The Global Accounting and Reporting (GAR) is committed to supporting business processes with a high level of integrity and credibility through developing, influencing and implementing global financial policy and process and effective partnering.
The Role Overview:
The Russian CIS Controller position covers the ownership and accountability for the Record to Report (R2R) figures reported in the country both for local GAAP and US GAAP. The Controller is expected to keep the Company compliant with all local finance and accounting statute. The role provides oversight and directs operations of the R2R team of in-country accountants. This position will be considered the escalation point of contact for the Russia and CIS legal entities and will be responsible for providing the right support to the different business customers. A successful Controller will create and retain excellent working relationships with the other Finance functions such as Tax, Treasury, Sales and Service Finance and where appropriate to the Business leaders. This position will report into the EMEAR GAR Director based in London.
Role & Responsibilities:
- Leading the Group Accounting and Reporting Organisation for the Russia and CIS countries
- Chief Accountant for the Cisco Russia legal entities
- Ownership and Accountability for the R2R figures reported in the Russia and CIS entities
- Escalation point of contact for the country at an entity level, providing rapid resolution or escalation of all GAR critical issues impacting his/her region business customers. Ensuring adequate and timely root cause analysis to understand problem drivers and implementation of necessary corrections and/or changes
- Providing oversight and coordination of the Dispute Resolution process between the affected parties
- Supervision and coordination in conjunction with the local accounting team to ensure the accuracy on the accounting processes and figures
- Ensuring that effective R2R delivery is performed in the country, including overall management of close and reporting requirements in line with Cisco policies
- Responsible for the ensuring Cisco policies are updated in response to changing environment and legislation
- Close collaboration with the Peer community by providing needed insights into process area and/or improvement strategies
- Accountable for the Statutory/Tax compliance commitment in the country
- Supervise external audits and give final sign-off to statutory accounts and financial statements
- Responsible for conducting country review of the Balance sheet with the Management team
- Responsible for the ensuring Cisco policies are updated in response to changing environment and legislation
- Accountable for the Cisco internal audits and controls (i.e. Internal Audit, SOX etc.)
- With cross-financial business partners, proactively contribute to the execution of corporate-wide finance initiatives within the country
- Accountable for the acquisition strategy and coordination with M&A team; running acquisition integration as it affects the country
- Main point of contact for the FP&A Team with regard to Actual and forecast comparisons where needed
- Reviewing and participating as appropriate in substantial changes to the existing model
- Identifying innovation, scalability opportunities within the country
- Ensuring cross-region opportunities are identified and cross-region areas for improvement are addressed
- Supervising and approving changes for compliance and tax regulations
- Take lead on various projects on processes and accounting requirements as set by Senior Management Team
- Accountable for any new business entity that is created in their region
- Interactions with the US team to ensure the accuracy on the close of his/her legal entities
Minimum Qualifications:
- Ideally, a minimum of 15 years relevant working experience ideally gained in an international oriented environment with exposure to Russia
- 5 Years of management experience in Finance & Accounting
- A recognized accounting qualification
- University degree
Desired Skills:
- Strong accounting background and a strong working knowledge of US GAAP and Russian GAAP
- Strong Understanding of Russian Financial regulations as it pertains to books and records
- Management experience junior staff and training new employees
- Data Analysis – essential
- Collaboration – essential
- Hyperion knowledge- advantageous
- MS Excel/ Powerpoint and word — advantageous
- Strong knowledge of local Russia ERP 1C — advantageous
- Strong oral and written communication skills in English and Russian
Personal attributes (attributes and behaviour expected):
- Ability to communicate effectively and to listen and understand concerns and issues
- Strong Business Understanding and acumen
- Ability to work with others in a formal process for solving issues and problems
- A wish to drive best practice and continuously challenge and drive initiatives
- Ability to quickly interpret and understand local requirements and valid treatments for both Local and US GAAP purposes
- Ability to work independently and effectively manage vendors