Senior Accounting Governance Specialist

We're Hiring: Senior Accounting Governance Specialist
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to maintaining strong financial governance, accounting integrity, regulatory compliance, and consistent financial reporting across diverse markets.
Our Finance teams collaborate across Accounting, Financial Reporting, FP&A, Tax, Treasury, Internal Audit, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Technology, and business functions to establish effective accounting policies, controls, governance frameworks, and reporting standards.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Senior Accounting Governance Specialist to lead accounting governance, policy management, financial-control frameworks, technical accounting oversight, reporting standards, accounting judgments, and continuous improvement of the organization's finance governance environment.
The ideal candidate will ensure accounting practices are consistent, well-controlled, properly documented, compliant with applicable standards, and aligned with organizational policies and business requirements.
Key Responsibilities
Develop and maintain the accounting governance framework, policies, standards, procedures, and guidance.
Establish clear accounting governance principles, roles, responsibilities, approval authorities, and escalation mechanisms.
Maintain an effective accounting policy governance structure across entities and business units.
Monitor compliance with applicable accounting standards, regulatory requirements, and internal finance policies.
Interpret new and amended accounting standards and assess their potential impact on the organization.
Monitor developments under IFRS, IAS, and other applicable financial reporting frameworks.
Coordinate implementation of new accounting standards across affected finance processes and reporting areas.
Prepare accounting policy updates, technical guidance, implementation plans, and communication materials.
Develop accounting position papers for significant, complex, or judgmental transactions.
Review accounting treatments for non-routine transactions, contracts, investments, acquisitions, disposals, financing arrangements, and business changes.
Assess accounting implications of new products, services, contracts, business models, and organizational structures.
Provide guidance on complex accounting judgments, estimates, classifications, recognition, measurement, and disclosure requirements.
Review significant accounting judgments and estimates for consistency, supportability, and appropriate documentation.
Establish governance requirements for accounting judgments, assumptions, estimates, and management overlays.
Coordinate with business and finance teams to ensure accounting conclusions are properly implemented.
Review financial reporting processes for compliance with approved accounting policies.
Establish accounting governance requirements for month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close activities.
Monitor consistency of accounting practices across legal entities, business units, and reporting locations.
Identify inconsistent accounting treatments and coordinate remediation.
Establish appropriate accounting approval and review requirements for material transactions.
Develop and maintain accounting policy manuals, technical accounting guidance, and governance documentation.
Maintain a central repository of accounting policies, position papers, interpretations, approvals, and supporting documentation.
Establish governance over changes to accounting policies, procedures, charts of accounts, and reporting structures.
Support chart-of-accounts governance and ensure appropriate alignment with financial reporting requirements.
Establish controls over account definitions, mapping, classifications, and reporting hierarchies.
Coordinate with Financial Reporting teams to ensure accounting policies are reflected accurately in financial statements and disclosures.
Review financial statement disclosures for consistency with accounting policies and applicable reporting standards.
Support the preparation and review of technical accounting disclosures and accounting-policy notes.
Coordinate with Internal Audit, External Audit, Risk, Compliance, and other assurance functions on accounting-governance matters.
Respond to audit queries relating to accounting policies, judgments, estimates, transactions, and financial reporting.
Track audit findings and coordinate corrective actions relating to accounting governance.
Assess accounting risks and maintain an accounting governance risk register where appropriate.
Develop accounting control frameworks covering policy compliance, journal entries, reconciliations, estimates, disclosures, and reporting processes.
Evaluate the design and operating effectiveness of accounting controls.
Identify accounting-control gaps and develop remediation plans.
Monitor recurring accounting errors, reporting issues, policy exceptions, and control deficiencies.
Conduct root-cause analysis of significant accounting issues and establish sustainable corrective actions.
Establish formal processes for accounting-policy exceptions and deviations.
Review and approve accounting-policy exceptions within delegated authority.
Maintain documentation of accounting decisions, approvals, exceptions, and remediation actions.
Support finance transformation initiatives by ensuring new systems and processes comply with accounting governance requirements.
Review ERP, financial-reporting, consolidation, and accounting-system changes from a governance perspective.
Define accounting requirements for system implementations, upgrades, process changes, and finance automation.
Ensure accounting policies are appropriately reflected in automated workflows, system configurations, and reporting logic.
Support data governance initiatives affecting financial reporting, chart of accounts, master data, and accounting information.
Coordinate with Tax, Treasury, FP&A, Procurement, Legal, Commercial, and Operations teams on accounting implications of business activities.
Provide accounting governance guidance for intercompany transactions, related-party transactions, leases, revenue, provisions, impairments, financial instruments, and other material accounting areas.
Support governance over accounting estimates, provisions, impairment assessments, fair-value processes, and other areas involving significant judgment.
Develop accounting training, guidance, and awareness programs for Finance teams and relevant business stakeholders.
Conduct workshops on accounting policies, new standards, governance requirements, and technical accounting matters.
Monitor adherence to accounting governance requirements and conduct periodic reviews or assessments.
Benchmark accounting governance practices against industry standards and leading practices.
Identify opportunities to strengthen accounting governance through automation, analytics, standardized documentation, and improved controls.
Maintain an accounting governance roadmap aligned with Finance strategy and organizational objectives.
Provide senior management with regular reporting on accounting governance, policy compliance, risks, exceptions, audit matters, and improvement initiatives.
Key Performance Indicators
Accounting policy compliance rate
Accounting governance framework maturity
Policy review completion rate
Accounting policy update timeliness
New accounting-standard implementation readiness
Technical accounting assessment completion
Accounting position-paper quality
Accounting judgment documentation completeness
Accounting estimate governance compliance
Policy exception rate
Policy exception resolution time
Accounting treatment consistency
Financial reporting compliance
Financial statement disclosure accuracy
Accounting error rate
Recurring accounting issue rate
Accounting control effectiveness
Control deficiency rate
Corrective-action closure rate
Audit finding resolution
Audit adjustment rate
External audit query resolution time
Internal audit issue resolution
Month-end close compliance
Year-end reporting readiness
Chart-of-accounts governance compliance
Account classification accuracy
Financial data-quality performance
Accounting-system control compliance
ERP accounting configuration accuracy
Financial reporting reconciliation accuracy
Intercompany accounting compliance
Related-party transaction governance
Significant transaction review completion
Accounting approval compliance
Documentation completeness
Governance training completion
Finance stakeholder awareness
Accounting policy adoption
Governance review completion
Accounting risk mitigation effectiveness
Accounting process improvement delivery
Finance governance automation rate
Accounting governance stakeholder satisfaction
Reporting timeliness
Continuous-improvement implementation rate
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate should have strong experience in accounting govern

Work arrangement
Yes