Senior Financial Controller - Mediacom

This role sits within the GroupM Central Finance Function primarily supporting the Mediacom London and Mediacom North operating units. The role leads a team of c10 whilst also working closely with several stakeholders in the business including Commercial leads for the business, FP&A, Group M EMEA finance team, Risk & Compliance and Tax.

A Hybrid working model

Here at GroupM we are embracing a hybrid working model, which encourages our employees to split their time between the office and other locations, something we hope will provide everyone with flexibility during their working week, whilst also continuing to focus on collaboration, our communities, careers and clients. The expectation is that working life at GroupM will involve working from an office for 3 days a week for most people.

The Role Objective

The role of the Senior Financial Controller within the central GroupM Reporting team is a leadership role that embodies being a trusted and value adding partner to the business to collaboratively drive growth. This role takes ownership of the timeliness and accuracy and compliance of all internal and external reporting. Your key objectives will be to support on the creation of one aligned, efficient and effective reporting function that provides the required monthly reporting to WPP (P&L and Balance Sheet) and internal Management Information to all stakeholder as well as being fully immersed in the objectives and culture of the Agency team(s) that you and your direct team work alongside to support. To be successful in this role, leadership, collaboration, adaptability, drive and engagement is of the highest importance as well as maintaining efficient control processes and promoting process improvement.

Key Reponsibilities

• Full ownership, understanding and management of the Balance Sheet and P&L


• Managing the month end, quarter end, half year and year end processes to ensure accurate and timely reporting of P&Ls and Balance sheets and delivering clear and accurate commentary on variances to budget and forecast


• Provide Timely Management Information to Commercial Finance Leads of the Agencies


• Macro level Actuals analysis to support delivery of financial targets and highlighting of risks/opportunities for business growth


• Confidence in and sign-off of the numbers reported in the P&L alongside the Agency Finance Lead


• Responsibility of general ledger management and accuracy of a fully reconciled Balance Sheet


• Flag, escalation and management of any issues / concerns in a timely fashion


• Ensure all Internal Control Framework controls are always adhered to


• Drive collaboration with the Agency Commercial Finance team


• Adapt reporting methods/ information in line with business, standardised processes and financial reporting requirements


• Drive efficiencies and establish procedures within the business to improve the financial reporting process


• Work closely with Finance Plus (Shared Service Centre) to define processes and handoffs, including being a point of escalation


• Ensuring compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act, IFRS and UK GAAP (statutory accounts) ensuring all SOX controls for the team are signed off by internal deadlines


• Assist in improvement of SOX controls and balance sheet reconciliations, ensuring unreconciled items are reviewed monthly/resolved


• Key point of contact for all auditors and ensure deliverables are provided in line with timetables for all audits


• Manage, support and develop all members of the team to actively train and improve staff knowledge and experience


• Relationship management of key group contacts across the Agencies, GroupM UK, GroupM EMEA and Finance Plus


• Provide any ad-hoc reporting requested by the GroupM UK Market CFO, Group Financial Controller and Head of FP&A


• Review and approval of monthly payroll, quarterly VAT return and other annual tax submissions (Corporation Tax, PSA)
  
  Fully qualified accountant or equivalent (e.g. CIMA, ACA, ACCA) Minimum 8+ years post qualification


• Can demonstrate strong leadership with ability to develop a team


• Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management


• Ability to coach and develop talent, bringing the best out in people


• Extremely organized with Ability to prioritise and manage several deliverables as well as being adaptable to switch priorities if required


• Ability to concisely and clearly present information to financial and non-financial people


• Curious mindset with desire for continuous improvement


• Professionalism and pride in accuracy and on-time delivery


• Confidence to lead on projects


Desirable

• Previous knowledge of WPP financial working practices


• Understanding of media and communications industry


• Commercial mindset and ability to think in an agile way


• Previous SOX experience or equivalent


• Proficient user of Excel, Cartesis and MediaOcean


Success measured

• Accuracy & Timeliness of work


• Adaptability


• Resilience


• Reliability and consistency


• Ability to problem solve


• Attitude towards work/work ethic


• Level of inspiration/sets a good example as a senior member of staff for junior staff


• Professionalism
  
  GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation serving as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker and MediaCom, each global operations in their own right with leading market positions. GroupM's primary purpose is to maximize performance of WPP's media agencies by operating as leader and collaborator in trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. GroupM's focus is to deliver unrivalled marketplace advantage to its clients, stakeholders and people. Discover more about GroupM at www.groupm.com.