Job Opportunities at South Africa Airways (SAA)

Job Purpose    

• The Lead: Financial Accounting role is responsible for compiling and distributing the Final Income Statement, high level narratives for the month and Balance Sheet for the Group, balancing of final Group Trial Balance in SAP with Final Income Statement and Balance Sheet, Manage and set month end closing deadlines for all SAP users (Group), Manage the opening and closing of accounting periods in SAP (Group).Furthermore, the role will run the foreign currency revaluation program in SAP and reconcile to detail, Ad Hoc Tasks and sound liaison with other finance departments and ensure preparation of annual financial statements and oversight of work including maintenance, fleet and fixed asset accounting.
• The incumbent will be responsible for creating new, changing, blocking and unblocking GL accounts in SAP (Group), Maintain Trial Balance in SAP (Group). The role will ensure that reconciliations are done, reviewed and signed off, ensure that all Inter-Company consolidations are done, reviewed and signed off, as well as to ensure that all month end closing exchange rates are loaded in SAP.
• The role is also responsible for converting and uploading of Mango’s Trial Balance in SAP, supervising of subordinates and co-ordinating leave, the period 13 year end journal process and provide updated Trial Balances etc. to auditors and internal customers.
• The role also requires liaison and communication with internal and external auditors as well as the follow up with SAA finance managers/financial controllers regarding the status of the clearing of audit findings from the prior years’ external audit.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Provide input to the design of the Department Strategy and implement strategy 
• Recommends, update and standardises policies, processes and systems 
• Prepare, manage and control budget of cost centre and contribute to department budget management
• Prepare Group consolidated annual financial statements (AFS) to IFRS, Companies Act, PFMA and other relevant legislation standards and benchmark against the AFS of other industry leaders in order to keep up to date with best practices followed by leading airlines
• Preparation of information for inclusion in the annual report and Directors’ Report
• Preparation of the financial results presentation after finalisation of the year end results
• Liaising with typesetters of the SAA annual report and verifying their various drafts of the SAA annual report
• Prepare Monthly Flash report (preliminary income statement) (Excel) by the 4th working day of the month, which includes commentary and high level narratives, check consolidation entries for correctness and provide copies (hard/soft)
• Inform clients on distribution list about the deadline relating to information required for the Flash Report
• Provide final Income Statement and Balance Sheet working paper (Excel) by the 7th working day of the month
• Manage Mango’s Trial Balance Conversion and upload to SAP monthly
• Run Foreign Currency Revaluation every month, ensure that the amounts are posted correctly to the various GL accounts and perform a reconciliation of the calculation as well as provide a dummy revaluation for the flash report
• Ensure that all accounts, which are our responsibility, are reconciled and cleared monthly and reconciliations verified and signed off
• Ensure that there are no unresolved issues older than 3 months on the accounts
• Create/change/allocate/block/unblock General Ledger (GL) Accounts in SAP after following the relevant department policies and procedures
• Maintain Trial Balance (TB) in SAP
• Ensure that all new accounts are correctly grouped in the TB
• Deal with change requests
• Reconcile TB and AFS groupings to ensure that the TB and AFS are in sync
• Clarify any changes/reallocations to the TB with the Manager: Finance Management and advise TM1 administrator and the Management Accountant to ensure that the TB, AFS and TM1 are in sync
• Exercise control over the opening and closing of the FI accounting periods in SAP for the whole group, as per the month end timetable
• Manage March year end closing and special period 13 as per the year end timetable/instruction from Manager: Finance Management and summarize period 13 journals entries posted
• Calculate performance for recovery of audit and management fees from subsidiaries
• Review of work performed by Specialist responsible for Fleet and Maintenance Accounting and fixed assets
• Review and sign-off of GL recons prepared by the Fleet Accounting Specialist
• Ensure a continuation plan for the department is in place
• Drive a Team Based Performance Management for the department
• Draw up and implement training plans (PDP’s) thereby ensuring that the department maintains skill levels and improves on service levels
• Scrutinise and follow up on any abnormalities in the Trial Balance on a regular basis
• Provide prints of intercompany account balances between Shared Services (Co. 1000) and Corporate (Co. 1010) with SAA Travel Centre (Co. 3060) to the Financial Controller who will journalise entries to impair the loan accounts
• Provide the Manager, Group Treasury, monthly per e-mail, with a copy of the final Group Consolidated Trial Balance as well as the Bank & Cash Balances for Airchefs and Mango as per their TB’s immediately as soon as the information is available
• Review monthly journals captured in SAP by subordinates for correctness
• Review monthly and year to date Sundry Income analysis before distribution (Account 810500)
• Verify and signoff of monthly and year to date FOREX analysis (Account 944010)
• Verify and sign off monthly recurring journals prepared by subordinates
• Ensure journals marked for reversal have been reversed
• Ensure Trial Balance variants in SAP are updated for the new month
• Compile internal month end closing schedule 
• Update the SAP News monthly with the new closing dates once available
• Back up Shared files between Manager and Team Leader after each month end
• Complete PFMA documents in respect of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure 
• Perform Ad Hoc functions as requested by Manager

Qualifications & Experience    

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting at NQF level 7
• Qualified Chartered Accountant CA(SA) registered with SAICA
• At least 5 years’ experience in financial accounting environment, of which 2 years is at management level
• Experience with people management
• Exposure to financial reporting, particularly International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Knowledge and Skills    

• Good knowledge of SAP FI (Financial) essential
• Good knowledge of MS Office (Advanced Excel) essential
• Good knowledge of TM1 will be an advantage
• Application and understanding of accounting principals
• Public Finance Management Act
• Knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Companies Act and other relevant legislation
• Accounting principles and procedures
• Computer literate (MS Office and Advanced Excel, SAP FI, TM1, Account Production)
• Good interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written)
• Ability to perform under pressure and meet deadlines
• Analytical and accuracy in work output essential
• Strong numeric skills
• Attention to detail
• Strong problem-solution orientation
• Effective decision making
• Innovative
• Self-starter
• Good administrative, planning and organising skills
• Reliable and team player
• Confidentiality and accountability

Attributes    

• Leads with purpose
• Manages team performance
• Manages transformation and change initiatives
• Drives innovation
• Sells/ translates the vision
• Leverages Team Diversity
• Role models behaviours and values

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Job Purpose    

• PLEASE NOTE:  PREVIOUS APPLICANTS DO NOT NEED TO RE-APPLY
• The purpose of the role is to assist in translating the commercial vision, based on an understanding of the airlines’ strategy, to formulate short and long-term strategies to maximize all commercial opportunities. Provide intelligence and insights by conducting feasibility studies into new routes, assist in revenue budgeting, monitoring the financial performance of existing routes and networks as well as formulating remedial action driven by data and industry best practice analysis to deliver revenue targets and a competitive advantage.
• The incumbent must assist in creating and maintaining effective tools, dashboards, reports, and insight to aid informed decision making.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Provide input into the design of the Commercial Analysis Strategy taking into account specialist expertise, best practice, benchmarking and market standards etc.
• Implements department strategy within area of responsibility
• Assist in performing market scans to ascertain trends, new developments, opportunities and threats that arise from the market environment
• Assist in conducting competitor analysis per region/route in terms of airlines, market share, schedules, product, fleet, average fare, class of travel, etc.
• Compile reports on monthly route performance
• Conduct feasibility studies into new routes
• Mine flight and passenger data to discover insights that can assist with strategy development and remedial action
• Assist in the development of business intelligence dashboards for improved decision-making
• Recommends policies, processes, action plans and systems to support implementation of the strategy
• Analyse cost drivers and provide recommendations on profitability of Commercial Analysis
• Support the management and control of budget in area of responsibility
• Provide recommendations to actively support cost and headcount containment
• Assist in developing the Airline’s annual passenger revenue budget i.t.o. route and point of sales
• Utilises resources in area of responsibility
• Optimise technology to enhance internal and external customer expectations
• Implements processes to deliver customer value
• Drives customer centricity within areas of control
• Maintain effective internal and external stakeholder relationships through appropriate relationship building and networking
• Enforce Governance and Risk Management policies, processes and systems
• Deliver on regular and timeous reporting of information to key stakeholders
• Drive continuous optimisation programmes and initiatives
• Engage in trend analysis, benchmarking, research, best practice to support optimisation of Commercial Analysis
• Manages projects to contribute to the optimisation of Commercial
• Provide commercial intelligence to measure and improve the Airline’s competitiveness and trading performance
• Support the trading teams with analysis and insight on the Airline’s initiatives and interventions evaluation for regular analysis of data
• Ensure compilation of performance reports with supporting documents; make recommendations to improve the content and insight
• Manage analyses of the Airline’s data contained in various database systems and communicate capabilities to relevant stakeholders
• Assist with data mining, extraction, manipulation and analysis to produce analytical tools
• Use state of the art visualisation tools for insight presentations, support and reporting to the wider Commercial department and the business
• Make recommendations on how to achieve the revenue/strategic objectives
• Review the effectiveness of commercial strategies and recommend best practice options for improvement
• Manage route, network, alliances and Revenue Management and Pricing reporting
• Qualifications & Experience    
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Statistics, Science, IT or related field at NQF level 7
• At least 3-5 years’ experience in analytics, insight or consulting
• Advanced Excel and Microsoft PL-300 certification essential
• Python, R, SQL, Database management experience advantageous
• Significant experience in delivering analysis to a high standard and working to deadlines in a fast paced, dynamic environment

Knowledge and Skills    

• Expert knowledge in computer applications to deliver insight
• Knowledge of aviation market dynamics, strategy and competitive behaviour
• Commercial acumen
• Financial acumen
• Analytical skills
• Influencing skills
• Collaboration skills
• Presentation skills
• Communication skills (written and verbal)
• Negotiation skills
• Project management

Attributes    

• Engages in crucial conversations
• Manages projects
• Facilitates change and innovation
• Implements and aligns to vision
• Delivers value
• Values team diversity
• Role models behaviours and values

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Job Purpose    

• The Internal Audit Specialist will support the function in the provision of a comprehensive auditing service to the Airline as well as audit and assurance capability.
• The role is responsible for implementing a portfolio of audits for the Airline in an effective and efficient manner to a high standard with the resources allocated and timeline requirements. Furthermore, the role is required to support the complete day-to-day running of the Audit function whilst maintaining client relations. The Specialist will assist with evaluating the company’s risk management, internal control and corporate governance processes and ensure that they are adequate and functioning correctly.

Principal Accountabilities    

• Contribute to the design of the Internal Audit Strategy taking into account specialist expertise, best practice, benchmarking and market standards etc. and ensure strategy is implemented and integrated within areas of responsibility
• Provide input into the SAA Auditing operational plan
• Liaise with internal stakeholders to discuss needs and propose audits to build stakeholder requirements into department plans
• Determines policies, processes, action plans and systems to support implementation of the strategy
• Identify and drive initiatives to support profitability and cost containment in the Internal Audit division
• Assist with the budget development in alignment with the overall corporate requirements and strategic objectives
• Manage and control budget in area of responsibility
• Actively monitor the process improvement expenditure and service delivery against plans and budgets
• Identify opportunities to optimise revenue and ROI across the value chain
• Sign off invoices against cost centre and actively track against contracts and budgets
• Engage in trend analysis to identify future needs, services required, market offerings and available new products and engage in discussion about integration and adoption of these into strategies and plans with the Chief Internal Auditor
• Contribute to the optimisation of the auditing function through actively participating in improvement projects that will protect against risks in the function and promote continuous improvement
• Support the development of business plans and strategies across the value chain
• Assist with the incorporation of reporting information into decision making processes to ensure alignment of the methodologies, policies, processes and tools to the requirements of the business
• Report on internal control issues and risks to the Chief Internal Auditor and relevant stakeholders
• Engage in trend analysis, benchmarking, research, best practice to support optimisation of department/ division
• Manages programmes and projects to contribute to the optimisation of the Internal Audit division
• Oversee quick win optimisation projects in the organisation where a need has been identified through defining methodologies, resource allocation, driving deliverables and reporting
• Engage in a portfolio of audits to support the implementation of the Airline’s auditing plan and strategy
• Proactively implement the auditing plan by defining audit scope, audit program & audit test procedures for portfolio of audits
• Assist with ensuring that annual audit plans have contingencies built in, to provide unexpected audits to clients as they may surface
• Manage process improvement projects from conception to completion, ensuring the intended objective is met within the required timeframes specified in the project plan
• Implement auditing processes in compliance with internal audit policies
• Compile, plan and report on working audit papers
• Review audit working papers on a regular basis
• Provide input into policies and procedures to ensure required legislative and regulatory standards are maintained
• Ensure regular quality assurance exercises are conducted across subsidiaries to ensure that minimum standards are adhered to and compliance with the relevant policies and procedures
• Identify and implement initiatives to ensure minimum quality standards are maintained
• Minimise the exposure to legislative contravention by assisting with designing and enforcing policies and procedures in full support of legislative requirements
• Manage stakeholder expectations through maintaining appropriate communication channels, providing best practice specialist input and ensuring satisfaction with service delivery
• Identify stakeholders synergistic to Auditing initiatives and provide advice and interpretation to any stakeholder as requested
• Utilise feedback from all relevant professionals to ensure continuous alignment and optimisation of auditing processes
• Provide a holistic consultancy service to the Airline
• Plan and conduct audits as per internal audit methodology, ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, policies and procedures

Qualifications & Experience    

• BCom with Accounting and Auditing at NQF level 7
• Relevant postgraduate qualification is an advantage
• Registered Chartered Accountant/Certified Internal Auditor is an advantage
• At least 5 -8 years Internal Auditing experience

Knowledge and Skills    

• Detailed understanding of relevant legislation (including the PFMA)
• In-depth knowledge of Auditing and Accounting principals
• Awareness of procurement processes
• Knowledge of auditing performance objectives
• Financial management
• Policy development
• Programme or project management
• Knowledge of current International Standards for Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and Accounting
• Knowledge of current internal auditing practices and trends
• Cross Sector industry exposure to best practices in terms of internal audit
• Legislation governing internal audit practices and affecting business practices
• Knowledge of automated financial and accounting reporting systems
• IT Knowledge
• Financial management and accounting skills
• Negotiation skills
• Influencing skills
• Presentation/ facilitation
• Analytical skills
• Critical thinking
• Attention to detail
• Communication skills
• Problem solving
• Change Management
• Resource utilisation
• Information processing
• Commercial acumen
• Interpersonal skills
• Conceptual thinking

Attributes    

• Leads Crucial Conversations
• Coaches and Mentors
• Leads Projects
• Facilitates Transformation and Change
• Drives Innovation
• Implements and aligns to vision
• Delivers value
• Leverages Team diversity
• Role models behaviours and values