Direct titles
- Financial Controller
- Group Financial Controller
- Group Accountant
- Consolidation Manager
- Finance Manager
Curated sourcing strategy
Financial Controller
A materially different role showing the same recruiting method across accounting, reporting, scope, and systems requirements.
Pre-generated AI example · synthetic scenario · human reviewed · no fresh public AI analysis
Canonical continuation from Hiring Intake
Financial Controller
A hands-on Financial Controller or group-accounting professional who has personally owned multi-entity consolidation, monthly close, IFRS reporting, controls, audit coordination, and management/statutory reporting. The person must be able to work in Madrid three days per week and operate effectively across international finance and business stakeholders.
Required
- Strong financial controlling or group-accounting experience in a multi-entity environment.
- Personal ownership of group consolidation, including direct work with consolidated accounts—not solely entity-level submissions.
- Practical ownership or delivery experience in monthly close.
- Strong IFRS knowledge and confidence applying standards to reporting decisions.
- Experience producing both management and statutory reporting and coordinating with external auditors.
- Sound knowledge of financial controls, reconciliations, supporting documentation, and audit trails.
- Experience using ERP systems, plus strong spreadsheet and financial-analysis skills.
- Professional English and the ability to communicate financial matters to senior and non-finance stakeholders.
- Ability to work from Madrid under a hybrid model requiring three office days per week.
Preferred
- SAP S/4HANA experience, with improvement experience on another major ERP accepted as relevant.
- Finance-transformation, close-acceleration, or ERP implementation or upgrade experience.
- Exposure to Spanish GAAP.
- Professional Spanish for collaboration with local stakeholders.
- Experience in a growing or changing organization where processes and ownership are being standardized.
- Prior coaching, coordination, or small-team leadership experience.
Unresolved
- Direct management versus coordination of two accountants.
- Relocation and Spanish work-authorization sponsorship policy.
- Required ERP depth and accepted platforms.
- Compensation and benefits.
- Required professional qualification, if any.
- Expected consolidation scale and complexity.
- Reporting line and cross-entity authority.
- Resources and feasibility assumptions behind the five-day close target.
Summary first
The first sourcing direction
Hands-on Financial Controller for an international multi-entity services group, accountable for group consolidation, faster monthly close, IFRS reporting, controls, audit readiness, and scalable finance processes from a Madrid hybrid base.
Adjacent direction
- Financial Reporting Manager
- Record to Report Manager
- Senior Manager, Group Reporting
Required candidate criteria
- Personally owned group consolidation and consolidated accounts across multiple legal entities, rather than only submitting local entity packs.
- Delivered hands-on monthly close and consolidated management reporting.
- Applied IFRS in reporting decisions and financial statements.
- Produced management and statutory reporting and coordinated external audit activity.
- Built or operated controls, reconciliations, documentation, and audit trails.
- Used an ERP system alongside strong spreadsheet-based analysis.
- Can work professionally in English with senior, operational, and local-finance stakeholders.
- Can attend the Madrid office three days per week.
Retrieval-ready concepts
- IFRS
- Group consolidation
- ERP experience
Starting geography
- Start: Madrid
- Work location: Hybrid role based in Madrid with three office days per week.
- Work location: Occasional travel may be required for finance meetings or audit activity.
- Candidate-location eligibility remains unconfirmed
Unresolved / first move
- Whether the role directly manages two accountants or coordinates their work.
- Relocation and Spanish work-authorization sponsorship policy.
- Required ERP depth and accepted platforms.
- Expected consolidation scale and complexity.
- Resources and authority behind the five-day close target.
- Start with Madrid-based profiles in the direct target-title set, requiring visible IFRS and consolidation evidence while retaining ERP as a core dimension.
Starting search geography
- Madrid
Work-location requirements
- Hybrid role based in Madrid with three office days per week.
- Occasional travel may be required for finance meetings or audit activity.
Confirmed candidate eligibility
Not yet established.
View full sourcing strategy
Detailed result
Full sourcing strategy
Search direction
Role summary
Hands-on Financial Controller for an international multi-entity services group, accountable for group consolidation, faster monthly close, IFRS reporting, controls, audit readiness, and scalable finance processes from a Madrid hybrid base.
Evaluate profiles
Candidate criteria
Personally owned group consolidation and consolidated accounts across multiple legal entities, rather than only submitting local entity packs. · required
Direct consolidation ownership is the clearest differentiator from entity-level accounting profiles.
Delivered hands-on monthly close and consolidated management reporting. · required
The role must improve close reliability and reduce the close cycle from eight to five working days.
Applied IFRS in reporting decisions and financial statements. · required
IFRS capability is explicitly non-negotiable.
Produced management and statutory reporting and coordinated external audit activity. · required
The role combines internal performance reporting with statutory and audit responsibilities.
Built or operated controls, reconciliations, documentation, and audit trails. · required
Control strengthening and audit readiness are core outcomes.
Used an ERP system alongside strong spreadsheet-based analysis. · required
The role requires both system fluency and practical finance analysis.
Can work professionally in English with senior, operational, and local-finance stakeholders. · required
The position works across an international group and non-finance audiences.
Can attend the Madrid office three days per week. · required
This is an explicit hybrid operating requirement.
Has supported ERP improvement, implementation, upgrade, finance transformation, or close acceleration. · preferred
This experience supports the process-scaling and close-improvement mandate.
Has SAP S/4HANA, Spanish GAAP, professional Spanish, or small-team coaching experience. · preferred
These are useful differentiators but are not stated as universal requirements.
Important criteria may remain profile-review requirements without becoming mandatory Boolean filters.
Start here
Target titles
Financial Controller
The direct title most likely to combine close, reporting, controls, audit, and business-facing finance ownership.
Group Financial Controller
Strongest direct indicator of ownership across legal entities and group reporting.
Group Accountant
Often covers consolidation, IFRS reporting, statutory accounts, and audit support in international groups.
Consolidation Manager
Targets specialists with direct consolidated-accounts ownership, subject to validation of broader controls and close scope.
Finance Manager
Can fit where the person personally owns multi-entity close and consolidation rather than only local finance operations.
Broaden deliberately
Adjacent titles
Financial Reporting Manager
May bring IFRS, statutory reporting, audit coordination, and reporting-control experience.
Transferable strength: Validate direct ownership of consolidation and recurring monthly-close delivery.
Record to Report Manager
Often owns close process, reconciliations, controls, reporting workflows, and ERP-enabled process improvement.
Transferable strength: Validate IFRS depth and direct group-consolidation accountability.
Senior Manager, Group Reporting
Can provide consolidated reporting and audit-readiness experience in larger international organizations.
Transferable strength: Prioritize hands-on operators over profiles limited to review or policy oversight.
Sourcing guidance
Search concepts
Direct consolidation ownership
Differentiate candidates who own group close and consolidated accounts from those supplying entity-level data only.
Close and control delivery
Prioritize practical operators who can improve the reliability and speed of the recurring finance cycle.
Scalable finance-process improvement
Identify candidates able to reduce manual work and improve systems without making a specific ERP mandatory.
Starting search geography
- Madrid
Work-location requirements
- Hybrid role based in Madrid with three office days per week.
- Occasional travel may be required for finance meetings or audit activity.
Confirmed candidate eligibility
Candidate-location feasibility remains unresolved.
Starting geography narrows retrieval. Work-location requirements describe the role. Neither proves candidate residence, work authorization, relocation, sponsorship, or eligibility.
Profile-search language
Terms for Boolean search
Mandatory profile terms
- IFRS
Group consolidation
ERP experience
Validated executable exclusions
None.
Only validated, positive profile vocabulary continues into Boolean Builder. Broader exclusion guidance remains in candidate criteria and screening considerations.
Where experience transfers
Industries
International business and professional services groups · primary
These organizations commonly operate multiple legal entities and need recurring group reporting with lean finance teams.
Technology-enabled services and software groups · primary
Growing multi-country businesses often need ERP-enabled standardization and faster close processes.
Outsourced services, facilities, and operational services groups · secondary
Distributed legal entities and operational stakeholders create relevant controls, close, and reporting complexity.
Private-equity-backed or acquisitive multi-entity groups · secondary
Change environments can offer relevant consolidation, standardization, and close-acceleration exposure.
Environment signals
Employer profiles
International, multi-legal-entity organizations with a centralized group-finance function.
These environments are most likely to develop direct consolidation and cross-entity reporting ownership.
Growing or recently standardized businesses with incomplete finance processes or ERP modernization work.
They are likely to yield candidates comfortable improving controls, workflows, and close cadence.
Mid-sized groups where controllers remain hands-on rather than solely reviewing team output.
The role needs personal delivery capability rather than purely supervisory experience.
Organizations reporting under IFRS with recurring statutory-account and external-audit cycles.
This most closely matches the required reporting and audit exposure.
Candidate populations
Talent pools
Group Financial Controllers in international services groups
This pool most directly aligns with multi-entity close, consolidation, IFRS, and group-reporting ownership.
Group Accountants with end-to-end consolidation responsibility
These candidates can offer deep consolidation capability and may step into a broader controller remit.
Financial Controllers in scaling multi-country businesses
They are more likely to have combined operational reporting, controls, audit, and process-improvement exposure.
Record-to-Report and finance-transformation practitioners with prior controllership backgrounds
They can add close acceleration and ERP improvement capability if they retain hands-on accounting depth.
Audit-trained accountants who moved into in-house group reporting or controllership
This route can supply IFRS, statutory reporting, and audit-coordination strength when operational close ownership is verified.
Prioritized reach
Search channels
LinkedIn Recruiter or equivalent professional-profile database · primary
Best primary channel for combining title history, consolidation evidence, IFRS, ERP, and Madrid availability signals.
Direct outreach to group-finance professionals in target company environments · primary
Passive controllers and group accountants are likely to be stronger than applicants for this hands-on remit.
Madrid-focused finance and accounting professional networks · secondary
Useful for testing locally feasible candidates able to meet the office-attendance requirement.
Employee referrals from finance, audit, and ERP-transformation contacts · secondary
Referrals can surface candidates whose actual consolidation ownership is deeper than their public profiles indicate.
Ordered execution
Practical search plan
- 1
Start with Madrid-based profiles in the direct target-title set, requiring visible IFRS and consolidation evidence while retaining ERP as a core dimension.
This tests the most local and role-aligned pool without assuming broader eligibility limits. - 2
Review the first pool for direct consolidated-account ownership, hands-on monthly close, audit coordination, and control delivery before increasing title breadth.
Early calibration prevents entity-level accountants and oversight-only leaders from dominating results. - 3
Expand to adjacent financial-reporting and record-to-report titles when direct-title supply is thin, screening tightly for actual consolidation ownership.
Adjacent roles can offer relevant close and controls capability but have variable group-accounting depth. - 4
Prioritize candidates from international services, scaling multi-country, and process-standardizing environments.
These settings most plausibly combine lean hands-on scope with multi-entity finance-process change. - 5
Broaden geography only after testing Madrid supply and confirming relocation, authorization, sponsorship, and attendance feasibility policy.
The office requirement supports a Madrid-first search but does not establish candidate eligibility boundaries. - 6
Use recruiter screens to validate consolidation scale, IFRS decisions, close-cycle improvement, ERP contribution, and management-versus-coordination scope.
These decisive requirements are often insufficiently detailed in public profiles.
Review after search
Screening considerations
Ask for a specific example of the candidate's personal role in consolidation, including eliminations, reporting pack ownership, and review accountability.
Many relevant-looking profiles only prepare local submissions or support a consolidation lead.
Establish whether close ownership was operational and recurring, including timing, bottlenecks, reconciliations, and corrective actions.
The five-day close objective requires more than periodic reporting or review experience.
Test applied IFRS judgment through a reporting issue the candidate personally resolved or escalated.
Stated IFRS familiarity may not demonstrate decision-making confidence.
Clarify ERP platform, improvement contribution, and whether the person changed processes, data, controls, or reporting outputs.
ERP experience is required, while the needed platform depth remains undecided.
Confirm Madrid office feasibility before late-stage interviews without assuming relocation, work authorization, or sponsorship eligibility.
The attendance requirement is explicit but candidate eligibility boundaries are not confirmed.
These considerations remain review guidance and are not converted into literal NOT filters.
Still to clarify
Unresolved constraints
Whether the role directly manages two accountants or coordinates their work.
This affects seniority, leadership screening, and which controller titles should be prioritized.
Before narrowing: Confirm accountability and people-management expectations before making leadership experience a hard screen.
Relocation and Spanish work-authorization sponsorship policy.
Candidate feasibility cannot be reliably filtered by location or nationality signals.
Before narrowing: Confirm policy and assess individual eligibility only through approved recruiting processes.
Required ERP depth and accepted platforms.
Overweighting SAP could unnecessarily narrow a pool where other major ERP improvement experience is acceptable.
Before narrowing: Define minimum user, process-owner, or implementation exposure and approved alternative platforms.
Expected consolidation scale and complexity.
The appropriate level differs materially between a few entities and a complex multi-country consolidation.
Before narrowing: Specify entity count, currencies, ownership structure, consolidation tooling, and recurring technical issues.
Resources and authority behind the five-day close target.
Candidate expectations and capacity to deliver process change depend on staffing, systems, and decision rights.
Before narrowing: Clarify team capacity, systems roadmap, executive sponsorship, and control over local finance inputs.
Continue to Boolean Builder
Build the retrieval-ready Boolean search
Boolean Builder receives direct titles, the current starting search area, bounded required concepts, and only explicitly safe exclusions. Candidate eligibility, later geographic expansion, candidate criteria, and screening guidance remain here.