Associate Director Of Accounting Jobs in California

DIRECTOR OF ACCOUNTING

Service Squared is seeking a Director of Accounting to lead and develop our client accounting team while serving as a trusted financial partner to the businesses we support.

This is not a traditional accounting position focused solely on closing books and delivering financial statements. Our clients rely on us as an extension of their leadership teams. We help business owners understand what their numbers mean, identify risks and opportunities, improve financial performance, and make better decisions.

The Director of Accounting will lead a talented team of accounting professionals, ensure the quality and timeliness of our accounting and compliance services, and develop Staff Accountants into confident, CFO-minded business advisors.

The right person will bring technical accounting excellence, advanced Sage Intacct knowledge, expert-level Excel skills, and a demonstrated ability to use artificial intelligence effectively and responsibly. This person must also communicate with clarity, empathy, and genuine care.

You should enjoy developing people as much as solving accounting problems—and believe your greatest impact as a leader comes from building a team that can succeed without depending on you to perform the work for them.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

CLIENT ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL ADVISORY

• Serve as a trusted financial partner to business owners and client leadership teams.
• Help clients understand their financial results and translate the numbers into practical business decisions.
• Lead client financial-review meetings and provide thoughtful, actionable guidance.
• Identify trends, risks, and opportunities involving profitability, cash flow, labor, cost of goods, pricing, location performance, and growth.
• Proactively raise concerns and opportunities rather than waiting for clients to ask.
• Build lasting client relationships grounded in trust, responsiveness, sound judgment, and genuine care.
• Escalate complex strategic matters to executive leadership with clear analysis and recommendations.

ACCOUNTING QUALITY AND COMPLIANCE

• Oversee accurate and timely month-end and year-end closes, reconciliations, journal entries, financial statements, management reports, and other client deliverables.
• Review team members’ work for accuracy, completeness, consistency, appropriate support, and meaningful business insight.
• Establish and maintain strong review standards, internal controls, checklists, and quality-assurance practices.
• Oversee client compliance responsibilities within Service Squared’s scope, including 1099 preparation and filing, sales and use tax filings, annual filings, business licenses, and other applicable requirements.
• Ensure compliance deadlines are tracked, communicated, reviewed, and completed accurately.
• Identify potential accounting or compliance risks early and coordinate appropriate resolution.
• Ensure accounting records provide reliable inputs for client reporting, financial advisory, Business Intelligence, and other Service Squared services.

TEAM LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT

• Lead, coach, and develop Staff Accountants, Accounting Managers, and other accounting professionals.
• Teach team members to think beyond closing the books and delivering P&Ls—to understand what financial information means and how it can help a client operate a better business.
• Develop accountants’ technical skills, business judgment, financial-analysis capabilities, and confidence in client conversations.
• Review work promptly and use feedback as an opportunity to teach the reasoning behind accounting and business decisions.
• Delegate effectively and create meaningful opportunities for employees to build confidence, ownership, and independence.
• Develop future Accounting Managers and financial leaders as the team grows.
• Identify performance gaps early and provide clear, constructive coaching.
• Partner with Human Resources on workforce planning, recruiting, candidate screening, interviewing, selection, onboarding, and employee development.

This is a leadership role. Success is measured by the quality and independence of the team you build, not by how much transactional accounting work you personally complete.

PROCESS, SYSTEMS, AND TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

• Serve as the Accounting department’s expert user of Sage Intacct and Microsoft Excel.
• Develop and continuously improve accounting procedures, close checklists, review standards, controls, training resources, and documentation.
• Standardize processes where doing so improves quality, efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
• Identify recurring issues and solve them at the source.
• Champion the responsible use of AI, automation, integrations, and emerging technologies to improve accuracy, efficiency, analysis, documentation, and client service.
• Identify practical opportunities to use AI to reduce repetitive work and create more time for analysis, coaching, and client guidance.
• Ensure AI-generated work is appropriately reviewed, validated, and supported by human judgment.
• Partner with Business Intelligence and Technology teams on reporting, integrations, data quality, automation, and the continued evolution of Service Squared’s proprietary S2 Pulse Point platform.
• Ensure technology changes include appropriate testing, controls, documentation, training, security, and measures of success.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Clients consider Service Squared an indispensable financial partner, not simply an accounting provider.
• Financial statements, management reports, and compliance filings are accurate, timely, consistent, and trusted.
• Clients receive proactive insight and practical recommendations that help them make better decisions and build stronger businesses.
• Staff Accountants grow into confident, independent professionals who can think and communicate like business advisors.
• Reviews are timely and rigorous, recurring errors decrease, and coaching builds judgment rather than dependency.
• The Director spends more time leading, reviewing, coaching, advising clients, and improving the organization—and less time completing routine staff accounting work.
• Sage Intacct is used consistently and effectively across the accounting practice.
• Excel models, schedules, analyses, and reporting tools are accurate, efficient, understandable, and reliable.
• AI and automation measurably reduce manual effort and improve quality while maintaining appropriate human oversight.
• Accounting operations scale without sacrificing accuracy, responsiveness, insight, or care.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Progressive accounting experience in accounting leadership, controllership, outsourced accounting, client accounting services, CFO advisory, or a related environment.
• Strong knowledge of GAAP, month-end and year-end close, reconciliations, financial reporting, internal controls, and quality review.
• Experience overseeing accounting compliance activities, including 1099 and sales-tax processes.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret financial results and translate them into clear, practical recommendations for business owners.
• Proven experience reviewing accounting work and coaching and developing accounting professionals.
• Strong delegation and team-building skills, including the ability to develop employees rather than becoming the permanent backstop for their work.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Confidence leading meaningful client conversations, combined with the empathy to listen, understand, and build trust.
• Strong judgment, integrity, discretion, organization, and follow-through.
• A genuine desire to help clients and employees succeed.

REQUIRED TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Advanced, hands-on experience with Sage Intacct.
• Strong knowledge of Sage Intacct general ledger, dimensions, account structures, reconciliations, close processes, financial reporting, and multi-entity or multi-location accounting.
• Expert-level Microsoft Excel skills.
• Advanced experience with formulas, PivotTables, data analysis, financial modeling, large data sets, reporting schedules, and troubleshooting complex workbooks.
• Strong proficiency with artificial intelligence tools and a demonstrated ability to use AI as an everyday accounting, analytical, documentation, and leadership tool.
• Ability to identify practical AI and automation opportunities that improve accounting workflows, research, analysis, quality control, and team productivity.
• Ability to evaluate AI-generated results, identify errors or unsupported conclusions, protect confidential information, and maintain appropriate human review and accountability.
• Experience working across accounting platforms, reporting systems, integrations, and technology-enabled workflows.
• Ability to troubleshoot system and data issues, recognize incomplete or unreliable information, and collaborate effectively with Business Intelligence and Technology teams.
• Strong commitment to data accuracy, confidentiality, security, and responsible technology use.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• CPA, CMA, MBA, or another relevant advanced credential.
• Experience in outsourced accounting, client accounting services, professional services, controllership, or CFO advisory.
• Experience supporting multiple clients simultaneously.
• Experience with restaurants, hospitality, franchises, multi-location businesses, healthcare or mental-health practices, salons, or other owner-led businesses.
• Experience analyzing operational drivers such as labor, cost of goods, cash flow, profitability, marketing effectiveness, and location performance.
• Experience leading accounting implementations, system conversions, integrations, automation, or process-improvement initiatives.

WORK REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to perform computer-intensive work and communicate by video, telephone, email, messaging, and in person for extended periods.
• Ability to review and interpret detailed financial information accurately while managing competing priorities in a deadline-driven, multi-client environment.
• Availability outside normal business hours when reasonably required by close deadlines, filings, implementations, or urgent client matters.
• Occasional travel for client meetings, training, team activities, conferences, or other business needs may be required.

Service Squared is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals throughout the application and employment process.