The Role

A Controller Team Lead is responsible for leading a team of Controllers. Controller Team Leads act as the escalation path and backstop for Controllers and are the people manager for all team members on their team. The Controller Team Lead is ultimately responsible for ensuring their team meets all customer experience (e.g., SLA, CSAT) and productivity goals (e.g., toggle/billing expectations) and is responsible for driving positive outcomes that are aligned with Pilot's company goals. Controller Team Leads engage in a variety of duties such as allocating work, making prioritization and tradeoff decisions, unblocking escalations, and ensuring that customer deliverables are shipped to customers on time. Your role as a Controller Team Lead also involves recruiting and growing your team, developing a strategy, empowering the team to execute on their goals, and unblocking the team when problems are escalated.

Objectives of this Role

Act as a bridge between Controller ICs and Sr. Management to ensure higher-level strategies and objectives are implemented at the team level
Maintain organizational standards for customer satisfaction, deliverables quality, and team performance
Ensure your team is providing our customers with a white glove experience
Create a collaborative environment in which team members feel supported, engaged, and have the necessary tools to perform their job duties at a high level
Flag and escalate feedback that could be constructive to improving your team's and or a customer's experience, inclusive of productivity

Key Responsibilities

Contribute to a positive customer relationship by ensuring that your team is meeting customer expectations by delivering high-quality work on time and meeting SLA requirements
Collaborate cross-functionally with other Operations leaders to ensure a cohesive customer experience and helping your team build strong relationships across other Ops functions
Use your industry expertise to recommend process improvements to maximize accuracy and efficiency within our financial statement close process
Investigate accounting issues to develop methodology based upon accounting principles
Investigate and unblock executive escalations, ensuring to provide updates to various stakeholders is a concise and responded to within SLA timeframe
Understand team needs (whether performance based or potential accommodations needed) and proactively address challenges within the team and/or escalate to managers or cross-functional partners that can help
In partnership with the People team, facilitate continuous improvement by providing fair and consistent feedback to individuals on your team.
Develop members of your team to become highly effective Controllers
Cultivate an environment of growth and mentorship to develop the leadership skills of senior team members and prepare them for people management or technical lead roles
Interview, onboard new hires, and grow and develop members of the team
Build a culture in which differences are appreciated and everyone is valued
Be a coach to your team: facilitate and help unblock, rather than do the work for them
Keep abreast of recent accounting pronouncements and market trends to provide guidance to our internal teams (and clients as needed), ensuring we are representing industry best practices based upon accounting principles

Skills and Qualifications

Previous experience in a management role, managing teams of at least five or more
High level of independence and maturity
Ability to instruct, communicate effectively (written and verbal), and provide feedback and coaching to direct reports
A high degree of empathy and operates in a fair and consistent way
Self starter and ability to prioritize effectively
Ability to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence
You are in good performance standing
Proficient in workflow management and tracking
Obsessively obsessed with attention to detail
A love of problem solving and making teams and processes more efficient
Comfortable engaging with C-Suite Executives
Experience completing financial consolidation and engaging with external auditors
Exposure to M&A activity

Preferred Qualifications

B.S. or M.S. in Accounting or equivalent
CPA and/or MBA preferred but not required
8+ years of experience consisting of public, private, or outsourced accounting required, especially with venture backed start-ups
Minimum of 3 years in a management position
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to convey complex and accounting concepts to clients and senior leaders
Strong leadership skills with a dedication to driving and achieving results
Previous experience as a manager in a customer facing role is a plus

About Pilot

Pilot launched in 2017 to bring the back office into the modern era. Pilot provides small businesses with dedicated finance experts - which Pilot hires as full-time, U.S.-based employees - who learn the ins-and-outs of their business. Pilot integrates directly with the billing, banking, expense, and payroll systems customers already use. With a special blend of custom software and expert bookkeepers, Pilot delivers accurate, consistent bookkeeping and financial management and tax services that give entrepreneurs the freedom to focus on their business.

Pilot has over 1,000 customers and has raised over $170 million in financing from Sequoia, Index Ventures, Stripe, Bezos Expeditions, and Whale Rock. Our investors also include a long list of world-class entrepreneurs, including Patrick and John Collison, Drew Houston, and Diane Greene. Our most recent funding round doubled our valuation to $1.2 billion ?" Meet Fintech's Newest Unicorn.

Why Pilot?

We invest in our employees' development and happiness because our employees are the keys to our success and ensuring happy customers
The opportunity to join a seasoned founding team that has led companies through two prior successful startups and acquisitions (by Oracle and Dropbox).
Flexible vacation/time-off policy
All federal holidays are observed
Competitive benefits package including wellness benefits such as Modern Health, Headspace, One Medical, Aaptiv and Rightway
Parental leave for birthing or non-birthing parents ?" 100% pay for 12 weeks
401(k) plan

The base pay range target for the role seniority described in this job description is $85,000 - $132,000 in Nashville, TN. Final offer amounts depend on multiple factors such as candidate experience and expertise, geographic location, total compensation, and market data. In addition to cash pay, full-time regular positions are eligible for equity, 401(k), health benefits, and other benefits; some of these benefits may be available for part-time or temporary positions.

Pilot commits to provide a work environment free of discrimination and harassment, as well as equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. You may view all of Pilot's recruiting notices here, including our EEO policy, recruitment agency policy, recruitment scam notice, and important E-Verify information. You may view our job candidate privacy policy here.

Summary
Company name: Pilot
Remote job title: Controller Services, Team Lead
Job tags: Customer Facing Roles, CPA, Emotional Intelligence