Independence Sr. Associate - BRIDGE

The Business Relationships Independence Data Gathering & Evaluation (BRIDGE) team, works closely with all parts of the EY organization (e.g., Service Lines, GCO, Conflicts, Risk Management, Quality) to identify, manage and monitor risk, providing advice and assistance in connection with engaging third-parties to support our client service delivery engagements and internal projects.

The opportunity

As a BRIDGE team Senior Associate, you will manage a portfolio of relationship requests submitted by EY client teams and/or other internal business stakeholders pursuing a formal business relationship with a third-party supplier. The Senior Associate on the BRIDGE team can (1) review BRIDGE submissions, (2) support engagement teams by providing insight and analysis related to relationships with third-party suppliers, focusing on high priority and/or more complex matters and (3) work on special projects that require independence consideration.  The individual in this role will be interpreting Q&RM policies, determining required actions and making recommendations based on firm guidance. The Senior Associate will analyze issues and produce deliverables to document the diligence with which such tasks were performed, as the work product for these individuals is subject to review and scrutiny by outside regulators.

Your key responsibilities

Provide consultations with EY client teams to ensure the data required for a BRIDGE submission is accurate and complete.  Perform initial review of relationship request submissions from EY client teams (or other internal stakeholders) and evaluate completeness, accuracy and timeliness of that BRIDGE submission.  Interact with EY client teams, other members of the Q&RM team, and various functional areas within the firm (such as, GCO, Supplier Risk Assurance, EOY) responding to inquiries and questions as needed.  Facilitate and drive the relationship review process to completion by following up on requests with EY client teams, internal stakeholders and external third-party suppliers.  Conduct initial training and education of EY client teams (or other internal stakeholders) on key submission requirements.

Skills and attributes for success

•        The BRIDGE team Senior Associate must apply judgment to initial consultations and/or submission review and rapidly develop understanding of key requirements of firm and regulator independence rules and policies.
•        Make appropriate reference to existing policies; however, due to frequency of unique situations the Senior Associate will need to research issues and, through situation specific inquiries, propose solutions.
•       The BRIDGE Senior Associate must know when to escalate matters and/or sensitive transactions requiring more experienced individuals to respond or process BRIDGE submissions, including interpretation of whether the submission and documentation appropriately convey the proposed business relationship and whether the proposed transaction adheres to the firm policies and guidelines.

To qualify for the role, you should have

•        Able to independently exercise judgement to identify issues and know when to escalate matters, on a timely basis
•        Excellent communications and client service skills
•        Detailed-oriented with strong organizational/project management skills
•        Able to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment
•        Able to manage and work independently
•        Experience with all Microsoft 365 Office Tools
•        Bachelor's degree in a related discipline, or equivalent work experience
•        2-3 plus years of related experience with 1 year managing people 

What we look for 

We’re interested in people that are collaborative and team players; they can work with other Independence team members on consultation matters, and Client Servers across ranks and Service Lines. BRIDGE team members are self-motivated and have a willingness and ability to take on challenging BRIDGE or independence-related projects.