Sr. Manager, Accounting

Senior Accounting Manager

Potbelly is seeking a Senior Accounting Manager to lead core general ledger close and revenue accounting oversight functions. This role is responsible for ensuring timely, accurate financial reporting while driving continuous process improvement, strengthening accrual discipline, and maintaining a strong control environment.

The Senior Accounting Manager directly oversees the Revenue Accounting Manager and has direct responsibility for payroll accounting activities. This role provides leadership across revenue and payroll accounting processes, ensuring accuracy, accountability, and alignment with organizational priorities.

The ideal candidate is a strong communicator who operates autonomously, maintains high attention to detail, and partners effectively across Finance and Operations. This role balances hands-on execution with strategic oversight and team leadership.

Key responsibilities include managing and developing the Revenue Accounting Manager, overseeing payroll accounting activities, establishing clear accountability across revenue and payroll accounting functions, fostering a collaborative team culture, leading assigned areas of the monthly close process, driving accuracy and consistency in revenue recognition and related accruals, strengthening accrual discipline and improving forecasting support for owned accounts, ensuring clear documentation and strong support for all accounting conclusions, identifying and implementing process improvements to increase efficiency, reducing manual work, and enhancing accuracy across revenue and payroll accounting, improving reconciliation rigor and documentation standards across assigned accounts, partnering with internal and external auditors, providing documentation and explanations as needed, escalating complex or highly technical accounting matters as appropriate while confidently addressing technical issues within assigned areas, collaborating with FP&A, Operations, IT, and other stakeholders to improve data integrity and reporting, supporting system enhancements, workflow improvements, and accounting system optimization initiatives, contributing to continuous improvement efforts across the accounting function, and assisting with ad hoc projects, as necessary.

Required qualifications include a bachelor's degree in accounting or related field, 7+ years of progressive accounting experience, strong understanding of general ledger accounting and close processes, demonstrated experience leading or reviewing revenue-related accounting processes, experience managing or developing accounting professionals, strong written and verbal communication skills, high attention to detail and ability to operate independently.

Preferred qualifications include restaurant or multi-unit retail experience, experience with Net Suite or Workday, experience participating in accounting system implementations, experience working with Power BI or other reporting tools, CPA or CPA eligibility, and public accounting experience.

Core competencies include being a strong communicator who can clearly explain financial results and issues across stakeholders, autonomous and accountable with ownership mindset, detail-oriented with high standards for accuracy, process-improvement oriented, builds strong team capability through coaching, review, and mentorship, and able to balance hands-on work with strategic oversight responsibilities.