Financial Accounting Manager

Employment type: Permanent
Salary: 75k/year - 85k/year

WEST SUSSEX - 5 DAYS ON SITE - PERMANENT - EUROPEAN ACCOUNTING LEAD FOR A US-LISTED GROUP

£75,000-£85,000 + 15% on-target bonus

Are you a technical accountant who reaches for the policy before the process, and enjoys owning the numbers for a whole region? Do you thrive in a large, US-listed environment where the standard is high, the deadlines don't move, and a team of five looks to you for the answer?

We Do Group are hiring a Financial Accounting Manager for the European arm of a large, US-listed manufacturing group. The role has month end ownership for Europe, alongside separate finance leads for UK & Ireland and Germany - stats & tax.

Everything is reported in US GAAP first and converted into local GAAP afterwards, so you're setting the position, not translating someone else's. You'll lead a team of four to five through the monthly close, the balance sheet and the internal audit cycle.

Something has changed in how the team works. The emphasis has moved firmly onto policy, GAAP and the rules and regulations behind the numbers. That means starting from what the standard requires, then building the process around it. Not running the same steps because that's how they were run last month. When policy changes, they want you to stop and ask what should change, and be able to defend the answer.

Worth knowing: the group has spent two years slimming down and is now sitting on cash with clear intent to acquire. Nobody can say where or when, but a team of five could become ten to fifteen. They want someone who can grow into that, not only cover today's team.

WISH LIST

• A genuinely technical accountant who works from policy, rules and regulation rather than a checklist, and who can explain why a treatment is right
• Experience in a large multinational group with a US or international reporting framework, and the professional standard that comes with it
• A strong people manager, comfortable leading four or five now and capable of running a team two or three times that size after an acquisition

THE ROLE

• Own US GAAP reporting for all European entities, delivered to the corporate timetable
• Lead the monthly close end-to-end, from the close checklist through payroll and journals to sign-off
• Review and approve journals across the team, and own balance sheet reconciliations and quarterly flux analysis
• Lead, coach and develop a team of four to five, including performance and career development
• Act as the primary interface for internal audit, owning the resolution of queries and compliance with global policy
• Partner with the business on accruals, upcoming spend and commitments so the actuals genuinely reflect what's happening
• Manage the relationship with the Asia-based shared service centre, pushing for efficiency and quality from transactional processing
• Oversee cash forecasting, currency holdings, supplier payment approval and the payroll payment process
• Keep customer, vendor and GRIR accounts clean and current, and hold the line on expense policy
• Enforce corporate and local controls, including SOX compliance and full delegation of authority
• Lead process alignment across Europe and, where relevant, globally
• Produce cost centre reporting for the group Chief Accounting Officer and represent finance in site management meetings

YOUR PROFILE

• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CA, CIMA)
• Effective communicator - written & verbal
• Good working knowledge of MS Excel
• Experience of international group reporting (US GAAP ideal, IFRS second)
• Manufacturing experience is useful but not required. Inventory and manufacturing variances sit elsewhere in the team

SALARY & BENEFITS

• £75,000-£85,000
• 15% bonus, on target, based on company and personal performance
• Pension: contribute 3% and the company adds 6%, contribute 5% and the company adds 7%
• Private medical insurance
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays