Leader - FAST - Finance & Accounting - CA/CPA

Leader - FAST - Finance & Accounting

Key criteria : The candidate should have proven experience of scaling a CAS practice to 200-member team and building second, third line of leadership in the team

Objectives of the role/position :

- To grow a Service & Delivery team in Wipfli India office to deliver Client Accounting Services (FAST), leveraging the India advantage, by collaborating with India leadership and US service line leadership.

- Collaborate with the US leaders and Partners to transform Wipfli FAST services from a Compliance mindset to a Consultative mindset (or Advisory), in a way that the India office Service Delivery team contributes to the Firms Vision and Objectives.

- Participate in the development and execution of Business Process Improvement through innovative Methodologies, Technologies, Tools and other Best practices in alignment with Wipfli accounting practice and staying abreast of changes in the Industry.

- Provide Thought Leadership to the Practice.

- Collaborate with the leadership team and partners for work transition to India office. Collaborate with US partners and managers to plan short volume filler works to utilize teams free time.

- Support and enable all Operational and people aspects of FAST Practice in India.

- Collaborate with the other Office Leaders in India/US to support the Firms growth and operations.

- Lead continuous improvements for the India FAST Practice and participate in overall FAST practice.

- Learn, practise, and promote The Wipfli Way culture that is based on Arbingers Outward Mindset principles.

- Constant monitoring of metrics such as Capacity, Utilization, Contribution margins of the FAST Service Line in India. Timely alerts, interventions to have a metrics that is in line with the goal/expected level.

- Responsibility for learning and development initiatives of the Wipfli India FAST associates, training capabilities, coaching, mentoring and living up to our Office 39 expectations

- Proactive approach for better utilization of India team hours during the 2nd half of the month, and teams skill management.

- Participate in hiring: Strategy, assessment, selection, and staffing

Core responsibilities :

Provide Thought Leadership :

- Provide Thought Leadership in Services & Delivery FAST Practice

- Strategic, creative thinking to generate impact out of results.

- Leverage prior experience to bring to the table new growth opportunities in Outsourced Services in FAST.

- Utilizing past experiences to help in the refinement of our initial business processes, as well as the bridge to workflow back in the US. Also, monitoring when/how these processes need to evolve as momentum is achieved

- Lead Indias participation in the collaboration required with US FAST team, to make the Wipfli FAST team high functioning, leveraging the strengths of Indias right-shoring model.

- Collaborate with Audit and Tax service line to utilize any of the skills and bandwidth that are available to make the process lean

Constantly look for new growth opportunities :

- Under the guidance of the Firms FAST leadership, responsible for executing on the expansion of the FAST practice in India.

- Collaborate with the Firms leaders in Leadership grooming, team development and succession planning.

- Performance coaching, mentoring, looking at career paths, appraisals, promotions, compensation, etc., of Team members/Associates.

- Constantly work on Organizations Objectives to enhance the positive impact and results of the teams, Organization and the customers.

Leverage Technology and Support operations :

- Bring to the table ideas for Process automation, new Technology initiatives to increase productivity and profitability, Process improvement, etc. (or efficiency)

- Collaborate with in-house technology teams to leverage on technology innovation and possible adoptions in processes.

- Actively participate in staffing efforts, Associate growth, capacity planning, utilization, interviews, team expansion, etc.

Accept, Implement and deliver on any additional Requirements as decided by the Firms Leadership.

Core skills :

- At least 15+ years experience in US CAS practice

- Have taken up leadership roles at India office to spearhead the service delivery in Accounting.

- Education should be CA/CPA

- Should have excellent leadership skills in delivery and people management

- Extremely good and up to date in technical knowledge (US GAAP and GAAS) and should have hands-on experience in Accounting

- Ability and willingness to train and mentor the teams

- Should have a proven experience of hiring, grooming, mentoring and growing teams.

- Actively involved in work transition from US to India offices

- Brings creative/innovative ideas to the table to facilitate the service line growth & efficiency

- Should be part of technology initiatives related to process automation.

- Excellent communication written and verbal

- Should have good hands-on experience in accounting and technology tools such as MS Office, Accounting packages such as Quickbooks, Intacct, or Bill.com or expensify, etc.

- Past experience of participating in business development/growth support.

Reporting: India leadership on people & culture, US leadership on service line growth & delivery