Compensation Accounting Manager

Vancouver, BC | Hybrid

ABOUT STRIVE

STRIVE Recruitment is a specialist recruitment firm offering proactive recruitment solutions in the areas of Accounting & Finance, Corporate Administration, Operations and Technology. We pride ourselves on building long-term relationships with both clients and candidates by delivering an exceptional recruitment experience rooted in honesty, transparency, and market expertise.

THE CLIENT

Our client is a leading global real estate investment management organization. They are committed to innovation, continuous improvement and leveraging technology to enhance financial reporting and business decision-making. As they continue to evolve their finance function, they are seeking an Accounting Manager (Compensation Accounting) to lead a highly specialized and business-critical team.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As the Accounting Manager (Compensation Accounting), you will report to the Director, FP&A, and lead a specialized finance team responsible for one of the organization's largest expense categories - employee compensation. You'll oversee the accounting, reporting, forecasting and analysis of compensation costs while partnering with Finance, HR and Payroll to support strategic decision-making across a global business.

This is not a payroll processing role. Instead, you'll oversee the accounting behind payroll, ensuring employee compensation is accurately reflected in the financial statements while delivering meaningful analysis that supports budgeting, forecasting and business decisions.

If you're someone who enjoys solving complex problems, improving processes and turning large volumes of financial data into meaningful business insights, this role offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact within a collaborative global finance team.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead, mentor and develop the Compensation Accounting team, providing technical guidance and supporting their professional development.
• Own the accounting and reporting of global compensation and benefits expenses.
• Lead budgeting and forecasting for salaries, benefits and incentive compensation.
• Prepare and present meaningful variance analysis comparing actuals against budget, forecast and prior periods.
• Oversee payroll accounting, journal entries, reconciliations and compensation-related balance sheet accounts.
• Support month-end, quarter-end and year-end reporting activities.
• Manage compensation-related intercompany allocations and support transfer pricing processes.
• Partner closely with Payroll, HR, Corporate Finance and Tax to ensure accurate reporting across multiple jurisdictions.
• Work with large volumes of financial data to deliver accurate analysis and actionable business insights.
• Identify opportunities to improve reporting, automate processes and enhance operational efficiency.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

You are likely an Accounting Manager, Corporate Accounting Manager or Financial Reporting Manager from a large, complex organization where you've gained exposure to payroll accounting, compensation costs or employee-related accounting. You're technically strong, analytical by nature, and enjoy improving processes while partnering with stakeholders across the business. You'll bring:

• CPA designation with previous people leadership experience.
• Strong Corporate Accounting or Financial Reporting experience.
• Advanced Excel skills, including Power Query.
• Experience working with large, complex financial datasets.
• Exposure to payroll accounting, compensation accounting or employee-related accounting.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and business partnering skills.
• Experience working with ERP systems and financial databases.
• A passion for continuous improvement, automation and finding more efficient ways of working.
• Experience with SQL or working within a global organization would be considered an asset, but is not essential.

WHY APPLY?

This is far more than a traditional Accounting Manager opportunity. You'll have the chance to:

• Own one of the organization's largest and most strategically important expense categories.
• Work at the intersection of Accounting, FP&A, Payroll and HR.
• Gain exposure to international operations, multiple currencies and complex global reporting.
• Become a subject matter expert in compensation accounting and analytics.
• Influence automation, reporting enhancements and process improvements.

COMPENSATION

Our client offers a competitive compensation package including:

• Competitive base salary and annual bonus
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
• RRSP matching
• Hybrid work environment
• Professional development support
• Generous vacation and paid time off

If you're a CPA-designated Accounting Manager looking to combine technical accounting, financial analysis and business partnering within a global organization, we'd love to hear from you.