Financial Controller

About Condé Nast

Condé Nast is a global media company, home to iconic brands including Conde Nast Traveller, AD, Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Glamour, Vanity Fair and Wired, among many others. The company's award-winning content reaches 88 million consumers in print, 419 million in digital and 432 million across social platforms, and generates more than 1 billion video views each month.

The company is headquartered in London and New York and operates in 32 markets worldwide, including China, France, Germany, UAE, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico & Latin America, Spain, Taiwan, the U.K. and the U.S, with local licence partners across the globe.

Condé Nast Middle East is dedicated to producing high-quality, compelling content that connects with Middle East's most influential audiences. Our vision for our workplace is one that is centred on transparency and respect and with values that bring forward the best in all of us. We are committed to creating a culture where diverse voices and perspectives are encouraged and respected, and where all employees are equally supported in developing their careers — where people can truly be themselves and achieve their best.

The Role

The Middle East Controllership team will take responsibility and ownership for all controllership matters consisting of industry knowledge experts and finance professionals, liaising across a number of internal and external stakeholders. There will be strong collaboration and partnership with the Controlling Operations team, based in Bangalore, who will provide a high level of service to the local market by recording transactions across a number of finance processes, thereby acting as the 'customer' of the Controlling Operations. Although the offshore team will not report directly to the Middle East Controllership Team, there will be strong influence, support and oversight from the Financial Controller and the controllership team to ensure accurate and timely reporting.

Reporting to the Executive Director, EMEA Controller, based in the London (UK) office, the Financial Controller will have complete ownership and responsibility for the delivery of the Controllership activities within the local Market. The Financial Controller will lead and own the month end close process, as reported under US GAAP, as well as compliance with IFRS for statutory and regulatory reporting requirements and will be a key part of the local finance leadership team; the Financial Controller is expected to drive results and implement process improvements across the finance processes including strong management of the balance sheet. The Financial Controller will be required to build strong relationships across Finance (including FP&A and Finance Business Partnering) as well as collaborate with the Controlling Ops Team.

The Team

The Director, Financial Controller, Middle East will have a direct reporting line to the Executive Director, EMEA Controller, who is based in London (UK).

The Director, Financial Controller, Middle East will be responsible for 1 direct report (Financial Reporting Manager); the whole team is based at the same office location (Dubai).

There will be strong collaboration and support from the offshore team, based in Bangalore as well as across the local market finance team (incl. FP&A and FBP).

What will you be doing?

Financial Reporting & Compliance & Accounting

:

• Support the EMEA Controller in preparation and coordination of Month-end-close (MEC) for purposes of management accounts including variance analysis.
• Review monthly profit & loss, balance sheet, and related key balance sheet reconciliations.
• Monitor agreed Controlling activities to ensure they are delivered according to country regulatory reporting requirements and according to CN Global standard processes, policies and controls (including US GAAP)
• Review statutory financial statements under IFRS and any associated regulatory filings for Board approval.
• Responsible for supporting and executing the IFRS statutory audit process, including engaging with KPMG in order to secure the process, timelines and consistency of the audit process.
• Manage and support any (other) external audit engagements (e.g. VAT, Tax) and internal audits (GIA)
• Responsible for reviewing and approving tax computations and VAT returns and liaising with tax advisors, as required.
• Review of the cash flow forecast including monthly variance analysis.
• Review and approve any Low / Medium value manual journals and any judgement based manual journals.

Management
:

• Overall responsibility of Market Controlling function activities, working closely with Global Corporate Finance, FP&A, Commercial Controlling Ops.
• Line management responsibility for market Controlling function; manage and lead the local Controllership team team to meet both Global and local objectives and goals as well as develop the team.
• Oversight and support of Bangalore team (dotted line) to resolve queries and ensure timely MEC.
• Collaborate with the Global Controlling team to share opportunities to standardise and enhance service delivery wherever they are delivered.
• Liaison with Heads of Department and commercial teams to support FCF target and maintain lean AR Aging profile.
• Creation and production of account receivable and payable management reports.
• Maintain and manage the for establishing and communicating expense reimbursement.
• Own the FCF and Working Capital Targets through focused cash collection drive, including with 3rd party collection agencies where appropriate, and ensure timely escalation.
• Manage and supervise tax compliance, intercompany operations, transfer pricing policies, etc.
• Collaborate with the Treasury team and manage local Banking relationship.

Process Improvement:

• Monitor operational KPIs and service delivery, working collaboratively with the Senior Director of Controlling Operations and the Bangalore Controlling Ops team to ensure actions are taken to address key risks and identify opportunities for improvement across the team.
• Review the Balance Sheet reconciliation process performed by the Controlling Operations team, assessing the quality of reconciliations, contributing to action plans to address unreconciled items and providing approvals for agreed Low or Medium priority reconciliations.
• Drive initiatives to improve Free Cash Flow and take ownership of the cash flow forecasts, contributing to the development of opportunities in the market and influencing stakeholders to support the achievement of cash flow targets. Identifying and implementing improvements to the balance sheet and cashflow forecasting and reporting processes.
• Provide input on the definition of reporting standards, policies, processes and internal controls with stakeholders including Controlling Operations and Corporate Finance, Tax and Treasury.
• Input to any Global and Market specific projects that are assigned, helping to ensure projects are successfully delivered and embedded in the organisation.
• Support the Bangalore Controlling Ops team to identify and implement opportunities to enhance and standardize processes and technology, including taking part in initiatives that will lead to being able to retire legacy applications by moving to our global process and systems.
• Provide inputs and guidance to the Bangalore Finance team to ensure that activities are performed in a timely and accurate manner.

Who you are:

• 10+yrs qualified accountant (CCAB, ACA, ACCA, CIMA) with PQE, ideally as Financial Controller in a previous role.
• Technically strong and analytical finance professional; strong knowledge and expertise of both US GAAP for the purpose of month end close reporting as well as IFRS for statutory financial statements.
• Ability to manage and influence change and deal effectively with change management initiatives
• Strong understanding and practical experience in internal and external audit.
• Good working knowledge of direct and indirect tax including corporation tax, VAT and WHT.
• Practical and hands on experience implementing and/or monitoring internal control systems; internal
• Audit experience is highly desirable.
• Team worker and strong communication skills
• Focused on delivering, pushing projects forward
• Able to work under pressure and respect deadlines