Controller

GT Independence; South Bend (IN); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

GT Independence is seeking a seasoned Controller to lead the accounting function and ensure CFO-ready financial results. The role requires strong technical accounting judgment, disciplined execution, and the ability to build an accountable, scalable accounting organization.

The successful candidate will drive month-end close, balance sheet integrity, and internal controls while partnering with CFO, auditors, and private equity sponsors to support growth and strategic reporting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field.
• CPA strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive accounting experience in controller or senior leadership roles.
• Strong understanding of GAAP, financial reporting, month-end close, reconciliations, accruals, internal controls, and audit support.
• Proven experience leading a complex close process in multi-entity or high-volume environments.
• Experience managing accounting teams, developing managers, and scaling processes.
• Audit readiness and external audit management experience.
• Experience with ERP transitions, systems improvements, or process transformation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the accounting function and ensure accuracy, completeness, and integrity of the company’s financial results.
• Own the end-to-end month-end close process with clear ownership and close readiness.
• Maintain balance sheet integrity with timely reconciliations and documented support.
• Lead audit readiness efforts and collaborate with external auditors and CFO.
• Drive process improvements to increase efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
• Develop managers and build a resilient accounting organization.
• Oversee AP, disbursements, cash operations, and related controls.

Skills

GAAP mastery

Month-end close

Financial reporting

Internal controls

Audit readiness

Leadership & team development

Process improvement

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field

CPA strongly preferred

Tools

ERP systems

Automation/workflow tools

Job description

The Controller will serve as the senior accounting leader and will be accountable for ensuring financial results are accurate, complete, timely, well-supported, and ready for CFO, executive, board, lender, and private equity sponsor review. This individual must bring strong technical accounting judgment, disciplined execution, process improvement capability, and the leadership presence needed to build accountability across the accounting team. This is not a purely technical or review-oriented role. The successful candidate must understand the business, lead through complexity, identify root causes, challenge incomplete work, develop managers, reduce single points of failure, and create a repeatable accounting operating model.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the accounting function and own the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of the company's financial results.
• Set clear expectations for accounting managers and team members, including deadlines, quality standards, documentation requirements, and escalation protocols.
• Ensure the accounting team operates with defined ownership, accountability, and follow-through across close, reconciliations, journal entries, accruals, AP, cash operations, reporting support, and audit readiness.
• Serve as the primary accounting leader for the CFO, executive leadership, external auditors, and other key stakeholders.
• Build a culture of discipline, accountability, transparency, continuous improvement, and proactive issue resolution.

Month-End Close and Financial Reporting

• Own the end-to-end month-end close process, including close calendar, task ownership, deadlines, issue tracking, review standards, and final close readiness.
• Ensure financial statements and supporting schedules are CFO-ready before submission.
• Improve close timeliness, accuracy, and predictability through better processes, clearer ownership, and disciplined review.
• Identify and resolve close bottlenecks, recurring errors, late deliverables, unsupported balances, and areas requiring rework.
• Ensure journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, and reporting schedules are complete, accurate, reviewed, and appropriately supported.
• Maintain a close dashboard or similar tool to provide visibility into status, risks, delays, and open issues.

Balance Sheet Integrity and Reconciliations

• Own balance sheet integrity and ensure reconciliations are completed timely, reviewed appropriately, and supported by sufficient documentation.
• Identify high-risk accounts, aged reconciling items, unsupported balances, recurring variances, and unresolved accounting issues.
• Establish standards for reconciliation quality, review signoff, issue resolution, and escalation.
• Partner with accounting managers to ensure account ownership is clear and issues are resolved at the appropriate level rather than pushed upward without analysis.

Audit Readiness and Internal Controls

• Lead audit readiness efforts and ensure the accounting organization is prepared to support external audit requirements efficiently and accurately.
• Maintain an audit-readiness tracker, open item list, and supporting documentation standards.
• Identify control gaps, process breakdowns, documentation weaknesses, and areas of manual reliance or tribal knowledge.
• Partner with the CFO and external auditors to resolve audit issues, improve audit support, and reduce last-minute scrambles.
• Strengthen internal controls across close, reconciliations, journal entries, accruals, AP, cash disbursements, vendor master, approvals, and financial reporting processes.

Process Improvement and Scalability

• Assess current accounting processes and implement improvements that increase efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and scalability.
• Create and maintain standardized accounting procedures, close checklists, reconciliation standards, review checklists, issue escalation protocols, and process documentation.
• Reduce single points of failure by ensuring knowledge is documented and appropriately distributed across the team.
• Partner with Finance, Operations, Payroll, Tax, IT, and other departments to improve upstream data quality, handoffs, and process ownership.
• Support ERP, reporting, workflow, automation, and system improvement initiatives from an accounting process and control perspective.

Team Leadership and Talent Development

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable the accounting team, including managers and individual contributors.
• Evaluate team capabilities, role clarity, capacity, ownership, and readiness for the company's future-state accounting model.
• Develop managers so they own the readiness and quality of their areas before work moves to senior review.
• Coach team members while maintaining clear performance standards and accountability.
• Identify staffing gaps, training needs, role misalignments, and opportunities to strengthen the accounting organization.
• Build a bench that reduces reliance on any single individual and supports sustainable execution.

AP, Disbursements, Cash Operations, and Cross-Functional Controls

• Provide accounting leadership and oversight across AP, disbursements, cash operations, vendor master controls, payment approvals, manual payments, and related control processes.
• Ensure appropriate segregation of duties, approval discipline, documentation standards, and exception handling.
• Partner with the appropriate manager to address AP backlogs, payment risks, duplicate payment exposure, vendor master risk, and cash/disbursement control gaps.
• Ensure procurement, purchasing, AP, accounting, and cash operations processes are aligned and appropriately controlled.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field.
• CPA strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive accounting experience, including meaningful experience in a Controller, Assistant Controller, Director of Accounting, or senior accounting leadership role.
• Strong understanding of GAAP, financial reporting, month-end close, balance sheet reconciliations, journal entries, accruals, internal controls, and audit support.
• Proven experience leading an accounting close process in a complex, multi-entity, high-volume, or operationally complex environment.
• Experience managing accounting teams, developing managers, improving accountability, and building scalable processes.
• Demonstrated ability to identify root causes, resolve recurring issues, and implement sustainable process improvements.
• Strong audit readiness and external audit management experience.
• Ability to operate effectively in a private equity, sponsor-owned, or board-reporting environment preferred.
• Experience with ERP transitions, system improvements, automation, workflow tools, or accounting process transformation preferred.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a strong accounting operator who can both lead and dig in. This person is comfortable challenging incomplete work, asking the right questions, identifying risks, and creating structure where processes are informal or inconsistent. They should bring a mix of technical accounting competence, operational discipline, leadership maturity, and practical process improvement experience. They do not need to personally complete every task, but they must know enough to evaluate work quality, identify gaps, hold owners accountable, and ensure the accounting function produces reliable financial results. This person should be comfortable in a fast-paced, evolving environment where the company is professionalizing its finance and accounting function under private equity ownership. They should be direct, organized, hands‑on, resilient, and able to build trust while raising the standard of performance.

Critical Success Factors

• Deliver accurate, complete, and CFO-ready financial results on a consistent timeline.
• Develop managers who own their functional areas.
• Create a disciplined, repeatable month-end close process.
• Reduce single points of failure and reliance on tribal knowledge.
• Improve balance sheet reconciliation quality and reduce unsupported or aged items.
• Improve documentation, controls, and process consistency.
• Strengthen audit readiness and reduce last‑minute audit scrambles.
• Identify and resolve recurring accounting issues before they
• Clarify ownership and accountability across the accounting team.
• Build a scalable accounting function capable of supporting GT's next stage of growth.

Leadership Competencies

• Strong ownership mindset
• Ability to challenge assumptions and incomplete work constructively
• High attention to detail without losing sight of the bigger picture
• Process improvement orientation
• Ability to lead through change and ambiguity
• Team development and accountability
• Direct, clear, and professional communication style
• High integrity and commitment to financial accuracy
• Strong judgment and escalation discipline
• Ability to partner effectively with CFO, FP&A, Tax, Operations, Payroll, IT, auditors, and private equity stakeholders

Reporting Relationship

The Controller will report directly to the Chief Financial Officer and will lead the accounting organization. The role will partner closely with Finance, Tax, Payroll, Operations, IT, external auditors, and executive leadership.