Senior Accountant, Inventory Control

Company Description
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands. At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

Position Overview
Ralph Lauren seeks a Senior Accountant to join our Financial Operations organization working on solving challenging scenarios to effectively connect our inventory flows to the accounting and reporting solutions. The successful candidate will demonstrate clear potential for upward mobility while gaining experience in a hydrid accounting / operations role on a team where the primary mission centers around understanding the inventory flows and providing effective accounting and reporting solutions for these flows. In addition to accounting responsibilities, the team regular reports on certain types of inventory movements and on hand valuation (ie: sales below cost, dispositions, slow moving) to finance and operations leaders. Note: the role is not inventory costing.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Utilize accounting / business operations accumen to ask questions, understand and document inventory flows and recommended accounting treatment Perform general acounting functions including: working in an ERP / general ledger system, prepare and support periodic journal entries, perform account analysis, balance sheet reconciliations and reporting Participate in the internal/ external audit process with specific focus on collecting key financial, accounting and inventory control data Assist with inventory control activities like managing retail store tickets, physical inventory and store observations and consolidating reporting of key control metrics Reconcile and apply shrink reserves to offset shrink adjustments from physical inventory Support management in completing special projects and other tasks as assigned Identify opportunities for process improvements or automation

Experience, Skills & Knowledge
BS / Masters degree focused on Accounting (must have) CPA or CMA (not required, preference) 3-6 years' experience ideally in both public (not required, preference) and private environment working with consumer product inventory Experience within a US GAAP framework will be valuable Must demonstrate understanding and experience in
* Accounting principles and related systems of record
* Reporting systems in an ERP environment
* Skilled in active observation, root cause analysis and written/oral communication
* Must have strong working knowledge of Excel with strong preference for candidates with ERP solutions like: SAP, Oracle JDE, Microsoft AX and Island Pacific
* Must be able to effectively communicate across a variety of levels and stakeholders in the organization with an intent to influence change
* Must maintain integrity throughout work product balancing attention to detail with a connection to the big picture
* Provide support for ad-hoc requests from senior management, the FP&A team or the business operations teams; we view financial operations as a customer service environment with many internal customers