Senior Accounting & Tax Lead
Job description
Job Title: Sr. Accounting and Tax Lead
Department: Accounting & Tax Centre of Excellence (CoE) – BAMECA & BAAF, International Operations
Location: Iraq, Bagdad.
Primary scope: Iraq, with back-up support across CoE countries. Includes regular visits to the local bank.
Your impact begins here
As Senior Accounting & Tax Lead, you will be the go-to person for every accounting and tax matter in our Iraq affiliate. You will keep the books accurate, the close on time, taxes settled and cash well managed, so the business can keep moving with confidence. Working with a high degree of independence, you will bring local insight to our Accounting & Tax CoE and help shape simpler, more automated ways of working across the region.
What you’ll bring
You will bring:
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
- 5+ years of experience in accounting or finance roles.
- The ability to understand complex financial information, with strong attention to detail and a logical, thorough approach.
- Knowledge of Iraqi tax and statutory requirements
- Confidence working in a fast-paced environment, managing multiple and conflicting deadlines as a proactive self-starter.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to lead and align colleagues, peers and wider stakeholders.
- A continuous-improvement mindset, with an interest in process automation and using systems to drive efficiency.
- Resilience, flexibility and a problem-solving approach when priorities or requirements change.
- Professional proficiency in English.
Useful, but not essential:
- Experience working with shared service teams or third-party due diligence processes.
- ACCA, CPA, ACA and other international certificates.
What you’ll do
You will own the local accounting and tax picture for Iraq – from close to cash, compliance and controls. You will:
- Own the close and controls: Close every period on time with complete, accurate books, oversee the relevant Global Business Services (GBS) teams, run internal controls as designed and keep payables and receivables free of aged balances.
- Lead audits and tax compliance: Be the main contact for internal and external auditors and the local tax advisor. Settle sales contract tax for Novo Nordisk A/S and Novo Nordisk Health Care AG on time, monitor related balances, secure timely withholding tax release at Kimadia (Ministry of Health) and process periodic tax payments.
- Keep payments accurate: Process invoices, payroll, expenses, distributor fees, agent commissions and rebates accurately and on time, and reconcile vendor and employee accounts and cash advances.
- Manage cash and banking: Forecast cash flow, maintain the right cash levels and manage bank accounts, monthly reconciliations, bank guarantees and the corporate credit card programme.
- Safeguard integrity: As Local Due Diligence Responsible, review due diligence on third-party representatives, decide risk scoring and lead three-yearly re-assessments and annual certification for high-risk partners.
- Help colleagues get it right: Train colleagues on finance processes, SOPs and systems, support expense claims and keep the expense system aligned with accounting guidelines.
- Shape how we work: Represent local requirements and risks in CoE standardisation projects, move suitable tasks to GBS, explore automation and cover CoE processes when needed.
Who you’ll work with
You will join the Accounting & Tax CoE for BAMECA & BAAF in International Operations, where colleagues work across markets to serve people around the world. You will report to the Manager Accounting & Tax CoE – BAMECA & BAAF and represent the CoE in the Iraq affiliate.
Day to day, you will partner with the local leadership team, lines of business, agents and distributors, GBS teams, the external auditor, the local tax advisor and the local bank. Your focus is Iraq, with CoE colleagues across the region as your network – so you can raise issues early, agree priorities quickly and keep work moving.
What you can expect here
You will be trusted to make decisions and recommendations on accounting processes in the affiliate, with a regional CoE behind you. Covering CoE processes and joining standardisation projects gives you exposure beyond one market and the chance to build skills in process design and automation.
You will work in a culture that values clear priorities, honest feedback and never compromising on quality or ethics – where your voice counts and your results are recognised.
Start now
Your impact begins today. If you are ready to own accounting and tax for our Iraq affiliate and help shape how our CoE works, apply for the Senior Accounting & Tax Lead role by 21 October 2026.
For further information, please contact [email protected]
We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.
Skills mentioned
We are a global healthcare company, founded in 1923 and headquartered just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Our purpose is to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases, built upon our heritage in diabetes. We do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines, and working to prevent and ultimately cure the diseases we treat. Our story began over 100 years ago when two small Danish companies started producing the revolutionary new drug, insulin, which had just been discovered by Canadian scientists. These companies, Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium and Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, were established by individuals driven by a common goal: to make life-saving insulin available to people with diabetes in Denmark and beyond. August Krogh, a Nobel laureate, and his wife Marie, a physician whose own diabetes fueled their quest, played a pivotal role in bringing insulin production to Denmark, leading to the founding of Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium in 1923. Shortly after, in 1925, the Pedersen brothers, former Nordisk employees, established Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, creating a dynamic of competition and innovation that would characterize the Danish pharmaceutical landscape for decades. After years of parallel growth and groundbreaking research, these two entities merged in 1989 to form Novo Nordisk A/S, a company that has since expanded rapidly. Today, we are a world leader not only in diabetes care but also in obesity care, haemophilia care, and therapies for rare endocrine disorders. Our commitment extends beyond developing innovative medicines; we strive to make them accessible to patients worldwide. We employ more than 77,000 people across 80 offices globally and market our products in approximately 170 countries. The Novo Nordisk Way, our set of guiding principles, is rooted in the vision of our founders and continues to inspire our thousands of colleagues. We are dedicated to applying our passion, skills, and commitment to defeat serious chronic diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people and represent some of the most urgent global health challenges. Our U.S. headquarters is located in Plainsboro, New Jersey, playing a vital role in the life sciences industry through sales, marketing, and clinical trial management for all Novo Nordisk U.S. products. We are also significantly investing in manufacturing capabilities, including a $4.1 billion expansion in North Carolina, to meet the growing demand for our diabetes and obesity medications.
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