The Skirball Cultural Center seeks an experienced full-time Controller.
The Controller is a key financial leader responsible for ensuring compliance, accuracy, and efficiency of the accounting operations. Reporting to the CFO, this role manages a small team and oversees critical financial processes, including month-end close, cash management, accounts payable, general ledger, audits, and tax preparation. The Controller also drives process improvements, strengthens internal controls, and provides actionable insights to support organizational decision-making.
Note: This position is on-site. The Controller must work daily from the Skirball Cultural Center campus.
Responsibilities:
Financial Operations & Reporting
- Lead the month-end close process, ensuring timely and accurate financial statements.
- Maintain financial hygiene through regular account reconciliations, petty cash counts, inventory counts, clearing accounts, fixed assets, prepaids accruals, etc.
- Oversee cash management, accounts payable, and general ledger functions.
- Ensure team delivers timely and accurate programmatical and capital projects/expenditures results
- Collaborate with leadership and departments to provide the most effective reporting and information
Compliance, Audit & Budget
- Lead timely year-end audit processes with auditors and tax preparers (990, 5500, 403(b), etc.) ensuring completion which includes schedule preparation, reconciliation and adjustment recording
- Ensure timely submission of statutory reporting as well as other financial (BLS, AG, county, city, state, etc.) reporting and compliance
- Assist in researching and analyzing new accounting standards and ensure appropriate planning and implementation of new standards
- Facilitate departmental cost and trend analysis to identify efficiencies and support decision-making.
- Assist in preparation of annual operating and capital budgets
Team Leadership
- Ensure deadlines are met by actively reprioritizing deliverables as competing priorities evolve to ensure balanced workload while providing CFO timely updates
- Ensure effective archiving process for digital and physical documents/files which complies with records retention policy
- Direct, train, and mentor staff. Actively participate in career development of team
Qualifications, Experience, and Attributes:
- REQUIRED: At least a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Mathematics, or Economics or the equivalent experience
- PREFERRED: 8+ years of experience in accounting in an operational multi-unit organization
- PREFERRED: Certified Public Accountant License (CPA); experience in accounting for a nonprofit organization
- Skilled thought partner
- Proven experience in staff management, including demonstrated ability to hire, lead, and develop team members
- Self-directs and manages upward comfortably
- Effectively manages multiple projects, dynamically shifts prioritization, operates with both attention-to-detail and big picture focus
- Strong knowledge and application of GAAP especially with regards to restricted gifts and the management of the accounting processes to support clean reporting
- Ability to identify, promote, process / systems efficiencies and aid implementation
- Be a good listener and seek to know competent details of team tasks to better solve new issues and help decision-making
- Effective oral and written communication, including the ability to translate financial data into meaningful information
- Proven skills in accounting/financial systems and processes, as well as strong Excel skills.
- Motivated by collaboration and commitment to provide high quality, timely customer service to internal and external customers
Physical and environmental demands of the job: Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer. Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds.