Regional Financial Controller

The Role

The Regional Financial Controller is a key finance leadership position responsible for overseeing financial controllership, governance, compliance, statutory reporting, and financial risk management across multiple countries in the Asia Pacific region.

This role provides strategic financial leadership and serves as a trusted business partner to regional and country leadership teams. The incumbent will ensure the integrity of financial reporting, maintain a strong control environment, drive operational excellence, and support business growth through sound financial management and commercial decision support.

The successful candidate will bring strong technical accounting expertise, proven experience leading finance functions across multiple countries, and the ability to influence stakeholders at senior leadership levels within a complex multinational environment.

Key Responsibilities

Regional Financial Leadership

• Serve as the finance controllership lead for the region, providing oversight across multiple legal entities and countries.
• Partner closely with regional leadership to support strategic objectives, business growth initiatives, profitability improvement, and risk management.
• Act as a key advisor on financial, accounting, governance, and compliance matters impacting the business.
• Lead financial governance and promote best-in-class controllership practices across the region.

Financial Reporting & Controllership

• Own the month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close processes across the region.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant financial reporting in accordance with US GAAP and local statutory requirements.
• Review financial performance, balance sheet integrity, and key business drivers.
• Present financial results, risks, opportunities, and recommendations to regional and global leadership.
• Drive accountability for financial reporting quality and compliance across all entities.

Internal Controls, Compliance & Risk Management

• Maintain and strengthen the regional internal control framework.
• Ensure compliance with SOX, corporate policies, and regulatory requirements.
• Lead remediation efforts arising from internal and external audits.
• Identify financial, operational, and compliance risks and establish mitigation plans.
• Champion a culture of strong governance, ethics, and accountability.

Statutory, Audit & Tax Oversight

• Oversee statutory financial reporting and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• Lead relationships with external auditors, tax advisors, and regulatory authorities.
• Ensure compliance with local tax, accounting, and reporting obligations.
• Provide oversight on transfer pricing, intercompany transactions, and corporate structure changes where applicable.

Business Partnership & Commercial Support

• Provide financial insight and strategic guidance to commercial, operations, service, and functional leaders.
• Review and challenge business cases, investment proposals, capital expenditure requests, and major commercial decisions.
• Support pricing, margin improvement, productivity, and profitability initiatives.
• Drive fact-based decision-making through financial analysis and performance indicators.

Working Capital & Cash Management

• Provide leadership on working capital optimization initiatives.
• Monitor cash flow performance, receivables, inventory, and payables across the region.
• Partner with business leaders to improve cash conversion and balance sheet performance.
• Ensure appropriate governance around credit risk and customer collections.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop finance teams across multiple countries.
• Build a high-performing finance organization capable of supporting business growth.
• Drive succession planning and talent development within the finance function.
• Foster strong collaboration between regional finance, shared service teams, and business stakeholders.

Finance Transformation & Systems

• Lead finance transformation initiatives focused on process efficiency, standardization, automation, and controls enhancement.
• Support ERP implementations, system upgrades, and digital finance initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement in reporting, data quality, and financial processes.
• Promote the use of technology and analytics to strengthen financial decision-making.

Requirements

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related discipline.
• CPA, CA, ACCA, CMA, or equivalent professional qualification required.

Experience

• Minimum 15 years of progressive finance and accounting experience within multinational organizations.
• At least 10 years of experience in a Regional Financial Controller or equivalent senior finance leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience managing finance operations across multiple countries within Asia Pacific.
• Strong experience in financial reporting, governance, compliance, internal controls, audit, and statutory accounting.
• Experience supporting regional businesses with annual revenues exceeding USD100 million preferred.
• Experience within industrial, manufacturing, engineering, equipment, or multinational environments is highly preferred.
• Proven track record partnering with senior leadership teams and influencing business decisions.

Technical Expertise

• Expert knowledge of US GAAP, statutory reporting, and financial consolidation.
• Strong understanding of SOX compliance, internal controls, and corporate governance frameworks.
• Experience overseeing external audits, tax compliance, and regulatory reporting.
• Advanced financial analysis, business partnering, and risk management capabilities.
• Experience with ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle, JDE, or equivalent enterprise systems.

Leadership Competencies

• Proven ability to lead geographically dispersed teams and influence stakeholders across multiple levels.
• Strong commercial acumen and business judgement.
• Excellent communication and executive presentation skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• High degree of accountability, integrity, and attention to detail.
• Ability to effectively manage competing priorities in a fast-paced regional environment.