How To Become An Audit Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an audit specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Audit specialists are responsible for examining and auditing an organization's financial records to ensure that the financial transactions are truthful and balanced. They work to show that a company is free of fraud and transparent in maintaining its financial records. They are in charge of handling complex and challenging audit projects.

Audit specialists perform these duties to arrive at an ultimate goal: to enhance the organization's growth in a bid to achieve its goals and objectives. Part of their duties includes designing and implementing different audit strategies, procedures, programs for complex assignments. They formulate other policies and procedures for complex tasks and make recommendations to improve a particular project's efficiency.

Audit specialists mostly hold a bachelor's degree in finance, management, audit, or other relevant fields and a certificate in public accounting or a certified management accounting certification. Some years of auditing experience may also prove advantageous in this field. Audit specialists earn an average salary of approximately $59,000 annually, or $28 per hour.

ScoreAudit SpecialistUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $58,291

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.46%

Asian 12.14%

Black or African American 8.74%

Hispanic or Latino 11.08%

Unknown 3.97%

White 63.61%

Gender

female 66.30%

male 33.70%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

7.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an audit specialist

Explore audit specialist education requirements

Most common audit specialist degrees

Bachelor's

55.4 %

Associate

19.0 %

Master's

9.6 %

Start to develop specific audit specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Audit Reports	10.70%
Patients	7.76%
Customer Service	7.43%
Internal Audit	6.15%
Audit Findings	4.68%

Complete relevant audit specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New audit specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an audit specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real audit specialist resumes.

Research audit specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage vendor billing disputes for southwestern region from initiation to documentation of resolution while ensuring compliance with SOX guidelines.
Work with department analyst to create measurement tools and methods for communicating results and managing QA analysis in compiling/reporting results.
Review and verify the submitted documentation for completeness to verify the company is in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).
Coordinate delivery of mortgage back securities with internal and external stakeholders.

Prepare your audit specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your audit specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an audit specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable audit specialist resume templates

Build a professional audit specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your audit specialist resume.