Finance Controller at GE Healthcare

The Finance Controller provides technical Controllership guidance to both finance and operations leaders across Countries within the GE Healthcare East Africa Local Contact Team (LCT). The Controller will be responsible for adherence to Globally accepted as well as GE-specific and local accounting policies, financial systems and internal controls.

Responsibilities

• Collaboration with shared service finance and accounting teams for ‘Record to Report’ in Budapest, Hungary as well as third party teams in other countries to ensure timely and accurate recording of financial transactions in compliance with appropriate accounting standards
• Financial statements must reflect a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the management and statutory books and a high quality of book-keeping is expected
• The Controller is responsible for the accuracy of the balance sheet, income statement and cashflow statements of their entity or entities and other financial reporting modules
• Through the shared services organization, completion of the balance sheet account reconciliations within corporate deadlines and with no aged unreconciled accounts
• Alignment of local policies with relevant Global Process Enterprise Standard (ES) owners to ensure timely filing of all statutory and regulatory records and ensure smooth engagement with external regulators, tax authorities, external and internal auditors (including the GE Corporate Audit Staff)
• Ensuring accurate and timely revenue recognition in line with GE GAP and maintenance of appropriate revenue reserves
• Monitoring inventory & fixed asset levels and ensure regular counts, reserves and adjustments are made in compliance with company policy and processes
• Strong engagement with independent third parties and channel partners who represent GE Healthcare in the market place, ensuring adherence to GE’s policies and procedures for compliance and risk management
• Lead periodic process and compliance audits including but not limited to inventory counts
• Perform routine trainings/refreshers to non-Finance personnel on key compliance & controllership policies and procedures that guide commercial operations
• Close collaboration with Africa and Global controllership teams and regional or technical Centers Of Excellence to build a culture of two-way knowledge and information sharing
• Research and advise on complex technical accounting issues in co-ordination with Africa or Regional Commercial Controllers and a flexibility to work on regional or global projects as required by their skillset
• The preparation of quarterly pre-close and CFO risk review packs in addition monthly controllership reviews with key operations and financial management personnel, noting a heavy focus on cashflow and cash needs to maximize free cash flow for the local business
• Partnership with GE Corporate Audit Staff and Finance Managers for internal GE compliance reviews. Drive closure of open audit issues and proactively work to prevent future issues / manage risk
• Lead resulting corrective action process implementation and follow up throughout the organization
• Provide required mentoring, coaching of subordinate Controllers/Finance team members to ensure personal and professional growth and promote open reporting/compliance mindset within Team
• Champion compliance & risk mitigation and foster strong compliance culture – engage relevant COE’s including, but not limited to Customs & Compliance specialists to ensure prompt identification and mitigation of compliance risks related to commercial activities
• Implement, maintain and optimize required internal controls within East Africa LCT in line with GE SOX requirements and as appropriate for local risk management
• Provide strong operational support to commercial and order operations management teams. Give financial and leadership support to teams on the ground to help execute in a challenging environment and navigate through complexity

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree or equivalent in accounting, finance, or other business related field and minimum of 7 years progressive accounting or finance experience or equivalent knowledge or experience
• Demonstrated proficiency in U.S. GAAP, local GAAP and authoritative accounting literature (i.e. FASB pronouncements)
• CPA / CA, “Big 4” Audit, GE Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) or Internal Audit experience not mandatory but added advantage
• Having expertise on multiple deliverable Revenue models is an asset

Desired Characteristics

Integrity

• accepting and adhering to high moral, ethical, and personal values in decisions, communications, actions and when dealing with others

Confidence/Assertiveness

• strong influencing & communication skills, notably for resourcing and adoption of bigger global projects or to push back on local initiatives
• Experience working in a global business environment with sound understanding of global process and transactional flows, while being able to work within teams that require collaboration for a big win outcome, sometimes at the expense of one’s own organisation
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to communicate complex business issues in a clear/concise manner
• Clear thinking/problem solving strong bias for simplification and process improvements
• Experience working in a matrixed environment