Senior Accountant, Capital Investments & Fixed Assets

Quest Oracle Community; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 162,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust is seeking an experienced accounting professional to join the Corporate Controller's Group in Chicago, guiding capital investments accounting, governance, and financial reporting. You will partner with Technology, Procurement, and BU Finance to ensure accurate capitalization, depreciation, and disclosures in line with U.S.

GAAP and SOX. The role offers broad visibility across the organization and involves preparing board and SEC reporting deliverables, supporting audits, and

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant accounting experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting required.
• CPA preferred.
• Public accounting experience a plus.
• Strong knowledge of U.S. GAAP and financial reporting requirements.
• Experience with PeopleSoft GL, Hyperion Financial Management, Clarity PPM, and Trintech Certification is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise financial accounting over capital expenditures, fixed assets, and capitalized software, ensuring compliance with U.S. GAAP, SOX, and internal policies.
• Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of fixed assets and software investments, including project setup, capitalization, asset creation, depreciation/amortization, useful life assessment, abandonment review, and impairment considerations.
• Review and approve IT investment spending, procurement requisitions, capital project requests, and project funding changes to ensure accurate capitalization and project accounting.
• Evaluate vendor contracts, software agreements, and renewal activity to determine appropriate accounting treatment and financial impact.
• Establish and maintain software asset records linked to ServiceNow and project data.
• Perform WIP, project status, go-live, abandonment, and software write-offs, coordinating with Technology, PMO, Procurement, BU Finance, and owners.
• Prepare, review, and support recurring fixed asset, depreciation, amortization, and board/SEC reporting deliverables.
• Monitor and report project financial/status performance, including amortization movements and software changes.
• Resolve accounting issues and close-related matters, including invoice coding and project billing corrections.
• Serve as primary accounting liaison across Technology, PMO, Procurement, BU Finance, SEC Reporting, Financial Reporting, and audit stakeholders.
• Support internal and external audit activities, including SOX walkthroughs, control certifications, testing, remediation, and documentation requests.
• Maintain and enhance SOX documentation, process narratives, RCMs, procedures, and evidence for key controls.
• Independently drive issue resolution and coordinate cross-functional efforts to meet deadlines.
• Lead or participate in strategic initiatives, system enhancements, automation, and control improvements.
• Respond to stakeholder inquiries in a timely, proactive manner.
• Identify process inefficiencies and drive sustainable improvements.
• Promote consistency and standardization across global finance teams.

Skills

Strong knowledge of U.S. GAAP

Financial reporting

SOX compliance

Public accounting experience

U.S. GAAP

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting

Tools

PeopleSoft GL

Hyperion Financial Management

Clarity PPM

Trintech Certification

Job description

Northern Trust is seeking an experienced accounting professional to join the Corporate Controller's Group in Chicago, guiding capital investments accounting, governance, and financial reporting. You will partner with Technology, Procurement, and BU Finance to ensure accurate capitalization, depreciation, and disclosures in line with U.S.

GAAP and SOX. The role offers broad visibility across the organization and involves preparing board and SEC reporting deliverables, supporting audits, and