Sustainability Controls Specialist

Our client, a leader in the global oil and gas industry, is looking for a Sustainability Controls Specialist _(in South Africa)_ to be part of a team directly responsible and accountable for the delivery of best-in-class capital projects.

**Key Responsibilities**:

- Monitor latest trends in sustainability related guidance and requirement by policy makers and regulators.
- Assess the impact of any sustainability related regulation on the company and its Group entities and provide controls improvement recommendation to ensure compliance with sustainability reporting standards.
- Undertake Group ICSR compliance activities including metric prioritization and scoping.
- Ensure timely completion of the ICSR testing per the annual internal controls cycle.
- Identify process gaps and accordingly provide recommendations in areas requiring improvement based on industry best practices.
- Conduct and oversee process and control walkthroughs including test of design and operating effectiveness and suggest controls to improve the internal control framework.
- Review testing workpapers in line with defined standards and quality benchmarks.
- Challenge the status quo by undertaking control rationalization & standardization for business processes.
- Provide periodic reports on observations/findings and remediations to the Management.
- Monitor changes in standards such as COSO framework, and standards published by ISSB, EFRAG, SEC. etc. and align the internal controls programme to the revised standards/ guidelines.
- Develop team member skills through on-going mentoring and feedback (written and verbal).
- Mentoring/ feedback would be in relation to the completion/ quality of work performed, interaction with process stakeholders, meeting timelines/ budgets, managing multiple tasks, etc.
- Develop and engage the team through one-on-one and group meetings as well as assist with hiring, training and evaluation of resources taking effective measures to address performance issues.
- Monitor resource utilization and allocation as well as motivate the team to perform as per stakeholder expectations.
- Organize and conduct learning sessions developing knowledge sharing forums with other functions within the organization.
- You will be expected to cultivate a strong team culture and environment

**Minimum Requirements**:

- A minimum of ten years of relevant experience is desirable in relevant industries.
- Experience in financial statement consolidation, financial analysis, financial statement preparation, accounting research, mergers and acquisitions, taxation, process/change management, and strategy/management consulting.
- Specific operational experience in energy related activities, infrastructure, utilities (public and/or private), joint ventures and subsidiaries, government sector, non-profits, and public administration would be desirable.
- Specific corporate business integration experience would also be desirable (startup experience and related activities).
- Demonstrate the ability to perform walkthroughs, test controls, identify gaps and effectively communicate findings and recommendations for control redesign to key stakeholders and senior management.
- Proficiency in major ERP tools is essential, along with a strong working knowledge of established control frameworks such as COSO and key sustainability related regulations like S1&S2, ESRS, Ipieca, GHG Protocol, GRI, SEC and PCAOB guidelines.
- Deep understanding of ESG topics and related metrics reported on the annual sustainability reports.
- An in-depth familiarity with environmental topics such as climate change, GHG emission, water management, waste management is highly desirable.
- Experience in drafting and reviewing policy and procedure documents related to governance and the delivery of internal control programs is also highly valued.

For more information please contact:
**Helen Polydorou