Head of Finance Control and Change - London - £800-£860 per day - City of London

This job has now expired please search on the home page to find live IT Jobs.

Head of Finance Control and Change - Paddington, London - £800-£860 per day - 6 months

The work location is in Paddington, LONDON and is a 6 months contract.

Pay rate is between £800 - £860 per day.

The role is working for a well-established, multi-national retailer and specialises in clothing, home and luxury product.

The role owns the Financial Control Framework which includes:

* How Finance is governed (through committees, policies and procedures, delegated authorities, organisational structures, people capability and behaviours, reporting and communication)

* The definition of financial control within the company including relevant scope, materiality, risk and process definitions

* The approach to financial risk management and control including risk assessment, control identification, types of control, the methodology for testing of control activities, control remediation

* Sources of assurance

* Training requirements

* Assessment of the current and target levels of maturity of the financial control environment together with plans to achieve the target

* Approach to finance change management and process improvement

Key accountabilities

Maintain the control framework and deliver the associated plans. Specifically (in 19/20):

* Lead the completion of core process reviews identifying significant financial risks and associated control activities including:

* Treasury

* Pensions

* Indirect and direct taxes

* Contingent Liabilities

* Period End Close for weekly, quarterly and half-yearly activities

* Refresh of Inventory and Purchase to Pay

* Support Finance Systems and Technology control owners to:

* Identify relevant systems and interfaces

* Document and test general IT and specific Finance system and interface controls

* Build a systems simplification and improvement plan as part of the Technology transformation

* Support the organisation to develop:

* A financial policy suite

* Formal delegations of authority

* Finance change management principles

* Co-ordinate other assurance providers including Internal and External Audit to map sources of assurance against control activities, eliminating any unnecessary double counting

* Subsequently, lead the planning and delivery of the controls testing assigned to the Change and Control team

* Monitor and drive the completion of any remediation arising from the process reviews and subsequent testing

* Develop and deliver relevant training for control owners and operators

* Drive the completion of the SAP GRC implementation including fixing legacy roles identified as containing segregation of duties conflicts and embedding the new access request management tool

* Maintain the framework and Controls Portal

* Communicate and report framework updates, the status of the plan and findings from testing to senior Finance and Business stakeholders on a quarterly basis

* Co-ordinate the completion of certain assurance activities undertaken by the business (including periodic finance declarations and certifications)

* Manage the relationships with internal and external assurance stakeholders, acting as the first point of Finance contact

Key measures:

* Timely delivery of each element of the plan set out above

* Positive feedback from control and assurance stakeholders on the strength of the financial control environment

Key skills

* Qualified accountant with at least 10 years PQE with extensive experience in risk, control and assurance (gained either through an external or internal audit background)

* Robust controls ethic and mind-set

* Strong understanding of processes, articulating risk and identifying mitigating controls

* Ability to challenge current processes and develop practical process improvement and control solutions

* Strong influencer, particularly of more senior stakeholders

* Self-starter who possesses the ability and drive to operate independently

* Comfortable operating outside a defined role remit or profile

* High cultural awareness

* Tenacious, consistently maintaining integrity and a sense of professionalism

* Structured and logical problem solver

* Effective manager of stakeholders

* Project and team manager

Key relationships and stakeholders