Head of International Accounting (H/F)

Primary purpose: For all the international subsidiaries in the scope, responsible for ensuring accuracy and integrity of financial data and compliance with group's accounting rules and local accounting standards while respecting the deadlines for closing. It involves managing and working with the team to supervise the monthly and annual closings as well as the accounting treatment of all non routine transactions (mergers, acquisitions, transfers of assets and contracts, etc).

Key responsibilities:

Team Leadership and Development

• Recruit, manage, supervise, mentor, and develop a team of international controllers working on an international scope, Directs reports : 2 International Controllers based in Paris, France and in Mumbai, India. Locations can change.
• Provide training on systems, processes, and compliance requirements.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Supervision and assistance during the monthly closing and statutory annual closing periods

• Establish the closing timetable in line with the Group's closing timetable.
• Monitor the progress of the subsidiaries' closing work, adherence to deadlines, and alert the Central team of issues encountered.
• Assist subsidiaries in finding solutions in case of questions or difficulties.
• Manage closing of accounting periods and modules in Sage.
• Conduct cross-functional controls on key items, such as intercompany balances.
• Conduct accounts reviews and ensure proper justification and audit trail of balance sheet accounts.
• Supervise the completion of the annual closing of the statutory accounts and assist local accounting teams during audits.
• In coordination with Group Tax, monitor the filing of tax declarations, and assist with requests by local administrative authorities.

Expertise, processes and tools

• Support the deployment of Group accounting policies and procedures to international subsidiaries.
• Support the deployment of finance tools and processes, for integration or improvement projects.

• Support local teams in the application of Group accounting processes and standards.
• Assist local teams with accounting-related questions.
• Be the liaison between local teams and the various departments of Group Finance.
• Participate in the application of internal controls processes. At a minimum, conduct essential controls.
• Support accounting activities required by business M&A projects.
• Maintain finance tools, e.g. intercompany flow reconciliation table.
• Support the management of local charts of accounts.

Animation and development of subsidiaries accounting teams

• Support the development of subsidiaries accounting teams with training or propositions on accounting issues, processes and tools’ use.
• Lead actions and animation to create an accounting community who is collaborating and sharing needs, difficulties, ideas and solutions.
• Support the subsidiaries’ finance departments on setting up efficient accounting department structure and deploying optimised processes.

Key interdependencies:

Subsidiaries Accounting teams, Group central finance team, Accounting Method & Referential team, Treasury, IT teams, Tax team