Finance Associate, Accounting

Bridgewater Associates•Westport, CT

4d•$120,000 - $165,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As a Finance Associate, Accounting, you will be a member of Bridgewater’s Corporate Accounting team responsible for the various responsibilities outlined below. You will develop a diversified skill set and breadth of knowledge that are highly valued across the Finance Department. You will drive the following responsibilities: Support the Corporate Accounting team with fulfilling monthly close deliverables Prepare financial information for internal stakeholders Manage various aspects of the financial audit, which will involve direct interaction with the external auditors as well as with other areas within the Bridgewater organization Responsible for the execution of accounting processes over various balance sheet accounts Support ad hoc requests as necessary Process and controls improvement: Proactively explore how process change and technology can streamline our operational accounting and strengthen our control environment — critically evaluating our existing internal processes to find where they are manual, fragile or redundant, and assessing potential external tools and solutions Build the case for the changes worth making and see them through from idea to implementation, partnering with stakeholders across Finance and with our technology and vendor teams

Requirements

Exceptional ownership mentality, willing to roll up your sleeves and problem solve
Strong critical thinking skills, with a natural curiosity to ask “why” and question the status quo
Genuine appetite for rethinking how the work gets done — questioning processes and tools and pushing for better, better-controlled ways to account and report, rather than settling for incremental tweaks
Enjoy making sense out of white-space and ambiguous situations
Think analytically, logically and agilely; can quickly iterate in a fast-paced environment and high-performance culture
Excel at relationship building across stakeholders at all levels of the company
Possess excellent independent thinking, ask questions and take the initiative to improve current processes and metrics
Highly organized, reliable and detail oriented, with an eye for spotting and correcting errors
Use AI fluently in your work while bringing enough technical depth of your own to review its output for accuracy and completeness
Bachelor’s degree or higher in accounting, with a strong academic track record
1-3 years of accounting or audit experience; Big 4 accounting firm background a strong plus
CPA, or actively working toward the certification
Advanced Excel skills
Experience working with AI tooling, paired with the subject matter expertise to review AI-generated output for accuracy and completeness (we currently use Claude, though our tooling may change over time)
Experience with other financial systems such as Workday, Office Connect, and Workiva

Nice To Haves

Big 4 accounting firm background

Responsibilities

Support the Corporate Accounting team with fulfilling monthly close deliverables
Prepare financial information for internal stakeholders
Manage various aspects of the financial audit, which will involve direct interaction with the external auditors as well as with other areas within the Bridgewater organization
Responsible for the execution of accounting processes over various balance sheet accounts
Support ad hoc requests as necessary
Proactively explore how process change and technology can streamline our operational accounting and strengthen our control environment — critically evaluating our existing internal processes to find where they are manual, fragile or redundant, and assessing potential external tools and solutions
Build the case for the changes worth making and see them through from idea to implementation, partnering with stakeholders across Finance and with our technology and vendor teams