What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Accountant (Contract) position at PQ?
Company Description
PQ is a leading global provider of silicates, silicas and derivative products. PQ's products are used in a wide variety of industrial processes and many customer products, from decorative paints to green cement, from clean drinking water to green tires and from toothpaste to biofuels and beer.
Ideal candidates resonate with PQ's Core Values of Integrity, Sustainability, People, Customer Focus and Safety. Successful employees embrace and model these values in their behaviors and actions.
Job Description
We are looking for a highly motivated senior accountant to perform and support accounting duties within our organization. The senior accountant will report to Accounting Manager, Americas. The senior accountant's responsibilities include full ownership of Canadian Entity. Performing account reconciliations, maintaining the general ledger, assisting with audit preparations, preparing financial reports, and performing other accounting duties as assigned.
To be successful as a senior accountant, you must have the ability to assume ownership of various processes and reports, have a solid working knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and Canadian GAAP with strong financial analysis skills. An outstanding senior accountant should also possess excellent Excel skills, embrace new challenges, be detail-oriented, highly organized, able to work with little to no supervision, and perform under pressure.
- Act as a point of contact for Canadian Entity which involves 3 manufacturing plants.
- Accurately prepare and record complex monthly journal entries in relation to month end close.
- Prepare Balance Sheet account reconciliations, and assist with forecasting expenses in assigned accounts, where applicable.
- Communicate, escalate, and coordinate with plant managers, segment leads, functional department heads and third-party service providers to obtain and/or transmit information needed for analysis, forecast, journals and reconciliations.
- Acquire an understanding of transactional flows within the business process related to assigned general ledger accounts.
- Responsible for creating approved projects in SAP
- Maintain internal control compliance, identify control weaknesses, and support internal and external audit requests.
- Suggest process improvements to ensure that effective controls are maintained over the financial accounting and reporting for the region.
- Create and/or update detailed process documentation, ensuring accounting implications of processes are clearly understood.
- Monitor compliance with generally accepted accounting principles and company procedures.
- Preparation of quarterly and annual schedules as required by corporate accounting and external auditors
- Effectively communicate with cross functional departments.
- Prepare special projects, ad hoc requests, and other analysis as assigned by management.
- Exercise discretion and independent judgment when dealing with critical and confidential matters within the Americas Finance Department.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Finance, Accounting or other applicable major.
- 3-5 years of progressive accounting experience preferred, with manufacturing experience a plus.
- Working knowledge of US GAAP.
- Experience with ERP systems: SAP
- Experience with finance consolidation system: OneStream.
- High energy individual, self-starter, results focused.
- Ability to remain organized and prioritize tasks while maintaining a high level of attention to detail.
- Strong desire to succeed and achieve goals, have a continuous improvement and development mindset.
- Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
- Ability to communicate with both internal and external customers, executive management, and colleagues at all levels within the organization.
Additional Information
EHS Responsibilities
- Communicates, promotes and personally demonstrates Safety/Health (including PQP Principles) as #1 priority
- Participation in risk assessment audits as applicable
- Understand PQ Principles (PQP) and how they are implemented in the site organization, rules and procedures
- Completes HSE training requirements identified for the job in a timely manner
PQ is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. Click on the link to read Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal (eeoc.gov). For more information, please review the link Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov).
