State Street - VP - Global Accounting Operations Regional Head

Driven by the Beacon initiatives, functionalization of the corporate functions and re-alignment of the Finance Operating Model, State Street has established the Global Accounting Operations (GAO) organization in 2017. GAO is a process-focused organization responsible for the majority of the record-to-report (R2R) activities performed at State Street. Organizationally, it combines all groups performing these activities Globally and also includes Accounting Centers residing in State Street Shared Service locations in Poland, India and China. GAO organization is established on principles of Global Process Ownership and process excellence, owning all aspects of business-as-usual activities within R2R areas and driving process improvements and automation Globally.

To achieve this objective, GAO has been structured into several distinct global units each is responsible for all aspects of selected major groups of R2R activities, such as Close & Consolidations, Revenue/Expense Accounting, Payroll Accounting, Intercompany Transactions, Specialized/Producing Accounting, Cash/Deposit governance and others. Each global unit will be responsible for all aspects of business-as-usual activities within their group of processes, as well as process re-engineering and automation activities - this includes leading process assessments; driving process design and process re-engineering work; co-owning technology initiatives bringing automation to GAO organization, working in close collaboration with the teams in Finance Technology, Finance Re-Engineering, Data Management, and other partnership organizations.

Goal of the position:

- BAU Responsibility for all operational accounting activities (preparer and reviewer) done in the region, responsibility for all accounting activities that produce GL entries

- Will be the lead for Product Specialized Accounting COE, Expense Accounting COE, Close Consolidation COE, Cash & Deposit Accounting and will be leading a team of 200 plus professionals.

- Data producer and provider to support Statutory, Reg. Reporting, Tax, Management Reporting

- Equal partner to the Country, Business (where deemed necessary) and Legal Entity controllers

- GAO Leader in the Region providing process leadership across all areas of GAO Responsibilities

- Representation of all GAO GPO's in the region, direct escalation mechanism to GAO

- Process controls, process oversight and process governance responsibility

- Process Re-Engineering, Automation and Change Management Leadership across areas of GAO responsibilities (partnering with FRIBS)

- Could have a dual role as a Global Process Owner for particular groups of processes

Responsibilities & Tasks Include:

Business As Usual (BAU) Activities:

1) General responsibility for all operational accounting activities in the region that generate GL entries

2) End-to-end responsibility for major groups of accounting processes: Expense Accounting, Revenue Accounting, Specialized Accounting, AP, AR, Cash Governance, Reconciliations/Certifications

3) GL maintenance, GL operations and GL oversight

4) Close & Consolidation process responsibility (closing entries, aggregation, step-consolidations, equity pickup, etc.), production of results by LE, required variance analysis

5) Responsibility for all operational accounting activities (preparation and review) in the region for:

a. Product Accounting (SSGA, GSA products, etc)

b. Capital Markets Accounting (accounting for FX, Treasury Products, Derivatives, Loans, Repo, Deposits/Placements, Securities Portfolio, Structured Products, Securities Lending, FX S&T, Broker Dealer)

c. Specialized accounting areas (Payroll, FA, RE, etc.)

6) Statutory accounting

7) Intercompany accounting - processing and settlements

8) Accounting data producer and supplier to Statutory Reporting, Reg. Reporting, Tax, Management Reporting areas

9) Maintaining robust control environment: process controls, process oversight and process governance responsibility

10) Representation of all GAO GPO's in the region, direct escalation mechanism to GAO

11) Recipient of services from accounting centers residing in shared service locations (Chennai, Coimbatore), oversight of SLA execution on behalf of the region and GAO organization

Process Re-Engineering, Automation and Change Management

- Process Re-Engineering, Automation and Change Management Leadership across areas of GAO responsibilities with focus on the supported region

- Responsibility for ongoing process improvements in GAO areas of responsibility in the region

- Responsibility for execution of right-placement strategy in the region

- Implementation support of the GAO process re-engineering and automation (jointly with FRIBS) efforts in the region (GL roll-outs, sub-ledger process automation, implementation of specialized tools, work-flow tools, etc.)

- Could have a dual role as a Global Process Owner for selected groups of processes

Team Management Responsibilities

- Overall responsibility for the set-up,stabilization,scalability of the Global Accounting Operation Center in India

- Work closely with the Head of Corporate Finance CoE & Global Head of GAO in order to make it self-sustaining center of excellence over a period of time

- Management of day-to-day activities performed by the GAO team located across the region through the different CoE leads

- Talent acquisition (hiring), training and development of staff, cross-training, ensuring back-ups

- On-going performance management, performance reviews, career planning and talent management

Job Requirements:

- Master's Degree in Accounting, Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA)/MBA-Finance 12-15 years of progressive experience in R2R areas with major financial institutions

- Demonstrated experience/expertise in driving Transformation / re-engineering initiatives across multi discipline Accounting platforms/processes

- Extensive practical experience and knowledge of the US GAAP and IFRS accounting standards for the above areas, experience with other accounting standards (German, etc.) is a plus

- Understanding of international regulatory landscape, experience with statutory accounting/reporting groups across several major international geographies

- Experience of building and maintaining strong control environment (risk excellence, experience with SOX, RCSA controls, etc.), establishing policies, procedures and strong internal controls

- Demonstrated leadership in improving/building-out the above process groups for multiple geographies and business areas

- Extensive experience of managing teams performing day-to-day accounting operations, month-end and quarter-end activities for the above areas of accounting

- Experience of leading re-engineering of R2R (record-to-report) processes and driving similar centralization of the end-to-end activities for the major financial institutions