Senior Manager Group Audit Coordination & External Reporting (m/f/d)

To serve as the organizational backbone of the group's external audit, ensuring that all quarterly reviews and annual audits are finalized on time through rigorous end-to-end coordination across internal finance functions and external auditors. As the single point of accountability for one of the most time‑critical and compliance‑sensitive processes in the organization, this role directly safeguards the integrity and credibility of the group's public financial reporting.

Essential Responsibilities

Audit Coordination

• Own the group audit process end-to-end for IFRS and US GAAP: from initial planning and scoping through fieldwork, review, and final sign-off - for both quarterly reviews and the annual group audit
• Design and maintain the master audit coordination plan, including a detailed timeline, milestone tracking, and escalation paths - aligned to SEC filing deadlines (40 days for 10-Q, 60 days for 10-K)
• Serve as the single primary interface to the external auditors for all group-level matters; manage day-to-day audit communication, resolve open items, and ensure the auditors have timely access to all requested information
• Orchestrate the Group's audit preparation process across all group entities: coordinate local controllers and accounting teams to ensure PBC (Prepared by Client) deliverables are complete, accurate, and submitted on time
• Establish and enforce an internal pre-audit review process to ensure sufficient level of quality before external auditor engagement - minimizing surprises and re‑work during fieldwork
• Plan and manage audit kick‑off meetings, status reviews, and closing conferences; prepare all relevant materials and ensure senior management is briefed on open issues at all times
• Track and manage the resolution of audit findings, review notes, and auditor queries across workstreams; maintain a central issue log with owners, due dates, and status
• Oversee the PBC list management from end to end: distribute requests to the appropriate internal owners, monitor completeness, and ensure quality before delivery to auditors
• Coordinate Big 4 or audit firm relationships at the operational level; manage engagement efficiency and constructively challenge scope or timelines where appropriate
• Prepare Audit Committees in close alignment with the VP Group Accounting on audit planning, significant accounting judgments, and audit progress; support the preparation of Audit Committee materials

Internal Stakeholder Management & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Act as the central coordination hub between group accounting, local finance teams, tax, treasury, legal, and FP&A throughout the audit and reporting cycle
• Drive rigorous internal closing calendar management to ensure all upstream inputs arrive with sufficient lead time ahead of external audit deadlines
• Build and maintain a culture of audit-readiness across the group finance organization - not just at year‑end, but as a continuous state of preparedness

Process Improvement & Project Work

• Continuously evaluate and improve the audit coordination process - including tooling, templates, communication flows, and escalation mechanisms
• Lead or support ad hoc finance and accounting projects (e.g., new accounting standard adoption, M&A integration, ERP/consolidation system enhancements)
• Support the build‑out of scalable audit and reporting infrastructure suited to the ongoing demands of a public company

Qualifications / Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance / Accounting / or equivalent (Master appreciated) or economic education with sufficient years of work experience (HAK or equivalent)
• Minimum 7-10 years of relevant experience, with a significant portion in roles with direct exposure to external audit processes - either in public accounting or as an in‑house audit coordinator at a multinational group
• Demonstrated experience owning and managing complex external audit engagements end-to-end, including multi‑entity group audits
• Proven ability to coordinate large numbers of internal stakeholders under strict, non‑negotiable deadlines
• Solid knowledge of US GAAP and IFRS
• Experience in multinational, multi‑entity group structures with cross-border audit coordination
• Very good Microsoft 365 experience
• Excellent Excel skills, experienced with large sets of data
• Prior experience at a Big 4 accounting firm (audit practice), ideally followed by an in‑house role at a publicly listed company
• Experience with consolidation systems (e.g., SAP, Hyperion/HFM, LucaNet, Oracle FCCS, or similar)
• Outstanding organizational and project management skills - able to manage multiple parallel workstreams without losing track of detail or deadline
• Fluent in English, additional languages are a plus