Senior General Accountant

The Asahi Kasei Group operates with a commitment of creating for tomorrow.  Our business sectors, Materials, Homes, and Health Care, contribute to the development of society by anticipating the changing needs of those around the world. We look for candidates that offer a fresh perspective and a variety of skills to help us achieve our commitment.

Asahi Kasei is a long-trusted supplier of lithium-ion battery separators – polymer-based microporous membranes that are a key component of the lithium batteries used to power electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems, and more. We are currently seeking applications to fill the following job opening at Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada, where we are in the process of constructing a new lithium battery separator manufacturing facility to support increasing North American demand.

Company:

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada Corporation

Job Description:

About the Role
We are seeking a Senior General Accountant to be a part of a new plant start-up based in Port Colborne, Ontario.   This position will be responsible for a broad range of general accounting functions, including month-end and year-end close processes, account reconciliations, journal entries, financial reporting, variance analysis, and support for accounts payable and accounts receivable. The role also heavily involves capital projects management, fixed assets tracking and support tasks related to grants or government incentive programs. The General Accountant ensures financial transactions and records are accurate, timely, and compliant with Company policies and applicable accounting and regulatory requirements. This position is to fill an existing vacancy.

Reporting Relationships

This position directly reports to the Director of Finance.

Asahi Kasei Values

• Sincerity – Being sincere with everyone.
• Challenge – Boldly taking challenges, continuously seeking change.
• Creativity – Creating new value through unity and synergy.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage capital expenditure accounting for construction and operational projects, including review of project costs, capitalization assessments, asset-in-service transfers, and compliance with Company capitalization policies.
• Maintain the fixed asset subledger, ensuring additions, disposals, transfers, depreciation calculations, and asset records are complete and accurate.
• Track and reconcile construction-in-progress (CIP) projects, coordinating with Project Managers to ensure timely capitalization and project closeout.
• Support the accounting, reporting, and compliance requirements related to government grants, tax incentives, and other funding programs, including preparation of supporting schedules and documentation.
• Prepare financial statements and support schedules according to the monthly closing schedule, ensuring all close procedures are completed accurately and on time.
• Analyze revenues, commissions, and expenses to ensure accurate monthly recording, and investigate and explain financial statement variances.
• Contribute to tax return preparation and corporate reporting requirements and support tax audits by providing documentation and explanations.
• Prepare monthly account and bank reconciliations, investigating and resolving reconciling items within established deadlines.
• Ensure financial transactions and related records are processed efficiently and maintained accurately.
• Collaborate with Project Managers and operational stakeholders to monitor capital project spending, validate asset commissioning dates, support project closeout activities, and ensure timely capitalization of completed assets
• Process intercompany billing and transactions, including related foreign exchange calculations.
• Support accounts receivable reporting and collections and provide general accounting support for payables and receivables as needed.
• Comply with applicable regulatory requirements and internal policies and procedures and assist in documenting and monitoring internal controls.
• Maintain policies, procedures, and workflows for assigned areas of responsibility, and identify opportunities to streamline accounting processes.
• Contribute to departmental and organizational projects and initiatives.
• Perform other duties as assigned.  
  

Key Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrates strong knowledge of capital expenditure accounting, fixed asset management, depreciation methodologies, and construction-in-progress accounting, with the ability to ensure compliance with ASPE and Company capitalization policies.
• Demonstrates strong analytical and quantitative skills to financial statement analysis, account reconciliations, and variance investigation, identifying trends, anomalies, and financial impacts that support accurate reporting and sound business decisions.
• Utilizes sound knowledge of accounting principles, internal controls, and financial reporting requirements to maintain accurate records, identify control concerns, and support complete, audit-ready documentation.
• Manages multiple priorities in a deadline-driven environment, effectively balancing month-end close, reporting, reconciliations, and project requirements while maintaining accuracy, completeness, and attention to detail.
• Exercises sound judgment, resolves accounting issues, and takes independent ownership of complex assignments through completion with minimal supervision.
• Communicates financial information clearly and professionally and builds effective working relationships across cultures, functions, and geographic locations with Finance, Project Managers, Operations, auditors, and other internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrates intermediate to advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook, including Excel formulas, functions, pivot tables, and data analysis tools, with working knowledge of enterprise resource planning (ERP), general ledger, and statutory accounting systems.
• Identifies and implements opportunities to streamline accounting processes, strengthen internal controls, and improve the accuracy, consistency, and efficiency of financial reporting.

Qualifications

Education Background:

• Post Secondary education in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration or a related field.
  

Knowledge & Experience:

• Must have 5+ years of relevant general accounting experience including hands-on responsibility for accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger activities, account reconciliations, and month-end close.
• Experience with capital expenditure project management (large capital project environments is preferred).
• Experience maintaining fixed asset systems and managing construction-in-progress projects through capitalization and fixed asset accounting.
• Strong knowledge of Canadian generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE), with the ability to apply them accurately to financial transactions and reporting.
• Working knowledge of applicable statutory accounting, tax, and regulatory reporting requirements.
• Intermediate to advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, with strong working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Outlook and experience using enterprise resource planning (ERP) or accounting systems for general ledger and statutory reporting.
• Demonstrated experience supporting budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and the preparation of accurate financial reports.
• Experience with government grants, investment tax credits, government incentives, or other funding programs is preferred.

Expected Compensation:

• Salary based position with a range of $90,000.00 to $100,000.00 based on education and experience.
• Incentive program, Group medical & dental benefits, Registered Retirement Savings Plan.

Travel:

• Must hold a valid Passport and be willing to travel up to 5% internationally for training and visiting other company locations, predominately the United States of America and Japan.

Schedule:

• Full-time 100% in-person position.
• Typical work hours are Monday to Friday, with flexibility to address urgent issues as needed 24/7. Attendance at meetings and trainings on off shifts may also be required periodically.

Working Environment

This position will be based in a temporary office on the construction site until the permanent office is built in 2027. The final work environment will be at a 24/7 manufacturing operation. This position is in support of manufacturing and requires working in a production environment around chemicals. The manufacturing facility will be a state of the art in terms of automation and being temperature and humidity controlled. This will be a clean and comfortable environment due to the nature of the products being produced.

About Us

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada is a pioneer in battery technology and a long-trusted supplier of lithium battery separators, which are polymer-based microporous membranes that are key components of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles.

The company’s Hipore™ brand of separators has been commercially available since the lithium battery market’s inception in the early 1990s, and they are found primarily in electric drive vehicles (EDVs) as well as in consumer electronics (CE) such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers. Hipore™ membrane separators bring high porosity and excellent energy transfer, while contributing to battery safety and reliability, and they are especially well matched for the high-capacity batteries required for power plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and full battery (BEV) vehicles.

Asahi Kasei is accelerating its next phase of global growth with proactive investment and capacity expansion in battery separators to meet increasing demand for electric vehicle applications. We are now in the early phases of staffing our new greenfield site, in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, which will further build our LIB separator infrastructure for automotive applications to meet growing demand in North America where significant expansion of electric vehicle production is forecasted.

The Asahi Kasei Group is a diversified group of companies led by holding company Asahi Kasei Corp., with operations in the material, homes, and health care business sectors. With more than 49,000 employees around the world, the Asahi Kasei Group serves customers in more than 100 countries. We are Creating for Tomorrow!

For more information, go to www.ak-bsc.ca.

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada is an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity in the workplace and encourages applications from qualified women, men, visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities.

We are committed to providing accommodations throughout the interview process for needs that are made known in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). If accommodation is required in the application process, please contact AKBSCA Human Resources at hr@ak-bsc.ca.

As an equal opportunity employer, Asahi Kasei is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce. Asahi Kasei believes that its diverse workforce strengthens the company’s ability to adapt and thrive in a changing world .