Principal in Finance Control

The organisation

This vacancy is for one of the biggest banks in the Netherlands. A financial giant based in Amsterdam.

The position

Group Finance/ Reporting Control Management is the corporate staff department responsible for the Internal Control over Financial Reporting. In this capacity the team is the linking pin between the Group Finance and the other corporate departments, local entities of the bank and shared service centers. This includes maintaining the day-to-day relationship with the local finance control officers and taking the ownership for implementing the requirements leading to a sound internal control over global reporting processes.

The department supports internal stakeholders within Group Finance by ensuring that the processes, controls and their testing is performed in line with the internal and external reporting requirements. Further internal stakeholders are non-financial risk departments, enterprise risk management business representatives, internal and external auditors.

Tasks & responsibilities

As a Principal in Finance Control, you are co-responsible for maintaining an effective framework for identifying and reducing reporting risks as well as increasing control awareness. You are strongly result-oriented professional who continuously looks for ways to drive change/improve and deliver high quality. You have a deep knowledge and experience and dare to speak out. You are capable to translate a generic strategy into tangible actions, approach issues from a ‘helicopter’ perspective but can also handle issues in detail when necessary. You are independent but also able to work in small teams coaching more junior team members or as part of larger (multi-disciplinary) projects and programs.

The team’s tasks include the following, in which you will play a principal role:

• Develop, update and maintain the bank their guidance on Internal Control over Financial Reporting (such as yearly update of the Entity Level Controls Framework (incl test plans), evaluation of deficiency guidelines and reporting instructions).
• In this role you need to coordinate and actively participate in the ICFR/SOX404 sign-off process. Which will be with involvement in the local sign off of countries and Business Lines and Corporate Departments. Also the coordination and evaluation of the bank their wide focus area (e.g. IT controls, Loan Loss Provisioning, Disclosures). You will be responsible for the coordination and execution of the testing of the Entity Level Controls framework, based on the COSO2013 framework, mainly done via interviews throughout the bank and the assessment of documentation.
• You will help with the implementation of internal controls which will include new accounting standards (e.g. recent changes include IFRS 9 and IFRS 16). The Increase of Sox scope, new locations added and need to apply the Sox controls for the first time. You will also help with the identified deficiencies throughout the organization, indication for attention areas where guidance needs to be improved or training should be given. Also important in this role is that you will do ad hoc request for deep dives from senior management and also ICFR assessment of errors found in financial reporting and/or controls. Seek opportunities for control optimization that is still SOX compliant and ways to reduce the finance control burden on the business. Align with other control frameworks as a contributor/advisor to the Enterprise Risk Management environment.
• As the Principal in Finance Control you will be responsible for the quality of documents for the ICFR governance meetings. To do this you will be participating in open hours, which is a weekly call with all FCOs worldwide where all areas of attention, comments from second line and the external auditors are shared. This is based on the involvement in a specific focus area.
• As Principle in Finance Control you will also be assisting entities with the implementation of the Process Control Standard on Financial and Regulatory reporting (PCS FRR) and you will also be enhancing guidance and evaluation tooling with regard to PCS FRR.
• Next to that you will coordinate our external auditor account, incl. monitoring of independence and fees. Where you will be assisting in the preparation of the global contract and you will also be participating in fee and scope discussions. You will be assessing situations to determine if certain activities performed by the external auditors are not in breach with the independence policy and you will be assisting/coordinating of the evaluation of the external auditor. With then reporting on the above items related to the external auditor to the Executive Board and Audit Committee.
• As the Principal in Finance Control you will be the Group Finance GCR application expert. You will be representing Group Finance in the user board of the bank their GRC application, making sure the ICFR requirements are embedded. So you will be acting as the expert on the use of the tool for Group Finance and the ICFR community.
• Furthermore you will develop training materials and providing trainings and workshops to a wide community of global finance control officers, bringing bank-wide control knowledge up to a required level.

Candidate profile

You have a hands-on approach and a healthy dose of organisation sensitivity combined with an independent state of mind. You are convincing in your work and critical (in a positive sense) of your own performance and you have a strong focus on stakeholders, supported by excellent collaboration skills.
In addition, you have:

• An academic degree in Finance or Economics, preferably supplemented by an RA (or equivalent) or CIA certificate or in the final stage of studying for this
• 7+ years of work experience in (external/internal) audit
• A deep understanding of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the COSO 2013 internal controls framework
• Proven experience in complex business process improvements, including design, implementation and execution of (regulatory) oversight processes
• A deep understanding of IT, IT related controls (including IT general controls and application controls) is a pre
• Demonstrable knowledge of banking business processes and knowledge of the relevant (legal) regulations and procedures
• Experience with multi-layered financial statement closing processes, loan loss provisioning and IT general controls;
• Superb business acumen and communication skills to help the business and its stakeholders understand, relate to and action key elements of his/her agenda;
• Possess a highly ethical and professional “executive” demeanor, along with sound judgement and confidence to represent ING in both formal and informal settings;
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as a business partner and trusted advisor to the senior management, as well as other internal clients;
• Exceptional influencing skills, being assertive without being antagonistic or alienating;
• Fluent in English (both writing and speaking);
• Bring global perspective and cultural sensitivity;
• Furthermore, you adhere to the ING values and it is evident for you that your behavior is fully aligned with the Orange Code.

The offer

Our client wants to make sure that it’s possible for you to strike the right balance between your career and your private life. The benefits of working with this big financial corporate includes:

A salary tailored to your qualities and experience, with a 13th month and 8% holiday payment. You will also receive a pension scheme and an individual Savings Contribution (BIS), 3.5% of your gross annual salary. With around 24-27 vacation days depending on your contract. This all in an environment where the bank stimulates personal growth and gives you challenging work with endless possibilities.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below.