Senior IT Finance and Compliance Manager

This management position is responsible for the IT Department’s financial planning & analysis functions for all technology spend and oversees IT accounting and purchasing activities. This role functions as a strategic financial advisor, requiring deep contextual knowledge of Duracell’s technology portfolio, vendor landscape, and in-flight transformation initiatives. The position demands real-time collaboration with the CIO, CFO, IT leadership team, and Corporate and Sector Finance partners.
The IT Finance Senior Manager promotes alignment of the IT financial plan to IT’s operational commitments and priorities of the organization. Additionally, responsible for the development, monitoring and analysis of the IT divisional budget based on current technology and business demands. Finally, the position is also responsible for assessing and driving the effectiveness of IT Compliance, including internal controls and reporting, ensuring knowledge of critical IT policies, leading internal and external audit responses, recommending actions to fix gaps in processes or suggesting design enhancements for internal controls (SAP, etc.) such as segregation of duties, production change management, software management, and application security.
The position reports to the Director of Business Operations, IT (Office of the CIO).  
 

Responsibilities

Strategic Financial Planning & Analysis
•    Manages IT budget of $70M combined Opex and Capital.
•    Responsible for development and execution of IT Department operating and project budget, aligned to corporate and strategic priorities. Coordinate with CIO/IT Leadership, IT PMO, and Sector and Segment Finance. 
•    Budget and forecast headcount/compensation planning with Corporate, local HR in 9 countries and IT leadership. 
•    Maintain 3-5 year strategic plan, with IT, HQ Finance and Sector/Business Stakeholders. 
•    Maintain quarterly forecasts and develop real-time ‘what-if’ scenarios, serving as a trusted financial advisor to the CFO, CIO, and IT leadership team. Proactively surface financial risks and opportunities tied to IT portfolio decisions, requiring direct participation in executive planning sessions
•    Lead the development and validation of Capital Authority for Expenditure (AFE) business cases for IT project initiatives ($5-10M/yr). Maintain standards for process, roles and templates in coordination with Corporate Finance Technical Accounting team and Capital Team. Maintain expertise on US GAAP capitalization guidelines specific to IT projects, including ASC 350-40 (internal-use software), advising project teams and IT leads as needed. Requires nuanced judgment in applying capitalization thresholds to evolving IT delivery models (e.g., Agile, cloud-native) in coordination with Duracell’s Technical Accounting team. 
•    Responsible for the IT cost allocation models (currently distinct models for operating expenses and project charges). Provide expertise on alternative IT cost sharing models and the best fit chargeback planning process for the Duracell organization. Serve as the primary point of contact for Sector and Segment finance leadership, fielding executive-level inquiries and defending model assumptions in budget review settings. Requires the ability to navigate politically sensitive cost-sharing conversations across business units. 
•    This includes ownership of the model and calculations as well as senior-level communications to drive transparency to all charges incurred, allocation method used, timing of charges, etc. 
•    Coordinate with IT Vendor Management, IT leads and IT Project Managers on designing and implementing cost controls for external spend.

Accounting & Purchasing (Oversight of Direct Report, Offshore)
•    Serve as direct manager to the IT Accounting and Purchasing Analyst, providing oversight, coaching and career development support
•    Monitor IT expenditure to ensure IT remains within financial targets and adheres to the organization’s financial policy and accounting principles.
•    Monitor and report on return of IT technology investments.
•    Oversee IT accounting and purchasing activities, including monthly, quarterly and year-end close processes, and monthly IT chargeback process
•    Maintain financial reports, metrics and key performance indicators to clearly communicate actual results, forecasted performance, and variances to plan.
•    Provide expert guidance and analysis in the development and monitoring of IT project and operating budgets.

IT Compliance
•    Response for internal and external audits, access control reviews, key financial application reviews, and/or other assessments or regulatory requests. Serve as IT’s designated representative to internal audit, external audit, and any regulatory examination. Requires understanding of Duracell’s specific SAP control environment, access governance model, and SOX-relevant IT processes across all in-scope applications. This will include working directly with any regulatory entity requests.
•    Responsible for IT Compliance activities, including mitigation of compliance risk in IT software (SAP-centric controls)
•    Recommend actions to fix gaps in processes or suggest design enhancements for internal controls (SAP, etc.) such as segregation of duties, production change management, software management, and application security.
•    Develop and delivers required reporting, metrics, and similar communications to show the progress on delivering IT compliance related activities

Function & People Leadership
•    Serve as liaison to HQ Finance for consolidation and strategic reporting. 
•    Understands IT Departmental Goals and Objectives and delivers work products to contribute to those goals.
•    Maintain and execute on an IT Finance operational excellence roadmap reflecting continued service improvements of the IT FP&A function which is based on guidance from authoritative sources and organizational direction.
•    Align IT financial management practices with industry best practices to enable comparative analysis with benchmarks.
 

Qualifications

•    Bachelor’s Degree in accounting, business administration, finance, or IT. If Bachelor’s Degree is in IT, minimum of 7 years of experience in an IT financial planning position. 
•    Demonstrated ability to operate as a strategic business partner to C-suite and VP-level stakeholders, not solely in a reporting or analytical capacity."
•    Experience supporting US-domiciled audit and compliance programs (SOX, internal controls over financial reporting).
•    Deep familiarity with US GAAP treatment of IT spend, including capitalization, amortization, and cloud computing arrangements (ASC 350-40, ASU 2018-15).
•    Extensive knowledge of IT Compliance and audit/risk assessment.
•    Minimum of five years of experience in a leadership role, preferably in a formal management position.
•    Requires a solid understanding of operational accounting in an IT environment.
•    Requires a broad knowledge of accounting and financial principles, practices, and procedures.
•    Requires a working knowledge of financial systems.
•    Ability to comfortably interact with all levels of Duracell business and IT management.  
•    Strong negotiating and influencing skills.
 

About UsDuracell is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of high-performance alkaline batteries, complemented by a portfolio of high quality, market leading specialty, rechargeable and professional batteries. Duracell’s products power numerous critical professional devices across the globe such as heart rate monitors, defibrillators, telemetry devices, smoke detectors, fire alarms, automated valves and security systems. As the leader in the professional power category, Duracell has a rich history of innovation, continuously introducing batteries that are smaller, thinner, with more energy and longer lasting than competitive brands. Since March 2016, Duracell has found its permanent home within Berkshire Hathaway (ranked #4 World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune Magazine and #3 in the Fortune 500), and will continue to focus on sustainable growth, industry-leading innovation while creating long-term value for our customers and consumers. At Duracell, integrity, end-to-end accountability across all levels, fast decision-making and a “can do” attitude is highly valued.