Financial Controller (Amsterdam) - French speaking

Join a dynamic, talented, and engaged team in a positive work environment to create a meaningful impact

GRESB is looking for a Financial Controller, who is responsible for maintaining accurate and complete financial records, and ensuring compliance with relevant accounting principles and regulations across all five entities in our organization. GRESB is headquartered in Amsterdam, with additional legal entities located in France, USA and Australia.

The position is based at our headquarters in Amsterdam. We offer relocation support if necessary.

The role aims to ensure the production of reliable & accurate accounts, from day-to-day bookkeeping, through to the production of the balance sheet and income statement, month-end cash flow and review of month-end balances. The role will require a particular focus on the newly acquired French entity "Asset Impact".

The main objective of this role is to structure the financial processes and ensure timely fulfillment of internal and external deadlines pertaining to various reporting obligations. Additionally, this role involves identifying and implementing enhancements to the existing processes.

The Team

As the Financial Controller, you will join the Business Support Team and report directly to the Group CFO. The team consists of five additional members: a Business Controller, Junior Business Controller, Finance Analyst, Legal & Compliance Manager, and an Operations & HR Manager. Furthermore, the team receives support from three working students, focusing on billing and other finance-related tasks.

Key Accountabilities

• Implement, standardize and coordinate accounting functions and systems
• Manage the period-end accounting closes and oversee the daily operations and output of the accounting teams across the group
• Ensure compliance with accounting principles, policies, and relevant regulations in all relevant countries
• Responsible for maintaining general ledgers in local GAAP, annual statutory accounts and statutory filing processes
• Implement and ensure adherence to Group finance policies, and ensure their consistent application across all entities
• Responsible for the coordination and review of a timely and accurate month end close process for all entities within our organization
• Ensure accurate and timely preparation of monthly reporting (P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statements) for the individual entities of the Group and the consolidated reporting
• Prepare regular and accurate cash flow forecasts for all entities
• Identify and apply key controls over the Group Finance processes
• Review key balance sheet reconciliations across all entities
• Prepare annual financial statements for all entities and annual consolidated financial statements
• Responsible for annual tax return and tax and statutory filings for all entities (Taxes always in collaboration with outsourcing providers)
• Responsible for supporting statutory audit and tax audit and as such liaise with internal and external parties to support the year end audit process
• Work with other members of the Business Support team to improve existing processes and develop new processes to increase the efficiency of the Business Support function
• Work with the Legal & Compliance Manager to control the group's legal commitments (insurance companies, partners, clients)

Requirements

• Bachelor and/or Master's degree in Accounting or similar
• Minimum 3-5 years' experience in financial control/accounting; audit experience is a plus
• Knowledge of French GAAP is required
• Experience in project management (and relevant tools)
• Solid knowledge of general accounting to be able to maintain & control subsidiary accounting, both directly and with other teams
• You are detail-oriented, with an analytical mindset
• Fluent in French and English
• Rigorous, dynamic, hands-on and reliable
• Able to think 2 steps ahead. We are looking for someone that can question the status quo, thinking critically and creatively to implement solutions to scale during the group's fast growth.
• Excellent organizational skills, proactive, independent and trustworthy: You are able to run multiple projects simultaneously and manage your deadlines with a positive mindset
• Able to drive transparency and simplicity in complex administrative process (complex billing process as an example)
• A team player who understands the importance of teamwork in an international, challenging and ambitious environment

Benefits

• Involvement in a fast-growing international organization that is globally recognized as the leading sustainability benchmark for real assets
• Scale-up mentality, fast and flat processes, straight internal communication, low hierarchies, and freedom to operate
• Opportunity to work with highly talented teams in a supportive and flexible environment.
• Familiar atmosphere within a dynamic and positive team at modern and well-located office facilities
• Attractive compensation that matches your experience
• 25 days of paid holidays
• Annual budget of EUR 2.500 for Personal Development
• Company pension plan
• Free public transport to and from work inside the Netherlands.
• Company provided laptop
• Free and healthy lunch at the office
• We offer relocation support if necessary.

GRESB is an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace, one at which all workers - regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, identity, education, or disability - feel valued and respected. We are committed to a non-discriminatory approach to hiring and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our teams and programs. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and work to ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

ABOUT GRESB

GRESB is a mission-driven and industry-led organisation that provides actionable and transparent environmental, social and governance (ESG) data to financial markets. We collect, validate, score and benchmark ESG data to provide business intelligence, engagement tools and regulatory reporting solutions for investors, asset managers and the wider industry.

Our vision: An investment industry that plays a central role in creating a sustainable world

Our mission: To provide financial markets with actionable insights, ESG data and benchmarks

Our ESG data and benchmarks now cover over USD 8.6 trillion in real estate and infrastructure value and are used by more than 170 institutional investors to make decisions that lead to a more sustainable world.

We have an engaged community of asset managers who are proud to participate in our annual benchmarking process and a group of inspirational industry partners and ESG service providers who amplify our reach.

The GRESB team comes from diverse backgrounds with experience spanning sustainability, data science, software development, real estate, infrastructure, and the capital markets. We're passionate about tackling the sustainability challenge by providing the insights that will power the markets of the future and enable investors to allocate the world's capital in a more responsible way.

We are an energetic group of 80+ people, covering dozens of different nationalities, located in Amsterdam, with regional representatives in London, Boston, Washington DC, Denver, Singapore and Sydney. We care deeply about creating a positive and inclusive working environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing their ideas.

ABOUT ASSET IMPACT

Asset Impact (AI) is an impact-driven climate start-up. Our vision is of a financial system that sets the global economy on a path to net zero emissions. We are a specialist provider of climate data and analytics used by financial institutions to achieve emissions reductions in the real economy. Our asset-based data and analytics cover the most carbon-intensive sectors of the global economy and map more than 250,000 physical assets across nine industry sectors - linked to more than 60,000 listed and private companies - to issued securities.

Our clients, mostly financial institutions, include large global organizations such as the 1,000+ financial institutions applying the PACTA tool, Barclays for its BlueTrackTM tool, ING for its Terra climate approach, and PwC for its Climate Excellence Tool.

AI was established in 2018 in Paris and works globally. We became part of GRESB, the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments, in 2022 after spinning off from the 2° Investing Initiative, an innovative international think tank working to align financial markets with climate goals. We are expanding rapidly to support the growing needs of financial institutions as they embark on their journey to decarbonization.

Our clients access our data and analytics through subscription licensing. We currently deliver data via flat files, and we are developing an API.