Overview

Sappi North America is looking for the next key member of its financial team as Senior Financial Analyst. Reporting to the Company’s Assistant Corporate Controller, this position is responsible for supporting the Assistant Controller in management of the corporate risk management activities including internal controls. This candidate should have the ability to clearly and concisely document and effectively communicate risk management issues to finance and non-finance personnel. Our ideal candidate is a highly motivated, results-oriented financial leader who has the ability to improve our governance and compliance activities. This person should have proven interpersonal skills that allow the individual to influence and interact at all levels of the organization.  The ideal candidate should have a proven track record of creating a culture of collaboration and teamwork between finance and operations.

Essential Functions

• Support the Company’s internal control function. Develop, implement and manage the plan for completing the annual self assessment process. Drive strategic change in the internal control function to ensure adherence to policies and internal control frameworks.
• Support certain risk management functions of the North America region, including annual fraud risk assessment and semiannual risk register process. Design and implement a self assessment process for operational controls that complements these risk assessment processes.
• Work with process owners and internal auditors to identify, understand and remediate internal control issues. Provide support to process owners regarding the development and implementation of policies and procedures while defining appropriate action plans to address identified internal control weaknesses and improvement opportunities. 
• Coordinate monitoring, reporting, and improvements for segregation of duties conflicts as reported in SAP SOD tool. Collaborate with the Business Process Engineers to implement improvements.
• Support the Company’s activities for Selling, General, and Administrative costs. Includes coordinating budgets and forecasts for the cost center managers, and accounting and closing activities. 
• Assist FP&A team with corporate and other accounting-related items during annual budget and periodic forecasting cycles.
• Perform accounting and reporting for the Allentown facility and support the budgeting/forecasting processes as needed
• Identify and implement efficiencies and process improvements
• Provide support for ad hoc operational and accounting tasks and initiatives, as assigned
   

Job Specifications/Requirements:

• Understanding of control frameworks (COSO, COBIT) and ability to think critically to properly interpret and implement control improvements across the Company. Solid knowledge of accounting and finance principles required.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills needed.
• Ability to work within matrixed, cross functional teams to deliver results on business initiatives.
• Clear understanding of the capabilities of integrated information systems (SAP preferred) to drive efficiencies and improvements in the availability and use of financial information.
• Detail oriented financial professional with high energy and a sense of urgency to achieve results.