Senior Manager, Sox Compliance- Second Line of Defense

Driven Brands is North America's largest automotive services company with a portfolio of iconic brands including Take 5 Oil Change®, Meineke Car Care Centers®, Maaco®, 1-800-Radiator & A/C®, Auto Glass Now®, and CARSTAR®. Our vision is to fuel the pursuit with the simplest, most convenient, and most reliable car care experience.

Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Driven Brands is more than a workplace. We're a launchpad — for careers, for dreams, and for people driven to do great things.

Every day, we fuel the pursuit — for our customers chasing life's moments, for our franchisees building lasting legacies, and for each other as we grow, lead, and succeed together.

Performance matters. We take pride in it. We own it. We show up for one another and for our communities.

Because at Driven Brands, we're not just fixing cars. We're building futures, unlocking potential, and fueling what's possible — together.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Senior Manager, SOX Compliance will support the Director of SOX Compliance in executing the second line SOX function for a complex public company environment. This role will help advance the company’s broader ICFR governance framework, support timely and sustainable remediation of active material weaknesses, strengthen ongoing SOX program execution, and promote consistent control ownership across the business. The Senior Manager will serve as a hands-on senior control leader responsible for driving day-to-day accountability, improving control design and evidence quality, supporting risk-based monitoring activities, and preparing clear status reporting for Director review and executive leadership visibility.

This role requires a hands-on, credible SOX leader who can operate strategically and tactically across both remediation priorities and the ongoing SOX compliance program while working under the direction of the Director of SOX Compliance. The Senior Manager will provide independent oversight and challenge to the first line, partner closely with Accounting, Finance, Operations, IT, Internal Audit, Legal, and external auditors, and help translate SOX and ICFR priorities into clear execution routines, timely follow-up, sufficient evidence, disciplined testing coordination, retesting readiness, and sustainable control improvements capable of withstanding external auditor and PCAOB scrutiny.

How you will Own it :

• Support the Director in implementing, maintaining, and continuously improving the second line SOX governance framework, including control standards, documentation expectations, deficiency evaluation protocols, issue management, and reporting routines.
• Support and coordinate ongoing SOX program activities, including preparing inputs for annual scoping and risk assessment, control rationalization, walkthrough planning, testing coordination, issue management, and program calendar management.
• Provide independent oversight and challenge over execution of remediation activities for active material weaknesses and significant control deficiencies, ensuring milestones remain realistic, evidence is sufficient, owners are accountable, action items are completed on time, and execution risks are escalated promptly.
• Support remediation and SOX governance across multiple concurrent workstreams, including monitoring issue aging, milestone tracking, dependency management, escalation of delays or evidence gaps to the Director, and preparation of supporting inputs for Director-led senior leadership, Audit Committee, and remediation steering committee reporting.
• Facilitate recurring SOX readiness reviews, control owner certifications, walkthrough preparedness, management review control quality assessments, testing status updates, and status reporting for Director review.
• Partner with Accounting, Finance, Operations, IT, and business leaders to redesign ineffective controls, strengthen precision of management review controls, improve evidence quality, and embed sustainable control ownership practices.
• Coordinate with Internal Audit and external auditors to align on scope, testing expectations, documentation standards, evidence requests, deficiency themes, and remediation validation requirements.
• Prepare analysis to support deficiency evaluation activities, including severity assessment, aggregation analysis, compensating control considerations, remediation status review, and readiness for management retesting and external auditor review.
• Develop and maintain SOX remediation dashboards, issue heat maps, control health metrics, and governance materials as supporting inputs for Director-led executive leadership, Disclosure Committee, Audit Committee, and remediation steering committee reporting.
• Evaluate the control impact of process changes, system implementations, automation initiatives, restructuring activities, new accounting policies, and significant business transactions.
• Coach and provide day-to-day guidance to SOX team members while reinforcing a high-accountability culture focused on quality, urgency, transparency, and sustainable control improvement.

What you’ll Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, or related field; CPA, CIA, CISA, or equivalent certification strongly preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in SOX, internal controls, internal audit, external audit, controllership, risk advisory, or public company compliance.
• Deep knowledge of SOX 302/404 requirements, COSO framework, PCAOB expectations, deficiency assessment, ICFR governance, control testing, management review controls, and remediation validation in a public company environment.
• Demonstrated experience supporting SOX programs or leading remediation workstreams in a public company, Big Four, or complex multi-location environment.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders, drive accountability across functions, and communicate complex control issues clearly and decisively.
• Strong understanding of finance processes, financial close, account reconciliations, management review controls, IT dependencies, key reports, and system-generated data.

Added Fuel if you have:

• Direct experience executing, monitoring, tracking, reviewing, or supporting validation of SOX programs and remediation activities in a public company environment, including evidence review, deficiency evaluation, remediation status reporting, and external auditor coordination.
• Experience operating in a restatement, delayed filing, significant remediation, accelerated SOX transformation, or heightened auditor scrutiny environment.
• Big Four or national public accounting firm experience preferred.
• ERP and EPM expertise (e.g., Oracle, NetSuite, FCCS, ARCS).
• Experience supporting Audit Committee, Disclosure Committee, or executive-level SOX reporting.

Key Competencies: Executive presence, sound judgment, risk-based thinking, accountability, urgency, transparency, collaboration, change leadership, communication, project leadership, and ability to execute effectively under Director leadership while supporting both sustainable remediation outcomes and ongoing SOX program effectiveness.

Applicants for our positions are considered without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, religion, military or veteran status, or any other characteristics protected by law.

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