Financial Close Manager (Hybrid; m/f/x/d; 80-100%)

About the Role

The Financial Close Manager will play a pivotal role in coordinating and managing the close processes and calendars, ensuring systematic readiness and robust checks. The successful candidate will be responsible for identifying and addressing process and organizational gaps, managing stakeholder relationships, and maintaining strong communication channels with diverse stakeholders and the wider community. This requires broad stakeholder alignment of the various production deadlines and handshakes required, while ensuring issues within the financials are addressed and appropriately managed to deliver an auditable set of disclosures.

Key responsibilities include:

• Coordinate and manage the Group, Local and SST close processes and calendars to ensure timely and accurate financial close processes. and align stakeholders to the various deadlines which need to be achieved.
• Identify and address process and organizational gaps that impact the financial close cycle, ensuring changes in scope and process of the current close are aligned and implemented in preparation for each quarter.
• Manage stakeholders and working level groups effectively to foster collaboration and efficiency to ensure communication and alignment of the teams, maintaining the closing calendar adjustments and updating the closing monitor with evidence.
• Conduct robust checks and provide evidence to support the financial close process.
• Manage and monitor KPIs related to the financial close process.
• Triage, prioritize, and proactively solve problems and handle issues as they arise ensuring clear identification, allocation and tracking through to closure.
• Maintain strong communication channels with stakeholders and the wider community to ensure transparency and alignment.
• Coordinate inclusion of workarounds in the end-to-end financial close process.
• Drive for operational excellence in quarterly closing process through continuous process improvement, including the automation of closing processes and tasks, harmonisation of processes across teams, and elimination of unnecessary controls.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
• Engage in wider projects and initiatives when required.

About the Team

Global Finance Operations & Transformation (GFO&T) is the unit responsible for the accounting and reporting of accurate and consistent financial information Globally for Swiss Re for external reporting and internal analysis facilitating strategic decision-making. This includes IFRS for Group as well as statutory financial information for all Swiss Re's legal entities, including SST and Solvency II. GFO&T spearheads the transformation of Group Finance, streamlining it towards a simpler, more effective forward-looking organisation.

About You

As a focused team player with effective communication skills, you can guide the wider teams smoothly through the financial closing process ensuring continued improvement.

Key requirements include: 

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Business Administration, Finance, or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant working experience in finance, accounting and reporting activities preferably within a (Re)insurance environment.
• Proven experience and comprehensive understanding of financial close processes and management.
• Strong understanding of Swiss Re's end-to-end finance systems and process landscape, encompassing reporting processes and related systems
• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills with influence capabilities to align global teams to the close process.
• Adept at conducting post-activity reviews and implementing lessons learned.
• Good understanding of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Ability to drive initiatives and contribute to strategic projects effectively.
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and proactive issue resolution.
• Strong analytical and conceptual thinking
• Excellent command of English (spoken and written)