Manager – Financial Governance & Accounting

Senior Leadership role | Period of transformation and change | Work for one of Canberra’s best-known and highly regarded organisations

Wholly owned by the ACT Government, Icon Water are a leading Canberra business with a history of providing essential services to Canberra for over 100 years.  Not only do they play a pivotal role in servicing the community, but they are also a unique entity in Australia.  Whilst primarily a water and sewerage business, Icon Water also manage investments in electricity and gas through partnerships with private companies.  This means that the business operates in a unique environment across government and commercial activities.  With a proud history, Icon Water are also forward looking, playing a major role in navigating climate change impacts, protecting the environment, securing water into the future and achieving net zero emissions by 2045.

With approximately 190,000 customers in the Capital region, their assets are worth over $3.2 billion comprising of the ACT’s network of dams, water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, reservoirs, mains, and water and sewage pumping stations.  They turnover approximately $490M in revenue annually.

This is an opportunity for a Senior Finance Leader to join the Finance and Strategy Group, helping the team move forward in a period of transformation.  Led by a forward-thinking CFO, they continue to attract a team of high performing problem solvers.  The long-term strategy is to continually move towards an enabling environment where manual processes are streamlined, and data is used to drive smart business decisions as well as implementing a new corporate services delivery model which has resulted in a wide range of opportunities. 

Leading a team of 13, the Manager Financial Governance and Accounting is the key role responsible for critical accounting compliance, controls and operational finance activities for the organisation.  You will step in during a period of transformation where you will help build on a high performing team, evolve finance processes, and continue to uplift staff capability.  This is a chance to review and update controls, policies, and governance for the area, and deliver best practice. 

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to: 

• Lead, manage and oversee treasury, insurance, financial accounting and transactional finance teams to ensure financial information meets the needs of relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Owns and oversees that all financial policies or procedures are maintained, and adequate controls are in place. Also, recommends changes in policies or procedures that will improve the financial performance.
• Finalisation of financial statements and reporting for the Executive, Board and other external stakeholders in accordance with statutory requirements, including responsibility for liaising and managing the relationship with the Auditor-General and its subcontractors.
• Ensures compliance with all financial regulations, Accounting Standards and tax regulations. Also, provide adequate advice to the Board if any changes to these regulations impact Icon Water.
• Perform financial analysis and reviews, and work with the business and broader finance team to implement enterprise initiatives that may improve the financial performance of Icon Water.
• Manage the relationship with the tax outsourcing service provider and handle all enquiries related to direct and indirect taxes. 

You are a Senior Finance Leader who is CA/CPA qualified accountant with a strong technical accounting/audit background.  You will be highly motivated, commercially oriented and with a pragmatic and reliable common-sense approach to new problems and situations. A strong technical understanding of accounting standards and their application to large businesses will be highly regarded.  

Your reputation is as an all-rounder given your strong technical and leadership skills combined with well-developed interpersonal and communication skills. 

You will enjoy the fact that your insights and expertise have contributed to the continued success of one of Canberra’s best-known businesses.

The salary band starts at $192,222 + 15% Super.

In addition to an attractive renumeration package, Icon Water offer great employee benefits including flexible working arrangements, career development opportunity, health and wellbeing contributions and salary sacrifice options to name a few.