The overall objective of the Cocoa Financial Controller role is to manage transactional accounting, product control, management reporting, and assist with FP&A for the London cocoa trading business, as well as the offshore components of ECOM’s West Africa + Latin America cocoa procurement businesses. They will be expected to pro-actively identify business process improvement opportunities, and to improve the efficiency of the accounting function. There is also scope for involvement in operational control work, and project work for the new system implementations at ECOM.
The Financial Controller will work within the Cocoa Business, and be expected to manage a team of 2 Trade Accountants in London, supported by an in-house accounting support team based in India.
There will be plenty of direct involvement with the trading + logistics teams, so through the individual’s work, they will have the opportunity to learn the business in depth, gain extensive exposure to how a complex multinational group is managed, how commodity markets work, and improve their commercial acumen.
Key Responsibilities:
* Oversee the daily transactional accounting for ECOM’s London cocoa trading desk, such as accounts payable, cash accounting, broker accounting, daily P&L, and invoice approvals. Provide cover to the team as and when needed.
* Manage the month-end closing process for the cocoa trading profit centres, including control approvals, accrual calculations, forward book preparation/review.
* Oversee the product control activities such as new business reporting, and daily PnL approval.
* Manage queries from trade and shipping teams, and be key point of contact to incorporate new commercial activities into our business process and accounting workstreams.
* Pro-actively propose and implement process improvements across the areas of responsibility mentioned above, to improve efficiency, accuracy and timeliness of management reporting.
* Assist in preparation for new system implementations.
Skills & Experience
* Qualified Accountant with min 3 years PQE.
* Relevant finance experience in the commodity trading industry, or at a minimum a strong working knowledge of mark to market accounting within a trading business.
* Track record demonstrating ability to initiate and execute process improvements.
* Excellent Excel skills; interest in and aptitude for systems, as well as a data-driven approach to problem-solving, is essential.
* Strong communication skills, including experience reporting to commercial stakeholders, and ability to manage people.
* Ideally would have previous supervisory experience.
* Self-starter with attention to detail, ability to manage and prioritise workload, and independently work through issues to propose solutions.
Seniority level
Associate
Employment type
Full-time
Job function
Accounting/Auditing, Finance, and Business Development
Industries
International Trade and Development, Financial Services, and Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage
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