of duties — each behaves differently. You will tell us what a correct result looks like for each, and provide real workpaper examples where possible. **Challenge the AI's exception logic.** When the system flags a variance as an exception, is it? When it concludes a control is effective with limited samples tested, should it? You provide the professional judgment the engineering team cannot. **Shape the product roadmap.** You will identify gaps between what auditors actually need and what the system currently produces. Those gaps become the next build cycle. ## **Who This Is For** You have **5+ years of hands-on SOX audit experience**, including direct workpaper preparation and review — not just oversight. You know what a PCAOB reviewer looks for because you have been in that room. You came up through a **Big 4 or equivalent top-tier firm** (EY, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, or a national practice with equivalent SOX depth). You hold a **CPA** and have worked across multiple clients and control environments, not just one industry. You are **intellectually curious about what AI gets wrong** — not defensive about it. You see the potential for AI in audit and want to be part of getting it right from the beginning, before the standards catch up. **Minimum Qualifications** - 5+ years SOX compliance and financial audit experience, hands-on - Big 4 or equivalent top-tier firm background required - Deep working knowledge of PCAOB standards and COSO framework - CPA certification required - Experience spanning multiple control types, not single-domain ## **Preferred** - Experience leading SOX workstreams for mid-to-large cap public companies - Former senior associate or manager level — you reviewed others' workpapers - Exposure to control testing automation or GRC tools - Intellectual interest in where AI belongs — and doesn't belong — in regulated workflows