Senior Accountant - Permanent Contract

Aria; Paris; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Swile Meal Vouchers

Green Commuting

Culture Pass

Fitness Pass

Fresh Snacks

Job summary

Aria is seeking a Senior Accountant to lead month-end close, ensure accurate financial reporting, and implement improvements across FP&A, tax, and compliance. You will work with the CFO, Financial Controller, and Accounting Director in a fast-growing fintech environment in Paris, with a Junior Accountant supporting you.

The role focuses on FCT structures, invoicing automation, and consolidations using Pennylane and Fintheses, in a bilingual French/English setting.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years in accounting with hands-on operational accounting
• Professional accounting qualification (DEC/DSCG or equivalent)
• Strong knowledge of French GAAP (Plan Comptable Général)
• Experience with full close, cash flow, and consolidation
• Hands-on month-end close and improving timelines/quality
• Detailed reconciliations (bank, intercompany, subledger-to-GL)
• Revenue recognition, accruals, prepayments, and provisions
• Experience with structured finance vehicles (FCTs) desirable
• Proficiency with cloud accounting systems (Pennylane, Xero, Sage, NetSuite)
• Advanced Excel skills
• Fluency in French and English
• Strong attention to detail and autonomous ownership
• Knowledge of IFRS
• Fintech/financial services experience with complex funding
• Multi-entity/multi-currency accounting
• Big 4/mid-tier audit background
• Invoicing automation or billing system design
• VAT knowledge across EU jurisdictions

Responsibilities

• Month-End Close & Financial Reporting ownership to shorten close timelines
• Review FCT accounting, develop sustainable framework and intercompany eliminations
• Redesign invoicing process and support automation roadmap
• Establish month-end reconciliation framework for all material accounts
• Oversee day-to-day bookkeeping and AP processes in Pennylane
• Own ERP configuration and data integrity for Pennylane and Fintheses
• Support external audits with schedules, reconciliations, and statutory statements
• Drive process improvements and automation to scale finance operations

Skills

Strong accounting skills

IFRS knowledge

Advanced Excel

French & English proficiency

Education

DEC/DSCG or ACA/ACCA/CIMA

Tools

Pennylane

Xero

Sage

NetSuite

Job description

The role

We are looking for a strong, technically capable Senior Accountant to join the accounting team and work alongside the existing Accounting Director and Financial Controller. This is a hands‑on role with significant scope to improve the quality, speed, and rigour of our accounting and month‑end processes. You will work closely with the Financial Controller on a day‑to‑day basis, with regular interaction with the CFO and the broader finance team including FP&A, Capital Markets, and Finance Operations. You will also have a Junior Accountant / Accounting Intern supporting you.

Prime location: Stunning offices located in the heart of Le Marais (4th Arrondissement, Paris).

Key Responsibilities

1. Month‑End Close & Financial Reporting

   Take ownership of the monthly close process with the goal of materially reducing close timelines — the target is a full close (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement) within 10 working days, working toward 5–7 days as processes mature

   Ensure the Balance Sheet is fully closed, reconciled, and reviewed on a monthly basis

   Produce a monthly Cash Flow Statement (direct or indirect method as agreed with the FC), ensuring it reconciles to the P&L and Balance Sheet

   Prepare monthly management accounts using Fintheses, ensuring they are accurate, timely, and reconciled to the general ledger in Pennylane

   Perform and document all month‑end journal entries, accruals, prepayments, deferrals, and adjustments with clear supporting documentation

   Own the month‑end reconciliation pack — ensuring all key accounts (bank, intercompany, loan portfolio, receivables, payables, provisions) are reconciled and signed off each month

2. FCT & Structured Vehicle Accounting

   Conduct a thorough review of the current accounting treatment of the FCT (Fonds Commun de Titrisation) in Aria’s books, identifying any errors, inconsistencies, or unstructured adjustments that need to be corrected

   Work with the Financial Controller and CFO to design and implement a proper, sustainable accounting framework for the FCT — including the correct consolidation or off‑balance‑sheet treatment, intercompany eliminations, and journal entry structures

   Backdate corrections where necessary and ensure a clean audit trail for all remediation work

   Review the bookings made by the outsourced accounting provider for the FCT, reconcile them against Aria’s internal records, and establish a regular review cadence to ensure ongoing alignment

   Ensure that the accounting treatment of Fiducie-sûreté structures and bond issuances is properly reflected in the books, with appropriate intercompany eliminations and consolidation adjustments

   Maintain clear documentation of the accounting policies and treatment for all structured vehicles, so that the approach is auditable and can be explained to external auditors

3. Invoicing & Revenue Recognition

   Work with the Financial Controller and FinOps Manager to redesign the customer invoicing process, which is currently highly manual and takes up to 10+ days per month to complete

   Help define the requirements for an automated invoicing solution and support the business case for putting this on the product/engineering roadmap

   In the interim, implement process improvements to reduce the manual burden and error rate of the current invoicing workflow

   Ensure revenue recognition is accurate and compliant with French GAAP (Plan Comptable Général), particularly for interest income, fee income, and any deferred revenue items

4. Reconciliations & Financial Controls

   Establish a comprehensive month‑end reconciliation framework covering all material accounts — bank accounts, intercompany balances, loan portfolio balances, customer receivables, supplier payables, tax accounts, provisions, and accruals

   Work with the Financial Controller to identify, design, and implement financial controls that reduce manual touchpoints and increase reliability — including segregation of duties, approval workflows, and exception reporting

   Ensure that data flowing from operational systems into the accounting records is accurate and reconciled, working with the Finance Data Analyst and data team where needed

   Support the move toward a more automated controls environment over time, identifying where manual processes can be replaced by system‑driven checks

5. Bookkeeping, AP & Procurement

   Oversee day‑to‑day bookkeeping, ensuring transactions are recorded accurately and in a timely manner in Pennylane

   Manage the accounts payable process, including invoice receipt, coding, approval workflows, and payment scheduling

   Manage procurement‑related accounting, ensuring proper accrual of costs and alignment between purchase orders and invoices

6. ERP Ownership & Systems

   Act as the primary owner of the Pennylane accounting system from a finance perspective — maintaining the chart of accounts, ensuring proper configuration, and driving improvements in how the system is used

   Ensure that Fintheses is properly maintained and that its outputs reconcile to the underlying accounting data

   Identify opportunities to improve system integrations between Pennylane, Fintheses, banking platforms, and other operational systems

7. Audit & Compliance

   Support the preparation and coordination of external audits, ensuring that audit schedules, supporting documentation, and reconciliations are prepared in advance and to a high standard

   Prepare statutory financial statements under French GAAP (Plan Comptable Général)

   Support tax compliance activities, including VAT returns, corporate tax provisions, and any transfer pricing documentation required across jurisdictions

   Ensure accounting policies are documented, up to date, and consistently applied across all entities

8. Process Improvement & Automation

   Continuously identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in accounting and finance operations processes and propose solutions

   Work with the Financial Controller and FinOps Manager to improve the linkage and automation between finance operations processes and accounting

   Contribute to building a finance function that can scale with the business — processes that work at current volumes should also work at 3–5x the volume

The team 1 CFO 1 Financial Controller 1 Accounting Director 1 Junior Accountant 1 Data Analyst

Qualifications

• Must Have5–8 years of experience in accounting, with a meaningful portion spent in a hands‑on, operational accounting role (not purely audit or advisory)
• Professional accounting qualification (DEC, DSCG, or equivalent such as ACA, ACCA, CIMA)
• Strong knowledge of French GAAP (Plan Comptable Général) and its application in practice
• Strong technical accounting knowledge, including experience with full Balance Sheet closes, Cash Flow Statement preparation, and consolidation
• Hands‑on experience with month‑end close processes and a demonstrable track record of improving close timelines and quality
• Experience with reconciliations at a detailed level — bank reconciliations, intercompany reconciliations, subledger‑to‑GL reconciliations, and balance sheet account reconciliations
• Strong understanding of revenue recognition, accruals, prepayments, and provisions
• Experience working with or accounting for structured finance vehicles such as FCTs (Fonds Commun de Titrisation), trusts, or similar consolidation‑complex entities is highly desirable
• Proficiency with cloud‑based accounting systems (Pennylane, Xero, Sage, NetSuite, or similar)
• Advanced Excel skills
• Professional proficiency in both French and English (written and spoken)
• Strong attention to detail and an instinct for identifying when something doesn’t look right
• Ability to work autonomously and take ownership — you should be the kind of person who finds a problem, fixes it, and then builds a process so it doesn’t happen again
• Knowledge of IFRS
• Experience at a fintech, lending company, or financial services business with complex funding structures
• Familiarity with multi‑entity, multi‑currency, and multi‑jurisdictional accounting
• Background in a Big 4 or mid‑tier audit firm (particularly in financial services audit)
• Experience with invoicing automation or billing system design
• Knowledge of VAT across multiple EU jurisdictions

ARIA Experience

A fast‑growing company: Join a team that is scaling rapidly. High‑impact projects: Work on ambitious goals within a massive, high‑potential market. Expert leadership: Collaborate with a team of seasoned industry specialists. True flexibility: Enjoy a work‑life balance that fits your needs, including remote work options. Prime location: Stunning offices located in the heart of Le Marais (4th Arrondissement, Paris).

Our Perks

• Swile Meal Vouchers: €11 per day for your lunch breaks
• Green Commuting: Full coverage of your bike subscription (and public transport, of course), plus access to a private parking lot.
• Culture Pass: A €200 annual credit to fuel your creativity.
• Fitness Pass: A €400 annual allowance to keep you active.
• Fresh Snacks: Weekly deliveries of seasonal, local, and fresh fruit to the office

Recruitment Process

• An initial