Senior Accountant – Capital Investments & Software Assets

ACCA Careers; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 162,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k and Pension

Health & Welfare Benefits

Paid Time Off

Parental and Caregiver Leave

Life & Accident Insurance

Job summary

Northern Trust in Chicago is seeking a senior accounting professional for the Corporate Controller's Group, focusing on capital expenditures, fixed assets, and capitalized software. You will provide accounting leadership, ensure U.S.

GAAP compliance, and partner with Technology, Procurement, Finance, and BU Finance to drive governance and process improvements. The role offers broad visibility, hybrid work requiring 60% in-office presence, and involvement in SOX, board disclosures, audit support,

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant accounting experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise financial accounting over capital expenditures, fixed assets, and capitalized software.
• 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 capital vs. expense classification and appropriate project/account coding.
• Evaluate vendor contracts, software agreements, and renewal activity to determine appropriate accounting treatment and assess financial impacts.
• Establish and maintain software asset records, including software shell asset setup, useful life assignment, and linkage to ServiceNow operational records and related project data.
• Perform Work In Process (WIP), project status, go-live, abandonment, and software write-off/acceleration reviews, including coordination with Technology, PMO, Procurement, BU Finance, and application owners.
• Prepare, review, and support recurring fixed asset, depreciation, amortization, capitalized software, board reporting, SEC reporting, and financial statement disclosure deliverables.
• Monitor and report project financial and status performance, including recurring analysis of amortization movements, software additions, dispositions, and one-time adjustments.
• Resolve operational fixed asset and project accounting issues, including invoice coding exceptions, project billing corrections, and other close-related matters.
• Serve as the 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 support, remediation efforts, and documentation requests.
• Maintain and enhance SOX documentation, process narratives, risk and control matrices, procedures, and supporting evidence for key controls.
• Independently drive issue resolution and coordinate cross-functional efforts to meet reporting, close, audit, and stakeholder deadlines.
• Lead or actively participate in strategic initiatives, system enhancements, automation projects, workflow implementations, and control enhancement activities.
• Respond to stakeholder requests, inquiries, and action items in a timely, proactive, and professional manner.
• Identify process inefficiencies, recommend practical solutions, and drive implementation of sustainable improvements.
• Promote consistency, standardization, and operational excellence across global finance teams.

Skills

7+ years accounting experience

Public accounting experience

Strong knowledge of U.S. GAAP

Financial reporting

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting

CPA preferred

Tools

PeopleSoft GL

Hyperion Financial Management

Clarity PPM

Trintech Certification

Job description

Northern Trust in Chicago is seeking a senior accounting professional for the Corporate Controller's Group, focusing on capital expenditures, fixed assets, and capitalized software. You will provide accounting leadership, ensure U.S.

GAAP compliance, and partner with Technology, Procurement, Finance, and BU Finance to drive governance and process improvements. The role offers broad visibility, hybrid work requiring 60% in-office presence, and involvement in SOX, board disclosures, audit support,