Director of Accounting, Pod Leader - Remote - job 5 of 6

Propeller Industries helps great entrepreneurs build great companies. Since 2008 we have worked with some of the most successful consumer product brands -- Good Culture, 15Five, Krave Jerky, Youth to the People, Welly Health and more -- helping the founders and investors build and scale their businesses. 

The Director of Accounting (Pod Leader) is a critical role within the organization, accountable for the success of the accounting teams that deliver work to our clients. Reporting to the Head of US Accounting, the Pod Leaders collaborate with the Head of US Accounting to build and lead their team. The Pod Leader creates and maintains a culture amongst their team that supports high levels of employee engagement and job satisfaction, and delivers high quality, consistent work to clients. The Pod Leader role is intended to be performed alongside other appropriate responsibilities (eg. client work, shared services, etc.).

Pod Leaders also work closely with our broader Accounting Team, Finance Directors and CFOs, as well as others at Propeller Industries, to manage client relationships, to develop and implement accounting policies across the team, and to ensure team members are receiving feedback to enhance the quality and consistency of their work. 

The ideal candidate possesses a solid operational and technical accounting background, strong communication skills, leads with empathy, is an active listener, gives consistent feedback and understands the importance of coaching their team. This person is a self-starter and flexible; has a high level of integrity; is action and goal-oriented; and is comfortable in a fast-paced, team-oriented, collaborative environment. It’s a plus to have worked in a client-services, multi-client or multi-entity environment.

Responsibilities:

Staffing & Resourcing: Building the right remote team 

• Build and grow your team by identifying needs for additional staff within the Pod
• Align staff against client assignments, load-balancing as appropriate to accommodate individual capabilities and interests with client and company needs 
• Manage onboarding processes for new hires to ensure consistency across onboarding and orientation

Talent Development: Empowering your people to maximize their engagement and individual contributions 

• Actively participate in each Pod Member’s career development, helping to align individual capabilities and interests with client and company needs
• Coach Pod Members one-on-one in an effort to bolster their skills, to identify development opportunities, and to identify mentors within or across pods that can share knowledge 
• Participate and advocate for Pod Members during annual/semi-annual compensation review process

Team Integrations: Ensure the pod is well-integrated with International Teams and other Pods

• Ensure your Pod is integrated with and building close relationships with respective International Teams
• Work with your Pod and International Teams to effectively train and delegate work to your International Team
• Ensure culture of trust and collaboration with other pods 

Work Quality: Ensuring consistency and quality of deliverables to clients

• Responsible for the quality of the accounting work delivered to Clients from your Pod and International Team(s)
• Collaborate with Directors, VPs & CFOs to ensure client satisfaction across your Pod’s client portfolio
• Work with other Pod Leaders to create and refine processes that ensure quality and consistency of deliverables; advocate for best practices and refreshing deliverables and processes as Propeller evolves
• Collaborate with other Pod Leaders to celebrate high quality performance and identify areas for improvement 

Billable Work: Engage with clients in a billable capacity and serve as an expert on client-related topics

• Deliver high quality client service to the CEOs and Founders for a portfolio of 10-20 clients, working with a team of accountants and finance professionals
• Deliver monthly consolidated financial statements and insights on the numbers, including key metrics
• Responsible for quality and accuracy in client deliverables 
• Responsible for client billings (invoices) & growth (upsell or expansion)
• Train client teams on best practices as needed
• Engage with Auditors, CPAs and other outside partners on behalf of clients
• Project management of onboarding, cleanup and implementation projects

The Ideal Candidate:

• 12+ years of operational accounting experience, including 3+ years as a Controller or Senior Accounting Manager
• An undergraduate degree in Accounting or Finance, preferred
• 3+ years experience managing teams in a fast-paced environment
• Experience overseeing full-cycle accounting for venture stage or private equity backed companies 
• Demonstrated experience leading with empathy
• Excellent teaching and coaching skills
• Expert communicator; active listener; can process conflicting information, and has excellent written and verbal communication
• Comfortable giving direct feedback
• Advanced project management skills — organization, prioritization, goal setting, execution, accountability
• Experience developing authentic relationships across an organization
• Self-Awareness
• Knowledge of consulting business model and tools in multi-client environment
• A passion for leveraging systems and driving process improvements
• Excellent working knowledge of Excel
• Comfortable working remotely

At Propeller Industries, we encourage our employees and our clients to bring their true selves to the organization. We believe that a diverse team enables us to cultivate and improve upon our culture of inclusion and collaboration. As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome the contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs. So however you identify and whatever your background, we encourage you to apply for this role if you share our passion for helping great entrepreneurs build great companies. We look forward to meeting you!

Current Benefits Offered: Generous Vacation & Sick Pay, Medical (Employer pays 100% for Employee coverage), Dental, Vision, Disability & Life Insurance, Commuter Benefits, Paid Family Leave, 3% contribution to 401k, Remote Work.

About Propeller Industries:

Propeller Industries provides outsourced finance and accounting services for an elite portfolio of early-stage growth companies. We offer a broad scope of services ranging from CFO-level strategic planning to day-to-day transaction processing through our team of CFOs and accountants. The firm has offices in San Francisco, Santa Monica, New York, Austin, Boulder and Sun Valley, ID and currently serves 400+ clients across a range of industries including ecommerce, technology, food & beverage, manufacturing, business services and healthcare.