Finance Controller - NAM Region - Farmington Hills, MI

Overview:

Support APLL's finance operations for a Line of Business for Americas and EMEA regions with large-scale/complex operations through managing the budgeting, accounting, reporting, and timely billing to customers at the country level, as well as supporting continuous improvement and technology transformation of country finance operations.

Responsibilities:

Finance Operations (scope for all is Line of Business for Americas and EMEA Regions)

• Coordinate and support the budgeting process with large-scale/complex operations, working with the operations and/or commercial leadership team to determine and propose budget for the country
• Track financial accounting operations and processes by monitoring and reviewing key metrics periodically
• Support the periodic financial closing and reporting to senior leadership on balance sheet and P&L statements
• Support adherence to established standards for Finance data quality for reporting purposes
• Support finance operations team in ensuring customer invoicing meets established targets to ensure financial sustainability of APLL's operations, support collection efforts when escalation is required
• Monitor DSO and DPO, strive to maximize positive cash flow
• Review key financial health metrics regionally for large-scale/complex operations to assess gaps and implement measures to address gaps and maintain financial sustainability of the business
• Conduct deep dive and root cause analysis on critical and recurring Finance operations issues to discuss, identify and implement solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Finance processes and controls
• Support internal and statutory audit processes within the country, leading action to address audit findings, and ensuring robust controls to prevent future audit issues
• Oversee and sign off on payments for various purposes in line with authorized approval limits – secondary as Finance approver for vendors in LOB scope
• Work with the region/country Operations and Finance leadership to resolve major Finance operations-related issues and challenges

Finance Process and Operations Excellence

• Support the implementation of Finance processes, policies and guidelines for a country with large-scale/complex operations, in line with established Global best practices for APLL
• Review Finance processes, policies and guidelines to assess gaps and opportunity areas from efficiency and quality perspective
• Drive adoption of continuous improvement approaches and processes within the country finance team

Technology Management

• Support the development and implementation of a Finance systems technology roadmap, coordinating implementation of new systems and systems enhancements from at the country level to support, enable and enhance Finance operations and processes
• Provide feedback on Finance systems to regional and global finance leadership as well as IT teams to enable identification of gaps and opportunity areas
• Coordinate user testing at the country level for enhancements to Finance systems or for development and implementation of new systems
• Support change management within country Finance teams, working with the IT team, to ensure smooth and successful adoption of new business processes and associated technologies and systems.
• For GTG operating system, act as secondary point of contact for vendor, liaise with APLL IT and vendor to drive system stability, drive system enhancements.

Stakeholder 

Collaboration and Support

• Serve as a business partner to Operations teams supporting the LOB in all areas as required per the attached detailed responsibilities.
• Serve as a business partner to Commercial teams supporting the LOB in all areas as required per the attached detailed responsibilities.
• Maintain relationships with customers to work on addressing finance issues, ensuring timely collections etc.
• Observe, interpret and comply with the local tax regulations, work together with Tax Manager to ensure compliance and maximize utilization of the eligible tax benefit.

Team & People Management

• Support a culture of high performance and continuous improvement within the country finance operations team.

Qualifications:

EDUCATION

General Education

• Undergraduate degree in Business, Accounting, or Finance.
• A recognized accounting certification is a plus.

EXPERIENCE

General Experience

• Minimum 5 years’ working experience with progressively more respon