Assistant Controller (Experienced Accounting Manager)

Company Overview

NextKey Services is a US-based outsourced accounting and finance firm serving small to mid-sized companies across the US. We help entrepreneurs use finance and accounting as a tool for better decisions, and we go deep with our clients rather than running a fixed set of tasks on repeat. As our clients grow, expand, acquire, and sell, their accounting needs change, and our team grows with them.

We are adding an Experienced Accounting Manager (Assistant Controller) to support our team on complex client engagements. This is someone who knows accounting deeply, leads the people doing the work, and still rolls up their sleeves on the hardest issues.

Position Summary

This is a hands-on technical accounting manager role. You will partner with a Senior Manager on a focused set of complex client engagements, leading the accounting on those engagements and the staff accountants assigned to them. Your Senior Manager leads the client relationship and engagement direction, and you lead the accounting.

We are looking for someone with experience in the financial services industry, specifically lending, who understands loan accounting, debt accounting, multi-entity structures, audit preparation, and complex accruals. You take ownership of your work and accountability for its quality, and you can clearly explain the accounting behind a number to a Senior Manager, an auditor, or a client.

As our clients grow and scale, their accounting takes on new complexity. This role suits someone who is curious, enjoys a continually challenging work environment from an accounting perspective, and likes sharing that knowledge with the team around them.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the accounting lead on assigned client engagements, partnering with a Senior Manager who leads the client relationship, advisory work, and engagement direction.
• Keep client deliverables on track, including when Senior Managers are focused on special projects.
• Lead the monthly, quarterly, and year-end close for your engagements, with clear documentation and support for the numbers we deliver to clients.
• Work hands-on through complex accounting for our clients, including loan and debt accounting, multi- entity and intercompany accounting, consolidations, and complex accruals.
• Perform analytical review of client financials each period, confirming they flow sensibly month to month and investigating anything that looks unusual.
• Support clients through their annual audits, including preparing schedules, working with auditors, and resolving proposed adjustments.
• Lead and develop the staff accountants on your engagements, reviewing their work for technical accuracy and coaching them on the reasoning behind it.
• Use sound judgment on unclear issues, raise questions early, and bring recommendations to your Senior Manager.
• Help clients adapt their accounting as they grow, whether converting to accrual, adding entities, or taking on new financing.
• Communicate with clients, auditors, and other advisors on technical matters as appropriate to the engagement.

Key Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• 8+ years of hands-on accounting experience, including at least 2 years reviewing others' work and leading staff on complex engagements.
• Hands-on experience in each of the following:
• Financial services accounting, specifically lending including loan and debt accounting, and loan portfolio or fund accounting.
• Multi-entity and intercompany accounting, including consolidations.◦ Audit preparation and support, from building schedules through resolving auditor adjustments.
• Thorough command of US GAAP and accrual accounting, with the curiosity to research and resolve issues you have not seen before.
• Strong analytical review skills: you notice when a balance or trend looks unusual, and you find out why.
• Comfortable making judgment calls with incomplete information and raising questions early.
• Experience developing staff by explaining the reasoning behind the work.
• Strong proficiency in QuickBooks Online and Excel.
• Tech-forward and adaptable: hands-on experience using AI tools such as Claude in your work. We use AI every day.
• Strong, proactive written and verbal communication, with regular updates throughout the day.
• Available to work US business hours in Eastern or Central Time, including afternoons.
• Based in the US, with reliable equipment and internet suitable for fully remote work.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA, or public accounting audit experience.
• Experience supporting transactions such as financings, acquisitions, or sales.
• Prior controller or assistant controller experience in a client-services or outsourced accounting firm.

Tools We Use

Our core stack is QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Bill, Ramp, Double (our workflow and task management tool), Excel, Slack, and Claude.

We are AI-forward

Claude is part of how we work, and we train our team to use it alongside the rest of the stack.

How We

Work

We communicate actively as a team throughout the day, primarily in Slack. People stay in close contact with. their managers and teammates, raise issues early, and engage in team meetings. You will report to the Senior Manager on each engagement you are assigned to, and the staff on those engagements will look to you for technical direction.

The clients we serve are growing and changing, so the work rewards curiosity and problem-solving.

Compensation and Hours

This role is engaged as an independent contractor (1099) on a fixed retainer, paid in equal biweekly installments (26 per year). We agree on a set commitment and pay the same amount every pay period.

• Fixed commitment: 20 or 25 hours per week, agreed up front based on client assignments, during US business hours (Eastern or Central Time), including afternoons. We welcome experienced candidates looking for a steady part-time commitment.
• The retainer includes built-in time off of approximately four weeks per year so your pay is the same every period across the year.
• Retainer: $48 to $50 per hour, paid as a fixed biweekly retainer based on agreed hours (20 or 25 per week) and experience.

Why Join NextKey Services

You will join a growing, expanding firm that values transparency, accountability, and partnership, both with our clients and with each other. We offer flexibility, genuinely complex accounting across lending and multi-entity clients, direct work with experienced Senior Managers, and real investment in your growth. As the firm grows, so do the opportunities for people who take ownership.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply through the job posting and include a resume along with responses to the screening questions. Please note any certifications and your hands-on experience with lending, loan or debt. accounting, multi-entity, and audit work.

Pay: $48.00 - $50.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20.0 – 25.0 per week

Benefits:

• Paid time off
• Work from home

Application Question(s):

• Have you personally prepared (not only reviewed or approved) loan or debt accounting, such as loan amortization schedules, interest accruals, deferred loan fees, or loan portfolio or fund accounting?
• Have you personally prepared multi-entity consolidations, including identifying and eliminating inter-company transactions?
• Walk us through a consolidation you prepared. How many entities were involved, what types of intercompany transactions existed, and how did you handle intercompany balances that didn't tie?
• Describe a time an auditor proposed an adjustment you needed to research or push back on. What was the issue, how did you respond, and what was the outcome?
• This role is primarily hands-on: you'll do the hardest technical work yourself while also reviewing staff. In your most recent role, roughly what percentage of your week was preparing work versus reviewing or managing? What split do you want going forward, and why?
• How do you currently use AI tools such as Claude in your accounting work? Give one specific example, including how you verified the output.
• Please answer these questions with a short video response (2-3 minutes). Please include here the link to your video (e..g., Loom, GDrive, YouTube) in your written answer instead.

Explain it simply. "Pick a complex technical accounting issue you personally resolved, such as a loan accounting question, a consolidation problem, or an audit adjustment. Explain it as you would to a client CEO who isn't an accountant: what the issue was, how you accounted for it, and why it changed the numbers."

• Please answer these questions with a short video response (2-3 minutes). Please include here the link to your video (e..g., Loom, GDrive, YouTube) in your written answer instead.

"Walk us step by step through what you personally did during the last month-end close you worked on, from the first day through delivering financials. Then tell us honestly how you feel about a role where you still prepare much of the complex work yourself."

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• Accounting: 8 years (Required)
• Managerial accounting: 2 years (Preferred)
• QuickBooks: 3 years (Required)

License/Certification:

• CPA (Preferred)

Shift availability:

• Day Shift (Required)
• Night Shift (Required)

Work Location: Remote