Controllership Manager

We are looking for a manager to lead the Accounting, Month-End Close & Financial Reporting, Settlement and Liquidity activities. This role will be responsible for month-end and quarter-end close deliverables, maintaining a strong control environment, and proactively managing liquidity risk.

The position requires close partnership across Finance, Treasury, Business and Credit Operations, Technologies, and external network partners with strong knowledge of Local GAAP and USGAAP accounting standards.

The position requires working in a fast-paced environment and constantly changing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Oversee month-end and quarter-end close deliverables, including journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations, and review of key accounts

• Ensure the integrity and completeness of financial results related to card settlement and operational flows, including timely identification and resolution of accounting issues

• Support preparation and review of financial statements, disclosures, and management reporting related to settlement and treasury-related activities

• Lead accounting activities related to settlement, custodial, and liquidity operations, ensuring transactions are recorded accurately and in accordance with applicable accounting policies and local regulatory requirements

• Prepare periodic financial reporting packages to senior management and quarterly financial update to external auditors.

• Analyze new product constructs and create financial accounting and reporting requirements under Local GAAP and USGAAP. Support launch of products and business initiatives by partnering with business and other stakeholders to advise on the financial accounting and reporting requirements.

• Support internal and external audits including review the external audit requests with process owners, participate in meetings, work with the process areas to frame a response to the auditor and monitor, report and escalate the progress of audits.

• Responsible for coordinating and reviewing the preparation of annual financial statements for external auditors including assessment of note disclosure requirements per applicable accounting standards.

• Maintain inventory of spreadsheets used by Market Controllership and perform testing of the same to ensure compliance with American Express spreadsheet control policy.

• Perform internal control self-assessment by testing and reporting for processes owned by market controllership.

• Responsible to complete and report on quarterly accounting governance and financial control dashboards.

• Identify opportunities for process improvement and create efficiencies in monitoring the integrity and completeness of financial statements.

• Perform other ad hoc financial reporting, analysis and tasks as required.

Critical Challenges:

• Capability to work and solve problems independently.

• Ability to manage multiple time sensitive deliverables at month / quarter close.

• Timely identification and escalation of issues

• Ability to quickly develop sound understanding of accounting / reporting processes and the subledger systems.

• Maintain knowledge of developments in accounting standards (Local GAAP / USGAAP).

• Ability to corroborate the results obtained from financial reporting repositories with that of the system of record (subledger systems)

Qualifications

• Accouting designation (CRC).

• At least 5 years finance experience.

• Strong knowledge of LOCAL GAAP and USGAAP accounting standards and financial control principles and practices.

• Excellent English communication skills (verbal and written) / Spanish (Preferred)

• Hands-on experience extracting and transforming data from various systems and in various formats (SQL / Cornerstone / Yellowbrick / Lumi / Tableau / AI etc.)

• Proficiency in MS-Office applications (Advance Excell skils) and Essbase/analytical software with ability to craft compelling graphs,tables,etc in formats suitable for stakeholder presentations (in PowerPoint).

• Must be a self-starter who can prioritize tasks and manage deadlines.

• Strong data analytics and system controls skills with ability to interpet how these impact accounting and financial reporting processes.

• Must be well organized, resourceful, curious, dependable and detail orientated.

• Demonstrated critical thinking, complex problem-solving skills, and transformation mindset.

• Ability to collaborate across geographies in a matrix structure and deliver on customer expectations