Financial Transformation Specialist

Short company description

Peter Lang is an international publishing group specialising in Humanities and Social Sciences. We publish about 1,000+ books every year in German, English, and French, as well as in multiple other languages, from traditional print products to eBooks and Open Access publications.

Back in 1970, the Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Lang founded his academic publishing company in his own name. In over fifty years since then, the company has undergone growth and change and overcome many challenges as an independent, internationally focused business. We are now a dynamic, entrepreneurial group of colleagues working across the globe to deliver excellence in academic publishing.

You will experience an international work environment with lean management. The Peter Lang headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, are the central hub for management and administration. The rest of our team is based in continental Europe, Anglo-American regions, and Asia with offices in Berlin, New York, Oxford, Brussels, Chennai and supporting locations in Vienna, Warsaw, Istanbul and Madrid.

Requirements

Are you a finance professional who speaks the language of both accounting and technology? We are looking for a Finance Transformation Specialist to join our Finance & Accounting team and lead the digital transformation of how we work. In this role, you will combine your solid understanding of financial operations with hands-on technical capability to automate workflows, reduce manual effort, and ensure our financial data is accurate, auditable, and actionable. You will act as the critical link between Finance and IT — translating business requirements into system solutions and validating that technology truly serves our accounting needs. You will also lead cross-functional projects end-to-end, from scoping through to delivery and adoption. If you thrive at the intersection of finance, data, and process improvement, and you want ownership of meaningful change, we want to hear from you.

- Solid background in financial operations and/or accounting workflows (e.g. accounts payable/receivable, reconciliation processes as well as reporting).
- Demonstrable experience in process transformation or systems implementation within a finance environment.
- Proven project management skills — able to scope, plan, and deliver cross-functional projects independently, including managing timelines and stakeholder expectations
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interrogate complex datasets and draw actionable conclusions.
- Experience communicating technical and financial requirements between non-technical and technical stakeholders.
- Critical thinking mindset with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
- Comfortable operating in a cross-functional environment with multiple stakeholders.

Desired (nice-to-have) Qualifications & Skills

- Experience working in a FinTech or finance-adjacent tech environment
- Hands-on experience working with SAP, Xero or other accounting software in a professional context.
- Experience in building and maintaining financial reports and dashboards
- Experience in Power BI
- Experience with automation tools such as Microsoft Power Automate
- Exposure to AI-driven data processing or machine learning tools in a finance context
- Experience in the publishing, media, or rights-management industry
- Formal qualification in Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, or a related field (e.g. ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent)
- Experience working with or configuring ERP system migrations
- Familiarity with project management tools (e.g. monday.com, Jira, or similar)
- German language skills (to read old process documentation, and occasionally communicate with vendors in their native language on complex matters)

Responsibilities

- Analyse existing Finance & Accounting (F&A) processes and identify opportunities for automation, simplification, and risk reduction
- Design, implement, and maintain automated workflows for key processes
- Evaluate and recommend technology or vendor solutions where they can add measurable value to financial operations
- Lead and manage process improvement and systems projects end-to-end — including scoping, requirement analysis, stakeholder alignment, timeline management, testing and go-live
- Establish and maintain clear process documentation to ensure auditability, consistency, and scalability across the F&A function
- Act as the primary liaison between the Finance & Accounting team and the IT department — translating financial requirements into clear technical specifications and ensuring delivered solutions meet accounting standards.
- Support and validate the migration to new systems, ensuring process continuity and data integrity throughout the transition. This includes communicating finance requirements to IT and verifying that delivered solutions meet accounting standards.
- Build and maintain reporting solutions to reduce manual reporting work and deliver timely insights to leadership.
- Proactively identify and mitigate financial risks such as incorrect payments, data inconsistencies, and process failures.
- Support senior leadership with structured data analysis and financial insights to inform strategic decisions.

Other info

Location: remote, CET time zone  
Employment rate: 100%  


If you are ready to contribute to the excellence of the Peter Lang Group and thrive in a dynamic publishing environment, we invite you to apply. Join us in shaping the future of academic publishing! 

Benefits

• Laptop