Lead Accountant France H / F

Our Client is currently looking for an experienced, hands-on Lead Accountant to lead the French operations. As Lead Accountant, reporting into the Global Controller, you will own all day-to-day accounting operations for the French entity, including General Ledger, Month end Closing, Payroll, Revenue Recognition, Invoicing and Accounts Receivable, VAT, Accounts Payable, Bank Account Reconciliations, Prepaid, Fixed Assets, Software Capitalization, Lease Accounting, CIR preparation, while ensuring compliance with US GAAP and local statutory accounting requirements, internal financial policies and procedures. You will also collaborate closely with the external firm we use to prepare and file French payroll and statutory accounts, as well as our French auditor. You will support the Global Controller on special projects and will interface and collaborate directly with other team members and external stakeholders to advance organizational goals, while maintaining appropriate Internal controls and ensuring the integrity of the accounting and financial data.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Own the month end close process for the French entity while working in collaboration with the Global accounting team resolving tasks and accounting matters.
2. Maintain local accounting books.
3. Review and monitor monthly French payroll process including JEs and accrual preparation.
4. Manage revenue recognition process while ensuring GAAP ASC 606 compliance and supporting automation initiatives, particularly for B2B and different payment channels.
5. Be heavily involved with B2B operations, invoicing and AR collections, including compliance with new French regulation requirements.
6. Process vendor and supplier bills, credit card and other bank transactions by coordinating necessary GL recording, approvals, and payments.
7. Prepare monthly reconciliations (bank account, fixed assets, other balance sheet accounts) for month end closing.
8. Manage travel expenses, all other reimbursable expenses and compliance with T&E policy.
9. Support tax and VAT compliance and filings.
10. Work with Global Controller in the completion of the annual GAAP financial audit and any other accounting and tax projects.
11. Lead the completion and filing of the annual French Statutory Audit (working in collaboration with local accounting audit firm).
12. In collaboration with Engineering and external firm support annual preparation and filing of CIR.
13. Create and/or update internal processes documentation on a regular basis.

Requirements:

1. Degree in Accounting or equivalent.
2. 5+ years of relevant accounting and tax experience.
3. Strong USA GAAP and French Statutory accounting.
4. GAAP - 606 Revenue Recognition knowledge.
5. Fluency in French and English.
6. Experience with Netsuite or other large ERP system.
7. Strong Excel skills.

We're also looking for:

1. Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively and work collaboratively across multiple teams.
2. Team player attitude and willing to GO the extra mile.
3. Attention to detail and accuracy, structured and autonomous working style.
4. Results driven with ability to organize, prioritize, solve problems and plan workload to meet deadlines in a fast paced environment.
5. Ability to manage the relationship with different internal and external stakeholders to ensure compliance with accounting and tax requirements are met.
6. Ability to analyze and provide recommendations for complex accounting issues.