Corporate Controller

TriMark•Chicago, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Corporate Controller is a senior finance executive responsible for the integrity, accuracy, and scalability of the company’s accounting and financial reporting operations. Reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer, this leader will serve as the company’s principal accounting authority. The Corporate Controller will oversee enterprise accounting, consolidation, financial reporting, technical accounting, internal controls, and the financial close. This leader will also develop and execute a strategy for building a high-performing Accounting team that standardizes processes, strengthens accountability, leverages technology, and creates consistent service across the organization. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable establishing accounting policy, advising executive leadership on complex matters, developing talent, and leading hands-on transformation. This is an opportunity to build the infrastructure, governance, and team capabilities necessary to support a large, complex, and evolving organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related discipline.
Active CPA license.
Typically 10 or more years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including significant leadership responsibility within a large, complex organization.
Experience serving as a Corporate Controller, Divisional Controller, or senior accounting executive with comparable enterprise scope.
Strong command of U.S. GAAP, financial reporting, technical accounting, consolidation, and internal controls.
Demonstrated success leading the financial close across multiple business units, locations, or legal entities.
Experience leading and developing geographically dispersed accounting teams.
Strong experience partnering with external auditors and executive leadership.
Demonstrated ability to lead organizational, process, technology, and operating-model change.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a private equity-backed or highly leveraged organization.
Experience within distribution, manufacturing, services, or another operationally complex, multi-location business.
Experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, integrations, and enterprise systems implementations.
Familiarity with large-scale ERP and consolidation platforms.
Experience interacting with Boards, Audit Committees, lenders, and private equity sponsors.

Responsibilities

Serve as the company’s senior accounting leader and principal advisor to the CFO and executive leadership on accounting, financial reporting, internal controls, and related regulatory matters.
Lead all corporate accounting activities, including general ledger, consolidation, intercompany accounting, revenue recognition, inventory accounting, fixed assets, leases, accruals, and other significant balance-sheet areas.
Establish and maintain enterprise accounting policies, standards, governance, and documentation.
Ensure the integrity of the company’s financial statements and the consistent application of accounting policies across business units and legal entities.
Provide leadership and accounting guidance for acquisitions, integrations, system implementations, and other strategic business activities.
Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual financial close and consolidation processes, ensuring timely, accurate, and well-supported results.
Establish clear close calendars, accountabilities, review protocols, and escalation processes.
Improve balance-sheet reconciliation, account certification, variance analysis, and management-review practices.
Oversee the preparation of financial statements and supporting schedules for executive leadership, the Board, lenders, investors, and other stakeholders.
Partner with Financial Planning and Analysis to ensure consistency between reported results, forecasts, operational performance, and management reporting.
Develop meaningful accounting and close-performance metrics, including timeliness, accuracy, adjustments, reconciliation completion, and unresolved control matters.
Standardize accounting processes, policies, roles, service levels, and controls while reducing unnecessary complexity and duplication.
Establish service-level expectations and performance measures for accounting activities.
Build a continuous-improvement discipline focused on simplification, automation, quality, cycle-time reduction, and customer service.
Partner with technology and finance leadership to optimize ERP capabilities, reporting tools, workflow solutions, and automation opportunities.
Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing assessment of the company’s internal control environment.
Ensure appropriate segregation of duties, review procedures, authorization standards, and supporting documentation.
Promote a strong environment of ethics, transparency, accountability, and financial stewardship.
Provide accounting leadership for finance transformation, ERP consolidation, data-governance, and systems-optimization initiatives.
Simplify and standardize the chart of accounts, financial hierarchies, master data, and reporting structures where appropriate.
Improve the reliability and accessibility of financial information by strengthening data ownership, system controls, and reporting discipline.
Identify opportunities to automate manual accounting processes and reduce reliance on spreadsheets and offline workarounds.
Ensure new systems and processes incorporate appropriate accounting requirements and internal controls from design through implementation.
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing accounting organization with clear roles, responsibilities, career paths, and succession plans.
Recruit and retain strong accounting professionals with the technical skills, business judgment, and change-leadership capabilities necessary to support the organization.
Establish clear performance expectations and foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, continuous improvement, and service.
Develop future accounting leaders through coaching, stretch assignments, cross-functional exposure, and targeted development.
Balance accounting rigor with practical business judgment.
Build credibility with the Board, executive leadership, auditors, lenders, and business leaders.
Translate complex accounting matters into clear business implications and recommendations.
Establish greater predictability, discipline, and transparency across the financial close and reporting processes.