Senior Finance Associate, Accounting

Bridgewater Associates•Westport, CT

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Bridgewater Associates is seeking a Senior Finance Associate for its Corporate Accounting team. This role will focus on the accounting and reporting of the company's foreign operations, reporting to the Controller responsible for that area. Additionally, the associate will support the Head of Accounting Policy and Reporting by performing technical accounting analyses and assisting with the financial reporting process for domestic entities. The position involves driving improvements in reporting and accounting through process change and technology, including AI tooling. This is a highly visible role with interaction with external auditors, third-party service providers, and internal stakeholders. The role offers opportunities to develop a diverse skill set and broad knowledge across the firm.

Requirements

Exceptional ownership mentality, willing to roll up sleeves and problem-solve.
Proactive and independent use of AI fluently in work, with technical depth to review AI output for accuracy and completeness.
Capable project manager who can drive to deadlines and hold stakeholders accountable without formal authority.
Appetite for rethinking how work gets done, questioning processes and tools, and pushing for better, better-controlled ways to account and report.
Strong critical thinking skills, with a natural curiosity to ask 'why' and question the status quo.
Ability to make sense out of white-space and ambiguous situations.
Analytical, logical, and agile thinking; ability to iterate quickly in a fast-paced environment and high-performance culture.
Excel at relationship building across stakeholders at all levels, as well as with external auditors and third-party service providers.
Highly organized, reliable, and detail-oriented, with an eye for spotting and correcting errors.
Bachelor's degree or higher in accounting, with a strong academic track record.
5-7 years of accounting or audit experience, ideally with hands-on exposure to project management and coordinating across teams.
CPA or actively working towards the certification.
Experience in operational accounting, including processes and controls.
Solid understanding of how financial statements are assembled and experience working within draft statements.
Experience working with AI tooling, paired with subject matter expertise to review AI-generated output for accuracy and completeness.
Solid technical accounting skills (ability to research an accounting question and reach a supportable, well-documented conclusion).
Advanced Excel skills.

Nice To Haves

Big 4 background a plus.
Experience with other financial systems, such as Workday, Office Connect or Power Query preferred.

Responsibilities

Project manage the annual audits of foreign subsidiaries' statutory financial statements, prepared under local statutory GAAP (IFRS based).
Serve as a primary point of contact for external auditors, resolving requests and comments, and coordinating input from others.
Ensure transactions are accounted for and reported correctly, both technically and operationally.
Review the work of external service providers for monthly and annual reporting packages (trial balance, account reconciliations, financial statements) for accuracy, completeness, and appropriate accounting treatment.
Ensure reporting package data is appropriately loaded into the general ledger.
Field questions from and proactively raise accounting issues with the Business Planning and Analysis team responsible for foreign subsidiaries.
Actively incorporate AI tooling to enable and streamline processes, improving efficiency and reimagining workflows.
Perform technical accounting analyses of new transactions (US GAAP).
Create new accounting policies and/or update existing policies.
Adopt/implement new accounting standards.
Support the quarterly and annual financial reporting process for domestic operations.