This role will provide oversight of the global commercial and shared services control environment, identifying and implementing strategies around risk management, controls, policy setting, and trainings. The successful candidate will have a strong internal controls and accounting background as well as the skillset to lead team members from differing cultures towards a common goal. This is a highly visible role requiring excellent communication skills, a sharp finance and accounting focus, business sense, and a collaborative mentality with oversight responsibility for a team of direct reports domestically and internationally. The role reports into the Director, Global Financial Risk and Compliance

• Lead a team of regional managers in development of a mature, globally aligned control environment with greater consistency and harmonization through the disparate ERP systems, processes, and sizes of local teams.
• Develop and manage effective communication strategies to promote consistency in interpretation and application of standards, internal controls, and policies.
• Identify, engineer, collaborate, and lead execution of training programs to provide appropriate education and guidance to the business, ensuring employees have adequate awareness and understanding of internal control standards and requirements.
• Develop relationships and build strong rapport with cross-functional global and regional teams to become a trusted and go-to business partner that continually evolves with the business and ensures compliance requirements are consistently and effectively achieved, ultimately supporting accurate financial reporting.
• Foster a proactive risk management environment, founded on engagement and collaboration.
• Establish and monitor key financial risk indicators, as well as implement corrective action plans to mitigate such risks through the oversight of controls, policies and procedures established to address them.
• Support implementation of changes in the Risk and Controls Matrix while at the same time help to ensure that current controls are embedded into normal day-to-day processes and procedures.
• Collaborate with the corporate and regional finance teams to investigate and address reported financial errors, evaluating root cause and any necessary improvements to the control environment.
• Track, monitor, and report metrics related to required risk and compliance processes as well as progress of team initiatives to ensure deadlines are successfully achieved.
• Participate in policy setting discussions, proposing updates to address any accounting inquiries or compliance challenges experienced by the business.
• Liaise with the internal and external audit teams to align on audit plan and discuss any new expectations or changes in approach, advocating on behalf of the business where needed.
• Guide team members to ensure successful management of relationships with internal and external audit teams on behalf of the business. Includes understanding any additional requirements and mitigation requests for areas of concern, assessing such requests for appropriateness and feasibility, proposing an effective and efficient path forward, and facilitating the fulfillment of those needs.
• Support team members in understanding and discussing validity of audit issues (both SOX & Non-SOX) with regional audit and local teams, demonstrating ability to clearly articulate risks and communicate concerns or petition for why the business does not agree with issues raised.
• Periodically review risk acceptance memos and audit memo documentation, ensuring proper assessment and documentation of the risks, mitigation activities, and conclusion.
• Oversee the Balance Sheet Review process (plan, schedule, review session tracking, action item tracking, issue reporting, etc) and provide quarterly updates for presentation to the Finance Leadership Team (FLT).
• Engage in risk assessment activities and provide oversight prior to implementing new systems or software and monitor post implementation impact on local control processes.
• Actively lead and participate in strategic discussions to propose continuous improvement opportunities that will drive automation, efficiency, visibility, and accountability in the maintenance of the control environment. Demonstrate ability to think creatively and utilize existing tools and resources in the execution of proposed improvement opportunities.
• Facilitate annual audit debrief and audit process improvements between business units and the internal and external auditors.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experience and understanding of U.S. GAAP, SOX requirements and internal/external audit, including experience in defining and designing controls
• Minimum of 8 years leadership experience in internal controls or audit with demonstrated skill in the application of concepts and best practices.
• Strong leadership skills to effectively manage and motivate team members, prioritize projects, and drive continuous improvement within the function
• Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills, including written and verbal communication, especially in developing positions and presenting to management, auditors, and non-accounting stakeholders
• Collaborative with strong business partnership skills
• Appropriate certificate in accounting and/or auditing, a plus (e.g., Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor or Certified Information System Analyst)
• Ability to independently research, analyze and interpret data
• Flexibility in handling conflicting priorities working under strict deadlines
• Ability to manage multiple projects within a multi-national matrix organization
• Familiarity with governance, risk and compliance (GRC) applications and platforms

Work Environment:

• Typical office work environment
• Approximately 10% travel where needed within our key regions, domestically and internationally

Experience:

• 8-10 years of experience within an internal controls, internal audit, or public accounting environment
• Understanding of internal controls and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance
• Experience in global commercial and shared services operations, a plus
• Knowledge of Oracle, Microsoft D365, COGNOS, ServiceNow, WDesk, FloQast or other major ERP systems, a plus

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or equivalent
• Licenses or Certifications a plus: MBA / CPA / CMA / or CISA