Assurance + Advisory Process Development Specialist

Assurance Advisory Process Development Specialist

Do you want a career without limits? Do you want to shape your own future and be surrounded by people who listen? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you at Smith Howard.

Smith Howard is a family of companies that offers tax, audit, accounting and advisory and wealth management services. We are headquartered in Atlanta with a national reach, while still offering a local firm flavor.

We offer competitive pay, excellent training opportunities and great benefits. You can help influence our culture and have the support and dedication from our leaders to help you achieve your career goals. Smith Howard provides a great opportunity for professional growth and advancement within one of Atlanta’s top firms.

If you are ready to make a career move and join a firm consistently named an “AJC Top Workplace” and a “Best of the Best Firms” (Inside Public Accounting), we invite you to complete our employment application.

Summary

In our Assurance Advisory Process Development Specialist role, you will help lead innovation and process improvement initiatives within these practice areas. This role is ideal for someone who understands audit, review, compilation, and advisory workflows — and wants to roll up their sleeves to build, test, and deliver solutions alongside our development team.

You will be both strategic and hands-on: defining the product vision, gathering detailed requirements, working closely with developers during build cycles, and performing hands-on testing to ensure solutions meet the needs of practitioners.

Essential Functions:

Product Ownership & Development Collaboration

• Serve as the primary advocate for Assurance & Advisory teams in innovation projects.
• Define, refine, and prioritize the product backlog based on business value and stakeholder input.
• Collaborate closely with developers during sprint planning, daily standups, and review sessions.
• Provide real-time feedback to developers and clarify requirements as features are built.
• Ensure solutions are intuitive and aligned with practice workflows.

Business Analysis

• Conduct workflow reviews to uncover pain points and opportunities for automation or process optimization.
• Document current-state and design future-state processes, considering regulatory and quality standards.
• Write detailed user stories, functional specifications, and acceptance criteria.
• Partner with stakeholders to confirm that requirements reflect business priorities.

Testing & Quality Assurance

• Develop and execute test cases for new features and system enhancements.
• Perform hands-on functional testing, UAT, and regression testing to validate solutions.
• Document and track defects, working with developers to resolve issues quickly.
• Ensure deliverables meet performance, usability, and compliance expectations before release.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management

• Facilitate workshops, demos, and feedback sessions with partners, managers, and staff.
• Support solution rollout, including developing training content and assisting with adoption efforts.
• Monitor and measure solution performance post-launch, recommending continuous improvements.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field required.
• 3 years of experience in Assurance (audit, review, compilation) and/or Advisory within a CPA firm or professional services setting.
• Familiarity with engagement management systems, audit workflow tools, or data analytics platforms (e.g., CaseWare, Thomson Reuters, CCH Engagement, IDEA, Power BI).
• Ability to translate business needs into technical requirements and work directly with development staff and IT.
• Excellent communication skills, able to work effectively with partners, staff, and developers.
• Detail-oriented, collaborative, and proactive problem-solver.
• Comfortable balancing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.