Director, Accounting Global Process Owner
Nordson · Columbus
Collaboration drives Nordson’s success as a market leader in Industrial Precision Solutions and Advanced Technology. Our employees thrive in an environment where we help each other reach our personal best and enable our company to continuously improve and grow, and our customers to succeed. You will find Nordson employees sharing our success by giving back in the communities around the world where we live and work.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Accounting Strategy and Governance
- Serve as a strategic advisor to the Chief Accounting Officer and senior finance leaders regarding global accounting processes, governance, technology capabilities, and controls.
- Develop and maintain a multiyear global accounting strategy aligned with enterprise priorities, business needs, regulatory requirements, and emerging capabilities.
- Establish enterprise-wide process standards, policies, decision rights, documentation requirements, and exception protocols.
- Lead governance forums that address strategic priorities, process decisions, risks, performance, and competing stakeholder requirements.
Strategic Portfolio and Value Realization
- Translate the global accounting strategy into a prioritized portfolio of initiatives with clear outcomes, ownership, milestones, resource requirements, and success measures.
- Prioritize initiatives based on enterprise value, business risk, control impact, scalability, implementation complexity, and organizational capacity.
- Develop and sponsor business cases for major accounting investments and influence related resource and investment decisions.
- Evaluate initiative performance and realized value, directing corrective action when expected outcomes are not achieved.
Future-State Process, Technology, and Data
- Establish the future-state vision and design principles for technology-enabled accounting processes, including automation, workflow, analytics, data governance, and controls.
- Partner with Finance Technology and other stakeholders to incorporate accounting requirements into enterprise architecture, platform, and implementation decisions.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and process solutions and recommend appropriate investment, adoption, and enterprise deployment.
- Ensure solutions are sustainable and supported by appropriate ownership, governance, documentation, controls, and performance measures.
Risk, Controls, and Regulatory Readiness
- Partner with Internal Audit, SOX, Finance Technology, and accounting leaders to ensure process and technology strategies support control and regulatory requirements.
- Anticipate risks arising from business growth, acquisitions, organizational change, technology implementation, regulatory developments, and evolving operating models.
- Provide strategic guidance on complex process and control matters that cross organizational or geographic boundaries.
- Establish governance mechanisms to monitor process adherence, control effectiveness, significant exceptions, and emerging risks.
Organizational Adoption and Capability Development
- Establish the change and adoption strategy for major global accounting initiatives.
- Influence senior leaders, global process owners, and key stakeholders to align around enterprise priorities, standards, and governance expectations.
- Anticipate organizational barriers and stakeholder concerns and develop strategies that build alignment and sustain adoption.
- Strengthen global capabilities in process ownership, technology enablement, internal controls, governance, and continuous improvement.
- Use external advisors, professional organizations, technology providers, benchmarking, and peer relationships to identify emerging practices and capabilities.
Performance Management and Executive Communication
- Define enterprise KPIs, baseline measures, performance expectations, and benefit targets for global accounting processes and strategic initiatives.
- Evaluate performance across operational, financial, control, service, and organizational dimensions.
- Direct cross-functional root-cause analysis and corrective action for systemic performance gaps.
- Provide clear and strategically focused updates to senior leadership regarding priorities, performance, risks, investment needs, and realized value.
Scope and Impact
- Operates across the global accounting organization and influences related finance, technology, audit, control, and business processes.
- Shapes the long-term direction of global accounting processes, governance, and technology-enabled capabilities.
- Leads highly visible, multidisciplinary initiatives with broad operational, financial, technology, control, and organizational implications.
- Influences senior leadership decisions regarding priorities, investments, process standards, risk mitigation, and resource allocation.
- Addresses complex and enterprise-wide challenges for which established solutions or precedents may not exist.
- Establishes standards and capabilities that have a sustained impact beyond individual projects.
Required Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field from an accredited institution.
- Minimum of 12 years of progressive experience in accounting, controllership, finance transformation, shared services, or a related discipline.
- Demonstrated experience shaping and leading complex, enterprise-wide accounting or finance strategies in a global organization.
- Deep expertise in accounting operations, financial reporting processes, internal controls, process governance, and end-to-end process design.
- Experience leading highly visible, multidisciplinary initiatives across organizational, functional, and geographic boundaries.
- Demonstrated success influencing senior leaders and aligning stakeholders without relying on direct managerial authority.
- Experience developing business cases, prioritizing strategic portfolios, and measuring financial, operational, control, and organizational outcomes.
- Experience applying technology, automation, data, and process innovation to improve the effectiveness and scalability of accounting operations.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Broad expertise across accounting, controllership, internal controls, process transformation, technology enablement, organizational change, and governance.
- Ability to connect accounting strategy with enterprise priorities, business requirements, technology direction, and organizational capabilities.
- Advanced conceptual and analytical thinking, including the ability to address complex or unprecedented challenges.
- Ability to translate strategic vision into governance, investment priorities, actionable roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
- Strong executive communication, consultation, facilitation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Ability to anticipate objections, reconcile competing interests, build consensus, and influence senior leaders.
- Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and enterprise initiatives through expertise, influence, and clearly established governance.
- Ability to challenge established practices constructively and introduce innovative solutions grounded in business value, control integrity, and operational feasibility.
Preferred Qualifications
- Certified Public Accountant or equivalent professional accounting qualification.
- Public company and SOX experience.
- Experience in a complex global manufacturing organization.
- Experience with shared services, Global Business Services, or Centers of Excellence.
- Experience with major finance or ERP transformation programs.
- Experience supporting acquisition integration or significant organizational transformation.
- Experience participating in external professional forums, industry groups, or benchmarking networks.
- Familiarity with emerging technologies and leading practices affecting accounting operations and controllership.