Accounting Manager

Accounting Manager: Full Time

About Sports Endeavors

Our Mission: To be the world’s leading authentic multi-sport company, building strong relationships in a vibrant, creative, and ethical environment. To inform, inspire, and innovate. 

Our staff is made up of former players, parents of players and passionate sports fans. As Sports Endeavors has grown as a company, our core values have remained the same. We are still a family-owned company devoted to providing unrivaled selection and service to all team sport enthusiasts. Sports Endeavors values its employees, its community and its customers. Together we work, play, cheer and succeed. Sports Endeavors shares our success, giving back at both the local and global levels. Sports Endeavors and its employees support Habitat for Humanity, Relay for Life, Race for the Cure, Crop Walk, United Way and other non-profit organizations and events. Our Passback Program collects used but still usable gear from customers and then distributes it to teams who are not able to afford even the most basic sports equipment. To date, we have collected and redistributed over 1,000,000 pieces of equipment to organizations around the world.  

Job Purpose:

The Accounting Manager is a leader within the corporate accounting team, accountable for the integrity of the general ledger and the accuracy and timeliness of the financial close at Sports Endeavors. This role leads a team of Senior and Staff Accountants, owns the close calendar, reviews and approves journal entries and account reconciliations, and ensures results are recorded in accordance with U.S. GAAP and company accounting policies.

Beyond the recurring close, the Accounting Manager owns the strength of the company’s internal control environment. This individual leads the build-out and maintenance of SOX documentation and key controls, manages internal and external audit requests end to end, owns technical accounting research and the accounting policy library, and serves as an accounting functional leader.

Sports Endeavors is actively building artificial intelligence into how the accounting team works, and this role is expected to lead that effort. The Accounting Manager will use Claude to accelerate close analytics, technical accounting research, SOX and process documentation, and audit support — setting the standard for how the team applies AI, where it adds leverage, and how every output is reviewed and validated before it is relied upon — with the goal of measurably shortening the close and reducing manual effort. It is an ideal fit for a hands-on leader who can develop a team while raising the bar on process discipline, internal control, and automation.

Major Accountabilities / Essential Duties:

Team Leadership & Development (Approximately 30%)

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Senior and Staff Accountants — assigning ownership of close areas, setting clear expectations, and holding the team accountable for accurate, on-time, audit-ready work
• Review and approve journal entries, account reconciliations, and supporting schedules prepared by the team, providing specific and timely feedback that raises technical quality and documentation standards
• Own workload planning and coverage across close, audit, and project work, build cross-training depth so that no critical process depends on a single individual, and set development goals and conduct regular one-on-ones and performance reviews
• Lead the team’s adoption of AI and automation — identifying where Claude can replace manual preparation, documentation, and review steps, and establishing the team’s standards for prompting, data handling, and human review of every output

General Ledger & Financial Close (Approximately 35%)

• Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual close within SAP, managing the close calendar in FloQast and holding all task owners to committed deadlines, and serve as the accounting functional owner of SAP ECC and FloQast including chart of accounts governance, close workflow configuration, and periodic user access reviews
• Ensure the general ledger is complete, accurate, and fully supported before results are finalized, with all transactions recorded in accordance with U.S. GAAP and company accounting policies and all sub-ledgers tied to the general ledger
• Review balance sheet reconciliations and roll-forwards and lead the monthly balance sheet and income statement review, presenting account analytics, fluctuation and variance explanations, and identified risks to Finance leadership
• Research and document the accounting treatment for new and non-routine transactions — including revenue recognition, leases, inventory valuation, and reserves — in audit-ready technical memoranda with ASC-level references, using Claude to accelerate research while independently validating every source and conclusion, and own the accounting policy library and related SOPs

Internal Controls & SOX Compliance (Approximately 20%)

• Lead the design and build-out of the SOX control environment, including scoping, risk assessment, and identification of key controls across the close, revenue, procure-to-pay, inventory, and payroll cycles
• Author and maintain process narratives, flowcharts, and risk-and-control matrices (RCMs), using Claude to accelerate drafting and keep documentation current as processes and systems evolve
• Design and implement new and enhanced controls — including automated and system-based controls within SAP and FloQast — ensure control owners understand their responsibilities and evidence requirements, and partner with IT on general computer controls covering access, change management, and segregation of duties
• Coordinate control walkthroughs and self-testing, assess design and operating effectiveness, evaluate deficiencies for severity, and own remediation end to end through validated completion

Audit Management (Approximately 15%)

• Serve as the primary day-to-day contact for external auditors and internal audit for quarterly reviews and the annual audit
• Own the PBC process end to end — scoping requests, assigning owners, tracking status, reviewing deliverables for completeness, and delivering on committed dates
• Anticipate audit information needs and prepare support in advance, using Claude to assemble, format, and quality-check schedules and reduce late-cycle requests, rework, and audit fee exposure
• Lead the response to auditor inquiries, proposed adjustments, and control findings with well-reasoned positions supported by documentation and authoritative guidance, and coordinate statutory, tax, and lender reporting support as applicable

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will possess:

• People Leadership: demonstrated success leading, coaching, and developing professional accounting staff, including reviewing their work, setting standards, and holding a team to deadlines without micromanaging.
• Technical Accounting Expertise: a strong command of U.S. GAAP and deep hands-on experience owning a full-cycle month-end close, complex journal entries, and detailed balance sheet reconciliations.
• SOX and Internal Control Leadership: a working mastery of SOX and the COSO framework, with proven ability to scope key controls, author narratives and risk-and-control matrices, design controls, assess design and operating effectiveness, and drive remediation to completion.
• Audit Management: experience owning the relationship with external and internal auditors — managing PBC deliverables, leading walkthroughs, and resolving findings and proposed adjustments with well-supported positions.
• Systems and Data Fluency: hands-on experience with SAP (general ledger, journal entries, and reporting) and FloQast (close management and account reconciliations), paired with advanced Excel skills for working with large data sets.
• AI Fluency: practical experience using Claude or comparable AI tools to accelerate close analytics, technical research, documentation, and process automation — with the judgment to know where AI creates leverage, where it does not belong, and how to validate every output before relying on it.
• Change Leadership: a continuous-improvement mindset and the comfort to build process and control structure where it does not yet exist, standardizing policies, calendars, and documentation while keeping the day-to-day close on schedule.
• Communication and Ownership: clear written and verbal communication, the credibility to influence partners outside Finance, the poise to present results and issues to senior leadership, and the discipline to deliver across competing priorities.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance.
• 5+ years of progressive accounting experience, including ownership of full-cycle month-end close and balance sheet account reconciliations.
• 2+ years of direct supervisory experience, including review of work prepared by professional accounting staff.
• Demonstrated SOX experience, including authoring process narratives and risk-and-control matrices, designing and testing key controls, and remediating identified deficiencies (required).
• Experience serving as a primary liaison with external and internal auditors, including ownership of PBC deliverables and resolution of audit findings.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. GAAP and the financial close process.
• Hands-on experience with SAP, or a comparable tier-one ERP, and FloQast, or a comparable close-management tool.
• Experience using AI tools such as Claude to support accounting, analysis, documentation, and process-improvement work.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and large data sets.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functionally and present to senior leadership.
• CPA preferred.
• Public accounting experience preferred.
• Experience implementing or maturing a SOX control environment preferred.
• Retail, e-commerce, or consumer products industry experience preferred.

Benefits & Perks:

Competitive compensation, medical, dental, vision, 401K, team member merchandise discounts, athletic club membership discounts, and more!