Finance & Legal - Finance & Accounting
Senior Director, Accounting
Director / VP / Exec
Independently auditedKeeps the numbers correct, the controls intact, and the plan honest. Owns the hardest problems in the area and raises the standard of everyone around them.
Audited package
Built, independently audited role package. Everything on this page is written for this seat.
Your Stack (Swappable)
This role works against whatever tools you already run. We list the tool categories the role operates in, never a named vendor, so you are never asked to replace a system that works.
- Accounting / ERP
- Close and reconciliation
- Analytics & BI
- GRC & Compliance
- Data Pipeline (ETL/ELT)
- Leadership and capacity
Deliverables
- Close schedules and reconciliations
- Reporting packs
- Forecast and budget models
- Variance analysis
Responsibilities
- Lead multi-team close and consolidation across entity and tower calendars, dependencies, intercompany, eliminations, certifications, late entries, exception aging, and consolidated readiness.
- Lead technical-accounting oversight across complex transactions, research quality, policy application, implementation memos, precedent, training, systems effects, and review ceilings.
- Lead controls and SOX execution at scale across control ownership, evidence, management review, deficiency remediation, repeat findings, access and change dependencies, and certification support.
- Lead accounting systems and process transformation across close automation, reconciliations, sub-ledger integrations, workflow, data lineage, standardization, testing, adoption, and benefit realization.
- Lead manager layer, capacity, and succession across accounting managers, span and layers, workload, skills, review quality, performance, succession, single points of failure, and hiring priorities.
- Lead external-audit and cross-tower coordination across PBC ownership, audit issue resolution, revenue and tax interfaces, finance applications, internal audit, and hand-offs to external reporting.
- Across the Senior Director, Accounting remit, establish the authoritative source, accountable owner, review ceiling, control evidence, exception threshold, decision date, and reciprocal hand-off appropriate to Director altitude.
- Produce, govern, and improve Multi-Team Close and Consolidation Operating Book, Technical Accounting Review and Implementation Register, Accounting Controls and SOX Execution Scorecard, Accounting Systems and Process Transformation Portfolio, and Accounting Leadership Bench and Capacity Plan.
The essence of this seat
The Senior Director, Accounting is the senior leader of accounting operations at scale who owns multi-team close and consolidation, technical-accounting oversight, controls execution, accounting transformation, and the manager layer within controllership.
Signature move
Start from authoritative records for multi-team close and consolidation and name the owner, decision deadline, evidence, and unresolved exception before accepting a conclusion
What good looks like
builds one calendar, source definition, and certification standard across teams, sequences cross-team dependencies, manages through Accounting Managers rather than re-performing, owns operating readiness, and routes the reporting consequence to the VP, Controller
Decision rights
- - multi-team close and consolidation, technical-accounting oversight, controls and SOX execution at scale, accounting systems and process transformation, manager layer, capacity, and succession, and external-audit and cross-tower coordination
- - the leadership cadence, role clarity, review standards, capacity allocation, coaching, succession, and operating system needed for the outcome
Working vocabulary
What this role does
The Senior Director, Accounting is the senior leader of accounting operations at scale who owns multi-team close and consolidation, technical-accounting oversight, controls execution, accounting transformation, and the manager layer within controllership. The role is accountable for this outcome: a large accounting organization closes consistently across teams and entities, applies technical positions correctly, operates effective controls, improves its systems and processes, and develops managers without displacing the VP, Controller as the accountable head of controllership. Its remit spans multi-team close and consolidation, technical-accounting oversight, controls and SOX execution at scale, accounting systems and process transformation, manager layer, capacity, and succession, and external-audit and cross-tower coordination. At Director altitude, it leads through Accounting Managers, Technical-accounting and consolidation leads, Accounting systems and transformation leads, and Senior accountants and specialists through managers, designs the operating and leadership system, and remains accountable for aggregate quality, timing, control, decision usefulness, and talent rather than personally performing every task. The boundary is load-bearing:
- Versus VP, Controller: The Senior Director, Accounting leads scaled accounting operations and the manager layer within controllership; the VP, Controller remains accountable for company-wide policy, external and statutory reporting, ICFR governance, and the top auditor relationship.
- Versus Accounting Manager: The Senior Director, Accounting leads several teams or towers and develops managers; the Accounting Manager owns one general-accounting team and its close execution.
Best-fit customer
finance teams that need close, reporting, and planning work to be consistent and auditable
Need more than one role?
Buying the whole team or the complete department lowers your effective cost per role at every tier of the ladder.