Senior Accountant

Description

Senior Accountant

A career path to Controller on an AI-focused finance team

Company: Group One

Location: Union, New Jersey

Employment type: Full-time

Classification: Salaried, [exempt]

Reports to: CFO (acting Controller)

Group One is a privately held family of businesses providing manpower, facility, security, parking and vending services to airports, airlines and commercial customers. We run a dozen entities from Union, New Jersey, on a modern cloud ERP. We are rebuilding our finance team around Claude and AI-assisted workflows as the normal way of working, not an experiment on the side.

$78,000 to $82,000 per year. Placement in the range depends on experience and qualifications.

• Days: Monday to Friday
• On site: Full time at our Union, NJ office

Position Summary

This is a career path, and we're saying so up front. Our CFO is currently acting as Controller and is hiring this role to develop a successor for that function. You'll be introduced to the company deliberately and take on backup responsibility for Controller functions one at a time. Our goal is for the right person to step into the Controller role within about four years, based on performance and the needs of the business.

• Prepare the monthly close for multiple entities and deliver P&L and balance sheet packages for Controller review, then take on that review yourself over time
• Keep every balance sheet account reconciled and supported, with an owner and a date for every open item
• Prepare reconciliations tied to third-party documents: bank, line of credit and loans, lease liabilities, prepaids, payroll and sales tax liabilities, and fixed assets
• Prepare intercompany elimination entries and run the intercompany reconciliation across all entities each month
• Own the multi-state sales tax calendar: prepare returns and payments, maintain rate tables, and review calculations prepared by an outside partner
• Maintain the fixed asset register and the insurance and workers' compensation allocation schedules
• Prepare the monthly lender borrowing base and covenant package and all audit work papers ahead of fieldwork, becoming the day-to-day contact for auditors and the bank over time
• Build and run AI-assisted workflows in Claude for each recurring task you own, and document the procedure behind each one so the work never depends on one person
• Back up daily bank posting and reconciliation, and be backed up in turn

• First 90 days: Run the holding-entity closes and the balance sheet review under Controller review. Read and confirm the procedures, and get your first routines running.
• First year: Own the tax calendar, fixed assets, intercompany, the borrowing base and the audit work papers. Back up every Controller function and take your first delegated sign-offs.
• Years two and three:
  Review the close, sign off reconciliations under the CFO, and serve as the primary contact for auditors and the bank on routine matters.
• Goal, within about four years:
  Controller, owning the control function for the group.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Health savings account (HSA)
• Life insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid time off

We are shifting our effort from performing tasks to guiding the business. The finance team is building a platform that lets Group One grow, run the existing business for performance and profitability, and give customers full transparency into the services we deliver. Every routine task we hand to a documented AI workflow is time we put back into that mission.

This works best for a motivated team player who wants to help build something, not just fill a role. We help each other, we write things down, we ask when we're unsure, and we raise bad news the same day. The expectations are…