Finance Controller/Business Analyst - NAM Region - Farmington Hills, MI

Overview:

Support APLL's finance operations for a Line of Business for Americas and EMEA regions with large-scale/complex operations through managing the budgeting, accounting, reporting, and timely billing to customers at the country level, as well as supporting continuous improvement and technology transformation of country finance operations.

Responsibilities:

Finance Operations (scope for all is Line of Business for Americas and EMEA Regions):

• Coordinate and support the budgeting process with large-scale/complex operations, working with the operations and/or commercial leadership team to determine and propose budget for the country
• Track financial accounting operations and processes by monitoring and reviewing key metrics periodically
• Support the periodic financial closing and reporting to senior leadership on balance sheet and P&L statements
• Support adherence to established standards for Finance data quality for reporting purposes
• Support finance operations team in ensuring customer invoicing meets established targets to ensure financial sustainability of APLL's operations, support collection efforts when escalation is required
• Monitor DSO and DPO, strive to maximize positive cash flow
• Review key financial health metrics regionally for large-scale/complex operations to assess gaps and implement measures to address gaps and maintain financial sustainability of the business
• Conduct deep dive and root cause analysis on critical and recurring Finance operations issues to discuss, identify and implement solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Finance processes and controls
• Support internal and statutory audit processes within the country, leading action to address audit findings, and ensuring robust controls to prevent future audit issues
• Oversee and sign off on payments for various purposes in line with authorized approval limits – secondary as Finance approver for vendors in LOB scope
• Work with the region/country Operations and Finance leadership to resolve major Finance operations-related issues and challenges

Finance Process and Operations Excellence

• Support the implementation of Finance processes, policies and guidelines for a country with large-scale/complex operations, in line with established Global best practices for APLL
• Review Finance processes, policies and guidelines to assess gaps and opportunity areas from efficiency and quality perspective
• Drive adoption of continuous improvement approaches and processes within the country finance team

Technology Management

• Support the development and implementation of a Finance systems technology roadmap, coordinating implementation of new systems and systems enhancements from at the country level to support, enable and enhance Finance operations and processes
• Provide feedback on Finance systems to regional and global finance leadership as well as IT teams to enable identification of gaps and opportunity areas
• Coordinate user testing at the country level for enhancements to Finance systems or for development and implementation of new systems
• Support change management within country Finance teams, working with the IT team, to ensure smooth and successful adoption of new business processes and associated technologies and systems.
• For GTG operating system, act as secondary point of contact for vendor, liaise with APLL IT and vendor to drive system stability, drive system enhancements.

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

• Conduct “deep dive” reviews of financial data to uncover trends and patterns. Deploy different types of advance data analytics to identify anomalies, outliers and leakages in transactions to mitigate risks and optimize profit. 
• Align with stakeholders on key metrics, design and propose experimentation strategies to continually raise the bar on our analytical capabilities
• Ensure data accuracy by mining, cleaning, and analyzing large datasets for effective use-case development of BI and dashboard visualization solutions. 
• Interpret results using a variety of techniques, ranging from simple data aggregation via statistical analysis to complex data mining.
• Develop, optimize financial reporting and enhance data automation to enable reliable self-service reports and streamline financial closing process.
• Use BI tools to create compelling data visualization and dashboards to generate timely, meaningful and actionable insights in driving critical business decision making. 
• Predictive Modelling: Building models to forecast future outcomes based on historical data. This can involve machine learning techniques like regression, classification, and clustering.
• Support projects or gathering of additional data for ad-hoc analysis as needed

Stakeholder Collaboration and Support

• Serve as a business partner to Operations teams supporting the LOB in all areas as required per the attached detailed responsibilities.
• Serve as a business partner to Commercial teams supporting the LOB in all areas as required per the attached detailed responsibilities.
• Maintain relationships with customers to work on addressing finance issues, ensuring timely collections etc.
• Observe, interpret and comply with the local tax regulations, work together with Tax Manager to ensure compliance and maximize utilization of the eligible tax benefit.

Team & People Management

• Support a culture of high performance and continuous improvement within the country finance operations team.

Qualifications:

• A recognized accounting certification is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science or any other related discipline or commensurate work experience or demonstrated competence preferred
• Proven experience in financial data analytics, reporting automation, and Power BI tools.

General Experience:

• Experience with progressively more responsibility.
• Strong numerical, analytical, and problem-solving skills with strong business acumen. 
• Heavy experience with P&L and Balance Sheet analysis, customer pricing experience a plus.
• Sound knowledge of risks and internal controls in an organization.

Candidates must be within 250 miles of an APL Logistics facility or office.

The typical starting salary range for this position is: $95,000 - $115,000.

The actual salary offer will take into account multiple factors including skills, experience, and location. Please note that the salary details listed in role postings reflect the base salary only, not total compensation, which includes bonus and benefits.

Candidates are eligible for the following benefits: 
 
• PTO 
• 6 days sick time
• 9 paid holidays
• 1 paid "Personal Holiday"
• Company Bonus Plan
• 401(K) SAVE Plan
• Annual Fixed Contribution
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life & Disability coverage
• Voluntary Benefits
• Accident/Critical Illness/Hospital Indemnity Benefits
• Tuition reimbursement and student loan assistance
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer funding and wellness incentives
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Employee Referral Program