Director of Financial Systems

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• Job Description Summary

  This role owns the financial systems landscape the accounting organization runs on, and leads the design, implementation and continuous improvement of those systems. The Director, Financial Systems is accountable for NetSuite, Concur, Celigo, Solution 7 and the financial components of Workday, for the integrity of financial data moving between those platforms and the general ledger, and for the control environment over financial systems. The role serves as project manager for all system-related initiatives across Accounting, is the accounting owner of the AS400 conversion, and leads the company's outside implementation and support consultants. Reporting to the Vice President, Accounting, the Director partners across Accounting, Information Technology, FP&A and the business to deliver systems, automation and process improvement that reduce manual effort, cycle time and risk across the accounting organization. The Director also owns the accounts payable process the role designed and automated, and leads the accounts payable team.

• Job Description

  Duties and Responsibilities

  • Own the financial systems landscape for Accounting, including NetSuite, Concur, Celigo, Solution 7 and the financial components of Workday, together with the integrations connecting them to operational platforms and the general ledger.

  • Serve as project manager for all system-related initiatives across Accounting, covering intake and prioritization, scoping, business case, resourcing, schedule, budget, status reporting, risk and issue management, and post-implementation review.

  • Serve as the accounting owner of the AS400 conversion, including requirements definition, data mapping and validation, cutover planning, parallel testing, validation of converted balances and post-conversion stabilization.

  • Direct the company's offshore financial systems support capacity, currently CW Global Partners on an hourly as-needed basis and Vincent Cloud under an annual support agreement, covering scope and statements of work, service levels, budget, deliverable quality and escalation.

  • Lead financial system implementations, upgrades and integrations end to end: requirements, configuration, user acceptance testing, training, cutover and hypercare.

  • Design and build automation that reduces manual effort and cycle time in the close, including automated reconciliations, allocations, recurring entries and management reporting.

  • Own the accounts payable process end to end, including the automated workflow the role designed and implemented, exception handling, vendor master governance, and continuous improvement of throughput and accuracy.

  • Lead the accounts payable team, including performance management, development, workload prioritization and coverage planning.

  • Maintain segregation of duties over disbursements: this role owns accounts payable process, systems and workflow design and supervises accounts payable operations, but does not approve payment runs, which remain the responsibility of Treasury.

  • Partner with the corporate and international accounting teams to drive process improvement: map current-state processes, identify manual workarounds and control gaps, redesign the process, and deliver the system or automation change that supports it.

  • Establish and track measures of process performance, including cycle time, manual touch points and error rates, and report progress to the Vice President, Accounting.

  • Identify and eliminate low-value manual accounting effort, including recurring entries and schedules maintained below the company's materiality thresholds, and align system-driven processes with accounting policy.

  • Own the integrity of financial data flowing between operational platforms and the general ledger, including interface design, exception monitoring and validation of system-generated activity.

  • Design, document and operate the control environment over financial systems, including segregation of duties, change management and interface controls; support SOX readiness for IT general controls.

  • Review SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports for financial system vendors and service providers; evaluate complementary user entity controls, track exceptions and confirm remediation.

  • Own periodic user access reviews across financial systems, including provisioning and de-provisioning standards, certification, exception follow-up and retention of evidence for audit.

  • Own financial reporting delivery in Solution 7 and NetSuite, including report design, maintenance and the reporting calendar supporting Accounting, FP&A and executive leadership.

  • Partner with Information Technology and Information Security on system risk, data residency, access and vendor risk requirements for financial applications.

  • Own the financial systems technology and support budget, currently approximately $543,000 annually, of which roughly $493,000 is software and licence contracts across Oracle/NetSuite, Celigo, Concur and Solution 7, and the balance is offshore support; accountable for vendor selection, contracting, renewal negotiation, spend management and evaluation of new financial applications.

  • Document processes, system configurations and controls; maintain audit-ready evidence for internal and external audit.

  • Prepare analysis and written commentary supporting the Audit and Risk Committee reporting cycle on systems, automation and controls matters.

  • Provide day-to-day guidance to the accounting organization on system use; lead training, adoption and change management.

  Minimum Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems or a related field.

  • 10-15 years of progressive accounting and financial systems experience.

  • Demonstrated experience implementing or converting financial systems with accountability for delivery, covering the full lifecycle from requirements through cutover and stabilization.

  • Experience serving as the business owner, not solely the technical owner, on at least one ERP implementation or major system conversion.

  • Demonstrated project management experience running concurrent system initiatives, including scope, schedule, budget and executive stakeholder reporting; PMP or equivalent certification preferred.

  • Experience directing offshore or outsourced technical support capacity to scope, service level and budget.

  • Experience owning a software and services budget of comparable scale, including contract negotiation, renewal and vendor performance management.

  • Advanced NetSuite experience required, including saved searches, reporting and workflow configuration; Concur, Celigo, Solution 7 and Workday financial modules preferred.

  • Experience with legacy platform migrations (AS400 / IBM i or comparable) preferred.

  • Experience designing and operating IT general controls, segregation of duties and user access reviews in a financial systems environment.

  • Experience reviewing SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports and evaluating complementary user entity controls.

  • Strong working knowledge of the accounting processes these systems support: close, reconciliations, revenue, billing, accounts payable and cash.

  • Demonstrated process improvement experience, including current-state assessment, redesign and measurable reduction in manual effort or cycle time.

  • Experience owning accounts payable operations in a highly automated environment, including workflow design, exception management and vendor master governance.

  • Experience leading, developing and managing the performance of staff.

  • Advanced Excel and data analysis skills; SQL or reporting tool experience preferred.

  • Strong written and verbal communication with both executive and technical audiences.

  Working conditions

  This job operates in a professional office environment or remotely.  This role routinely uses general office equipment. 

  Physical requirements

  • Ability to communicate clearly and exchange accurate information constantly.

  • Constantly operates computer, keyboard, phone and other general office equipment.

  • Ability to occasionally move objects up to 10 lbs.

  Direct reports

  Lead Accounts Payable Specialist. This role also directs the company's offshore financial systems support capacity, currently CW Global Partners and Vincent Cloud. Transition of the accounts payable reporting line may be staggered.