Director of Accounting

Macmillan Publishers is a global trade book publishing company with prominent imprints around the world, publishing a broad range of award-winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats. Macmillan Publishers is committed to our authors, our employees, and to the environment.

Finance, Controlling and Tax

Professionals

The Director of Accounting is responsible for overseeing the Company’s accounting operations, including general accounting, financial close, audit support, and cost accounting. This role ensures the accuracy and integrity of financial reporting, maintains effective internal controls, and drives global accounting consistency under IFRS. The Director will also provide leadership in the design and implementation of processes within the Company’s SAP ERP system and play an active role in supporting acquisitions and other strategic initiatives.

What you’ll do:

• Lead monthly accounting close activities, including account reconciliations, variance analysis, and reporting.
• Oversee cost accounting activities, including product costing, inventory valuation, and variance analysis, ensuring accuracy and alignment with operational and financial goals.
• Partner with business finance teams for completeness and accuracy and the parent company Controller’s group to ensure consistency, comparability, and adherence to IFRS.
• Manage year-end audit activities, including financial statement preparation, account analysis, reconciliations, and coordination with external auditors for both corporate and benefit plan audits (401K/pension).
• Design, document, and implement accounting procedures leveraging the Company’s SAP ERP system, including cost accounting modules.
• Ensure robust internal controls across accounting functions, including cost accounting, to safeguard assets and ensure compliance.
• Support due diligence, purchase accounting, and integration activities related to acquisitions.
• Provide accounting expertise for ad hoc projects and cross-functional initiatives.
• Leadership & Management
  • Lead a team of six general and cost accounting professionals, including three direct reports.
  • Provide coaching, development, and clear objectives for both direct and indirect reports, ensuring high performance and engagement.
  • Foster a culture of accuracy, accountability, and continuous improvement within the accounting function.
  • Partner with FP&A and operations teams to provide cost analysis and insights that support decision‑making and profitability improvement.

What you’ll bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance; CPA strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive accounting experience, with management responsibility for both general and cost accounting functions.
• Strong knowledge of IFRS and U.S. GAAP, with experience coordinating across global teams.
• Demonstrated success leading audits and managing external auditor relationships.
• Hands‑on ERP experience required; SAP strongly preferred (including cost accounting modules), OneStream financial consolidation is a plus.
• Proven leadership ability with experience managing teams of 5+ professionals, including both direct and indirect reports.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem‑solving skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, evolving environment while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.

This role will have an annual salary of $160k-$175k.

Macmillan Publishers is the U.S. trade company that is part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large family‑owned group of media companies headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's publishing companies include prominent imprints around the world that publish a broad range of award‑winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats.

U.S. publishers include Celadon Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt & Company, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, The St. Martin's Publishing Group, and Tor Publishing Group. In the UK, Australia, India, and South Africa, companies in the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group publish under the Pan Macmillan name. The German publishing company, Holtzbrinck Deutsche Buchverlage, includes among its imprints S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Rowohlt, and Droemer Knaur.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are actively seeking job applicants who reflect a broad representation of differences, including race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, physical ability, neurodiversity, age, family status, economic background and status, geographical background and status. We believe that the best companies reflect the incredible diversity in viewpoints, backgrounds and identities of the world in their staffs, and are committed to inclusive hiring across departments and levels. The successful candidate for this position will be an employee of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.

We are looking forward to your speculative application.