Contract - European R2R Section Manager

At Honda, we embrace inclusion in our various policies. Our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfill the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week, while offering flexibility for when you work. The regular office hours are 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Thursday with a half-hour lunch break, and 08:00 – 13:00 on a Friday. Flexibility is provided for daily start times between 07:00 and 11:00, depending on business requirements.

While there is no contractual right to work from home, you can request to work from home for a maximum of 50% of the working days in any one month, again depending on business needs.

Role:

The HME Finance Operations team is responsible for transactional finance across the European region. This role is an integral member of the finance operations team, working closely with finance colleagues in FP&A, Group Finance, and the outsourced Shared Service Centre.

The successful candidate will be responsible for key record-to-report activities to ensure timely and accurate month-end close, driving end-to-end process improvements, and partnering with the business to ensure accurate, high-quality financial data is provided in a timely and efficient manner.

This role is ideal for a qualified accountant looking to add value while driving key process improvements in a fast-paced European finance team.

Main Responsibilities:

Accounting Close

Responsible for ensuring Honda Motor in Europe maintains accurate books and records using current standard accounting practices. Activities within the team are organized functionally, and the job holder will be responsible for one or more of the below activities:

• Manage month-end timetables and ensure clear communication of all deadlines.
• Ensure accurate revenue recognition under IFRS 15.
• Ensure COGS, Inventory, and Transfer Pricing are reported accurately with necessary quality checks in place.
• Ensure all after-sales provisions are reported accurately and aligned with the latest accounting guidance.
• Ensure accurate Lease accounting under IFRS 16.
• Ensure all sub-ledgers are reported accurately and closed in a timely manner.
• Provide necessary approvals for manual entries created by team members.
• Provide necessary reviews and/or approvals for balance sheet substantiation activities, ensuring a high level of understanding for all balances.
• Ensure all improvement and follow-up activities are completed in a timely manner.
• Provide expert input and support to FP&A month-end reports.

Functional Transition Support

• Support the Pan European R2R process owner department manager in their transition towards a functional organization.
• Support with the transition of R2R activities within HME & HME-UK and control of month-end close activities.
• Act as interim manager of the HME & HME-UK R2R team.
• Work closely with the wider finance organization to review R2R tasks and transition planning.

Management of Shared Service Centre

• Supervise relevant Shared Service Centre teams to ensure accurate and timely input of all relevant month-end close activities.
• Monitor KPIs to ensure service is within agreed levels.
• Work closely with Shared Service teams to address concerns and drive improvements to processes.

Process Support and Improvement

• Drive ongoing issue resolution and process improvement within the month-end close processes.
• Provide key expertise to European finance improvement initiatives as required.

Data Quality

• Drive improvements in data quality to enhance reporting and improve month-end processes.
• Act as the SME to ensure the data quality impact of any system changes is understood and addressed.

Governance and Compliance

• Ensure adherence to current Governance and Compliance frameworks (e.g., SOX), ensuring all relevant processes are up to date, compliant, and documented.
• Work closely with Group Finance to understand and address the impact of future changes.

Relationship Management

• Work closely with internal and external stakeholders as a recognized Finance process expert.

Team Management

• Manage R2R Specialists, providing clear objectives, coaching, and mentoring.

Qualifications, Skills, and Experience:

Required

• A technically able qualified accountant with experience in a financial control environment.
• IFRS accounting knowledge is essential.
• Experience managing activities provided by a finance shared service provider.
• Experience working in a multi-cultural environment, preferably in Europe.
• Excellent communication & networking skills, quickly able to establish credibility with stakeholders.
• Self-driven and motivated to succeed with the ability to prioritize workload to tight deadlines.
• Experienced manager able to create high-performing teams.
• Audit, risk management, and compliance experience.
• Experience with systems such as Trintech Cadency, Hyperion, SAP, S4Hana, BOFC is advantageous.
• Ability and willingness to travel.
• Personal motivation – ability to work on your own initiative, demonstrating passion, enthusiasm, and commitment.
• Workload management and prioritization – ability to demonstrate methodical and systematic workload management.
• Communication – ability to work with multiple stakeholders, recognizing different needs.
• Influencing – position yourself to have influence and real authority in the R2R process.
• International business management skills – ability to work across borders and adapt to different cultures to achieve standardized business solutions.

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants, and visitors. Honda encourages respect for individual differences and talents, making full use of one's abilities based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognize that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities, regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.