Audit Manager — San Gabriel Valley, California | Pacific Executive Search

Audit Manager

(Job ID: 1937)

San Gabriel Valley, California

On-Site

Direct Hire

Public Accounting

$130,000 – $170,000 base

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Overview

Join a dynamic and growing public accounting firm as an Audit Manager, where you will play a pivotal role in leading audit engagements and fostering strong client relationships. This position offers an excellent opportunity for career advancement, allowing you to develop your leadership skills in a collaborative and innovative environment. We value teamwork, continuous improvement, and a commitment to high-quality service, making this an ideal place for professionals looking to make a meaningful impact.

Responsibilities

Lead and manage audit engagements from planning to completion, ensuring quality and efficiency throughout the process.
Coordinate timelines, deliverables, and project execution while applying risk-based approaches to audit planning and testing.
Perform and review audit testing procedures and documentation, ensuring compliance with relevant accounting and auditing standards.
Act as the primary point of contact for clients, clearly communicating findings and building long-term relationships based on reliability and insight.
Provide mentorship and guidance to junior team members, fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented work environment.
Identify key issues during audits and develop practical, well-reasoned solutions to enhance client outcomes.
Encourage continuous improvement and share knowledge within the team to elevate overall performance.

Qualifications

Must-Have:
Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
4+ years of audit experience in a public accounting environment, specifically with private company audits.
Experience with inventory-focused company audits.
Strong organizational and project management skills.
Clear and professional communication abilities.
CPA certification.
Nice-to-Have:
Mandarin language skills.
Familiarity with ERPs such as SAP or NetSuite.
Knowledge of revenue recognition and ASC-742 standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do audit hires underperform?
Because the expectation gap is often wider than it appears. Companies frequently hire for audit execution when the real need is risk judgment, stakeholder communication, and the ability to influence remediation. Candidates who are strong testers but weak advisors tend to plateau quickly in internal audit environments.
When does internal audit become a strategic function rather than a compliance exercise?
When the team moves beyond testing checklists and starts influencing how the business manages risk. That shift usually requires audit professionals who can communicate findings in business terms, prioritize based on materiality rather than procedure, and earn credibility with operational leaders who do not report to them.
Why is manufacturing accounting and finance talent difficult to hire well?
Because manufacturing environments expose weak operators quickly. The work touches inventory, costing, margins, controls, operations, and often plant-level realities. Employers are not just hiring accounting knowledge. They are hiring someone who can function inside an operational business where the numbers have to connect to what is happening on the floor.
Why does ERP experience matter so much in roles like this?
Because many accounting and finance roles are really process-and-systems roles disguised as job titles. A candidate may know the accounting, but if they cannot operate effectively inside the company's environment, ramp time becomes risk. Exact system match is not always mandatory, but comparable complexity often is.
How do strong candidates typically evaluate opportunities like this?
Strong candidates rarely evaluate a role based on title alone. They look at what the position actually owns, how the function is viewed internally, whether the environment is stable or in transition, and what success will realistically look like in the first 6 to 12 months. Many first discover a role through a posting, but the strongest career decisions usually come from understanding the context behind the opportunity, not just the job description. In accounting and finance hiring, that level of context is often what separates a lateral move from a meaningful one. Learn more about how strategic accounting and finance searches differ from transactional recruiting.
Is the CPA really required for roles like this?
Sometimes yes, and often functionally yes even when the posting says "preferred." At leadership levels especially, the CPA frequently acts as a credibility signal for hiring managers, auditors, lenders, investors, or boards. There are exceptions, but in many accounting searches it remains one of the clearest markers of technical foundation.

Audit Manager

Overview

Responsibilities

Qualifications

Apply Now

Frequently Asked Questions

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