Group Financial Controller

About Watsmen

Watsmen is building an engineering-led industrial group. We connect technical capability, disciplined execution and practical commercial judgement to deliver valuable industrial solutions.

Role Purpose

Produce reliable financial records and a disciplined reporting process for Watsmen's Group institution. Make transactions, balances and variances traceable to evidence, approvals and the correct legal entity. Establish practical controls that support sound decisions and assurance while keeping Group operating costs distinct from separately governed project, trade and acquisition activity.

Key Accountabilities

• Deliver a controlled chart of accounts and reporting structure aligned to legal entities, cost ownership and approved accounting policies; document coding rules and prevent unsupported transfers between institutional expenditure and separately governed capital or operating vehicles.
• Run the period-end close through documented tasks, entity submissions and review checkpoints; produce reconciled ledgers and reporting schedules, clearly identifying estimates, missing evidence, late inputs and items requiring CFO judgement.
• Maintain effective transaction controls for payables, receivables, expenses and journals; verify supporting documents, approval evidence and allocation accuracy, with segregated preparation and review and an exception route where staffing creates unavoidable conflicts.
• Deliver balance-sheet substantiation covering cash, intercompany positions, receivables, payables and relevant asset balances; maintain ageing and reconciliation records, assign correction owners and escalate material or recurring unexplained differences.
• Produce management accounts and budget-to-actual analysis with attributable variance explanations; coordinate with budget owners to distinguish timing differences, accounting errors and underlying operating changes, supporting the CFO's forecast and resource decisions.
• Maintain audit-ready financial records and a calendar of assigned statutory and tax inputs; work with qualified local providers on entity obligations, track submission evidence and implement agreed accounting-control improvements with verified closure.
• Link initiative identifiers to recorded revenue, attributable direct costs, invoices and collections; reconcile shared performance reporting to accounting records and expose aged receivables or unsupported margin claims.

First 90 Days

• By day 30: Assess ledger quality, available records, reconciliation status and local-provider arrangements; agree the initial close timetable, coding approach and a prioritised list of financial-control gaps with the CFO.
• By day 60: Complete an evidenced reporting cycle with core reconciliations and variance commentary; establish journal, expense and invoice review routines, together with clear ownership of missing records and overdue corrections.
• By day 90: Demonstrate a repeatable close with improved balance substantiation and fewer unresolved exceptions; provide an assurance-ready reporting file, an obligations-input calendar and a practical continuity guide. Demonstrate an initiative-to-accounting reconciliation with traceable invoices, direct costs, collections and unresolved exceptions.

Essential Requirements

• Demonstrated competence in financial accounting, period-end close and balance-sheet reconciliation
• Ability to build reliable reporting from incomplete or developing multi-entity accounting records
• Practical understanding of transaction controls, segregation of duties and financial evidence retention
• Ability to explain variances clearly and resolve discrepancies with operational budget owners
• Careful professional judgement and willingness to escalate unsupported entries or material reporting uncertainty

Desirable Experience

• Relevant professional accounting qualification or equivalent demonstrated competence
• Experience with industrial or project-related accounting interfaces
• Experience implementing accounting systems or coordinating outsourced local bookkeeping

Authority And Decision Boundaries

• Prepare and review records within the approved accounting-control framework; journal approvals, payments and expenditure commitments require their separately documented delegations and segregation controls.
• Return incomplete submissions for correction and escalate unsupported transactions to the CFO; the role does not independently set tax positions, sign statutory accounts or bind a legal entity.

Key Interfaces

CFO and appointed local accounting providers; Budget owners, procurement and commercial colleagues; General Counsel and Risk, Ethics & Compliance Manager; Entity and platform finance contacts, with external advisers.

CFO, Commercial and COO on reconciled initiative results, receivables and reporting definitions.

How Success Is Evidenced

• Close timeliness and accuracy of reporting schedules
• Completeness of reconciliations and ageing of unresolved financial exceptions
• Quality of transaction evidence, variance explanations and control-remediation closure
• Reliable reconciliation of initiative results to accounting evidence, with aged receivables and unsupported margins visible.

Activation And Delivery Readiness

Assigned work requires confirmed resources, competent delivery capacity and the applicable approvals. The role operates within its documented delegation; appointment alone does not confer contracting, spending, technical-approval or system-access authority.

Location And Travel

Istanbul, Türkiye. Travel may support entity close reviews, provider coordination and financial-control verification. Specific travel requirements and frequency will be discussed before appointment.

Employment And Working Arrangements

Full-time employment, with annual performance reviews. Twelve-month renewable contracts where legally appropriate, with probation and renewal terms determined under local law.

Roles are on-site by default. Hybrid or remote working requires prior approval. No relocation assistance or visa support is provided.

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