The Community

High River provides the warmth and familiarity of a small town, featuring countless outdoor trails and parks that await your next adventure. Our downtown offers a variety of unique stores and businesses who take pride in fostering connection in our community. High River is a people-first community where families put down roots for generations. Nestled within Foothills County with the Rocky Mountains framing the view to your west, our community of 14,000 is rooted in people and promotes an environment to help you build lasting relationships.

The Organization

Through the dedication and passion of our 150 employees, we deliver important services to the community. Our purpose, or why we do what we do, is because we want to make a difference in our community now and for generations to come (our ‘why’). To achieve this, we inspire and respect one another, we can be counted on, we are better together, and we dare to be different (our ‘how’).

We’ve embarked on a workplace culture journey that has enhanced our commitment to people; both our employees and the community we serve. We have identified three pillars to achieve our workplace culture: Accountable, Excellence and Connected (ACE).

Position

Senior Accountant

Job Type

Full-Time Permanent

Department

Financial Services

Reports to

Manager, Financial Services

Starting Rate

OOS 3

Work Location

Joint Administration Building

Job Posting Date

July 14, 2026

Job Closing Date

July 21, 2026

General Accountability

The Senior Accountant reports to the Manager, Financial Services and leads the Town’s period-end close and financial reporting work from a validated trial balance through monthly reporting and annual financial statement preparation. This role provides CPA-level accounting oversight, ensures entries and adjustments align with Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS), and coordinates audit ready working papers and audit support. This position leads through teamwork, influence, and shared accountability. The role sets close standards, aligns timelines, and drives completion of month end and year end deliverables by working with department staff, with support from the Manager, Financial Services. This position supports banking and cash management, including monitoring cash position, preparing cash flow reporting, and recommending cash management actions. In line with our Strategic Plan and workplace culture, Accountable, Connected and Excellence (ACE), this position will be required to demonstrate ethical, respectful, and professional leadership by inspiring others to take personal ownership and contributing to the development and alignment of organizational strategy and goals. The employee in this position must build effective teams by influencing and encouraging open communication and teamwork. The incumbent will develop others to achieve their best while demonstrating a service-centric approach.

Duties

Lead the month-end and year-end close processes, including timelines, review points, issue resolution, and reporting deliverables. Maintain general ledger integrity through account structure, posting controls, reconciliations, working papers, and review procedures. Prepare and review journal entries, accounting adjustments, schedules, and analysis required for financial reporting. Review financial results, investigate variances, prepare reporting packages and explanations for management and senior leadership. Apply PSAS to transactions, financial statement presentation, note disclosures, and accounting decisions. Provide subject matter support to Council and senior leadership on accounting, reporting, audit, and financial matters, including preparing issue analysis and presenting findings or recommendations when required. Provide analysis and information related to Collective Bargaining. Lead financial statement preparation and coordinate audit requests, working papers, accounting support, and follow-up actions. Monitor cash position, banking activity, cash flow reporting, and cash management requirements, including recommended transfers for approval. Develop and maintain accounting procedures, review standards, internal controls, and process requirements that protect Town assets and support consistent financial processes. Identify process gaps, control gaps, and reporting risks, and lead improvements to close, reconciliations, working papers, reporting, and data quality. Advise departments and Finance staff on accounting treatment, cut-off, accruals, classification, reporting needs, and financial impacts. Work with Finance staff to connect ERP outputs, transaction data, reporting models, and management reporting requirements. Coach Finance staff on working paper standards, account analysis, reconciliation support, close expectations, and documentation requirements. Perform hands-on Finance work, including transaction processing, data entry, review support, and issue resolution, when required to address process gaps, meet deadlines, or support department priorities. Maintain working knowledge of Finance team roles, workflows, and processes to provide backup, coverage, and fail-safe support when needed.

Qualifications

Post-secondary degree or diploma in Accounting, Finance, Commerce, or related field. Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation in good standing (preferred), or CPA Candidate. Five (5) years of progressive accounting experience with increasingly more responsible accounting roles, with direct experience with month end close, year-end close, and financial statement preparation. Public practice experience is preferred, including external audit experience. Experience preparing and reviewing working papers, audit support schedules, and accounting position documentation. Experience leading work through influence across teams where staff do not report directly. Municipal government or public sector experience is an asset. Experience with modern ERP systems (Microsoft Business Central experience is an asset). Knowledge of close controls, financial statement preparation, and journal entry governance. Knowledge of PSAS, or experience learning and applying accounting standards in a reporting environment. Strategic and analytical, with excellent attention to detail, strong prioritization skills, and the ability to troubleshoot and problem solve. Ability to explain accounting impacts in plain language for non-finance stakeholders. Strong Microsoft Excel skills (advanced) and proficiency in Office 365. Exceptional Customer Service skills with both internal and external customers. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts and theories to non-technical audiences. Power Query and Power BI experience would be considered an asset. Presentation and public speaking skills. Ability to manage deadlines, maintain documentation, and track issues to closure. Ability to partner with other professionals to design data processes that support reporting, budgeting and adhoc analysis.