Sr. Accountant - Corporate Controller's Group

About Northern Trust As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions. Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide. With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service. This position is part of the Corporate Controller's Group and serves as a subject matter expert and key business partner for the accounting and governance of enterprise capital investments, with a particular focus on capitalized software and technology-related expenditures. The position is responsible for capital project governance, financial reporting, disclosures, audit support, and critical control activities related to the Corporation's technology investment portfolio. Working closely with senior leaders across Technology, Procurement, Finance, and the Corporate Controller's Group, the individual provides accounting leadership, risk management oversight, and decision support while driving operational excellence, process standardization, and continuous improvement initiatives. This position offers broad visibility across the organization and exposure to senior leaders. The role reports to a Vice President in Chicago in the Corporate Controller’s Group. This is a hybrid role based in Chicago, with an expectation to be in the office 60% of the month.

Lead enterprise financial accounting over capital expenditures, fixed assets, and capitalized software, ensuring compliance with U.S. GAAP, SOX, and internal policies. Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of fixed assets and software investments, including project setup, capitalization, asset creation, depreciation/amortization, useful life assessment, abandonment review, and impairment considerations. Review and approve IT investment spending, procurement requisitions, capital project requests, and project funding changes to ensure accurate capital vs. expense classification and appropriate project/account coding. Evaluate vendor contracts, software agreements, and renewal activity to determine appropriate accounting treatment and assess financial impacts. Establish and maintain software asset records, including software shell asset setup, useful life assignment, and linkage to ServiceNow operational records and related project data. Perform Work In Process (WIP), project status, go-live, abandonment, and software write-off/acceleration reviews, including coordination with Technology, Project Management Office (PMO), Procurement, Business Unit Finance (BU Finance), and application owners. Prepare, review, and support recurring fixed asset, depreciation, amortization, capitalized software, board reporting, SEC reporting, and financial statement disclosure deliverables. Monitor and report project financial and status performance, including recurring analysis of amortization movements, software additions, dispositions, and one-time adjustments. Resolve operational fixed asset and project accounting issues, including invoice coding exceptions, project billing corrections, and other close-related matters. Serve as the primary accounting liaison across Technology, PMO, Procurement, BU Finance, SEC Reporting, Financial Reporting, and audit stakeholders. Support internal and external audit activities, including SOX walkthroughs, control certifications, testing support, remediation efforts, and documentation requests. Maintain and enhance SOX documentation, process narratives, risk and control matrices, procedures,