Accounting Specialist

The Asahi Kasei Group operates with a commitment of creating for tomorrow. Our business sectors, Materials, Homes, and Health Care, contribute to the development of society by anticipating the changing needs of those around the world. We look for candidates that offer a fresh perspective and a variety of skills to help us achieve our commitment.

Asahi Kasei is a long-trusted supplier of lithium-ion battery separators – polymer-based microporous membranes that are a key component of the lithium batteries used to power electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems, and more. We are currently seeking applications to fill the following job opening at Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada, where we are in the process of constructing a new lithium battery separator manufacturing facility to support increasing North American demand.

Company:

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada Corporation

Job Description:

We are seeking an Accounting Specialist to be a part of a new plant start-up based in Port Colborne, Ontario. This position will be responsible for supporting all aspects of the accounts payable processes for Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada. This role ensures the accurate and timely processing of vendor invoices, expense reports, and payments while maintaining compliance with Company policies and internal controls, and applicable accounting requirements. The Accounting Specialist also supports month-end and year-end activities, including account and bank reconciliations, financial reporting, assisting with internal and external audits, and preparing appropriate documentation and explanations. This position is to fill an existing vacancy.

Reporting Relationships

This position directly reports to the Finance Director.

Asahi Kasei Values

• Sincerity – Being sincere with everyone.
• Challenge – Boldly taking challenges, continuously seeking change.
• Creativity – Creating new value through unity and synergy.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end accounts payable activities for the company and its subsidiary, supporting both plant construction and ongoing manufacturing operations.
• Review, validate, code, and process vendor invoices and credit notes, confirming appropriate approvals, supporting documentation, tax treatment, and alignment with purchase orders and receipts.
• Prepare payment runs and bank payments, determine payment timing, identify priority items, and escalate exceptions or unusual transactions for approval.
• Maintain accurate vendor master data and respond to vendor inquiries while safeguarding confidential banking and financial information.
• Process and review employee expense reports in Concur, ensuring compliance with expense policies, approval requirements, and supporting-document standards.
• Monitor daily bank activity and maintain accurate daily and monthly bank balances and reconciliations.
• Support month-end and year-end close activities, including account reconciliations, expense accruals, transaction reviews, and preparation of supporting schedules.
• Verify, record, and retain complete documentation for disbursements, invoices, account statements, expense reports, and other financial transactions in accordance with record-retention and internal-control requirements.
• Support internal and external audits by preparing documentation, responding to questions, and explaining transactions, balances, and established processes.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, Construction, Engineering, and other functions to resolve discrepancies, improve vendor relationships, strengthen controls, and streamline accounting and payment processes.
• Participate in finance projects, system implementations, testing, process documentation, and continuous-improvement initiatives, and perform other general accounting duties as assigned.
• Perform all other duties assigned.

Key Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrates working knowledge of accounts payable practices, general ledger coding, reconciliations, accruals, payment controls, month-end closure support and general accounting concepts in a corporate setting.
• Strong computer skills and proficient with an ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics AX or Dynamics 365), Excel, Word; and the ability to learn and effectively use other financial, expense-management, banking, document-management, and business IT systems.
• Experience with Concur or a comparable expense-management system is preferred.
• Experience in a manufacturing, construction, or project-based environment and experience working within a global organization are assets.
• High level of accuracy, attention to detail, organization, and follow-through.
• Sound judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to investigate discrepancies and determine when escalation is required.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, recurring deadlines, and a high volume of detailed transactions with minimal supervision.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively with employees, leaders, external vendors, and cross-functional partners.
• Demonstrated integrity, discretion, accountability, teamwork, and commitment to maintaining confidential financial information.

Education Background:

• Post Secondary Education in Accounting, Finance or a related field.
• Working towards a professional accounting designation such as Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) is preferred.

Knowledge & Experience:

• Must have 3+ years of relevant accounts payable experience.

Expected Compensation:

• Salary based position with a range of $60,000.00 to $70,000.00 based on education and experience.
• Incentive program, Group medical & dental benefits, Registered Retirement Savings Plan.
  

Travel:

• Must hold a valid Passport and be willing to travel up to 5% internationally for training and visiting other company locations, predominately the United States of America and/or Japan.
  

Schedule:

• Full-time 100% in-person position.
• Typical work hours are Monday to Friday, with flexibility to address urgent issues as needed 24/7. Attendance at meetings and trainings on off shifts may also be required periodically.
• Periods of increased workload around month-end and year-end closing cycles.

Working Environment

This position will be based in a temporary office on the construction site until the permanent office is built in 2027. Majority of the workday is spent sitting at a workstation performing computer-based tasks. Occasional standing and walking. The final work environment will be at a 24/7 manufacturing operation. This position is in support of manufacturing and requires working in a production environment around chemicals. The manufacturing facility will be a state of the art in terms of automation and being temperature and humidity controlled. This will be a clean and comfortable environment due to the nature of the products being produced.

About Us

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada is a pioneer in battery technology and a long-trusted supplier of lithium battery separators, which are polymer-based microporous membranes that are key components of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles.

The company’s Hipore™ brand of separators has been commercially available since the lithium battery market’s inception in the early 1990s, and they are found primarily in electric drive vehicles (EDVs) as well as in consumer electronics (CE) such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers. Hipore™ membrane separators bring high porosity and excellent energy transfer, while contributing to battery safety and reliability, and they are especially well matched for the high-capacity batteries required for power plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and full battery (BEV) vehicles.

Asahi Kasei is accelerating its next phase of global growth with proactive investment and capacity expansion in battery separators to meet increasing demand for electric vehicle applications. We are now in the early phases of staffing our new greenfield site, in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, which will further build our LIB separator infrastructure for automotive applications to meet growing demand in North America where significant expansion of electric vehicle production is forecasted.

The Asahi Kasei Group is a diversified group of companies led by holding company Asahi Kasei Corp., with operations in the material, homes, and health care business sectors. With more than 49,000 employees around the world, the Asahi Kasei Group serves customers in more than 100 countries. We are Creating for Tomorrow!

For more information, go to www.ak-bsc.ca.

Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Canada is an equal opportunity employer that embraces diversity in the workplace and encourages applications from qualified women, men, visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities.

We are committed to providing accommodations throughout the interview process for needs that are made known in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). If accommodation is required in the application process, please contact AKBSCA Human Resources at [email protected].

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As an equal opportunity employer, Asahi Kasei is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce. Asahi Kasei believes that its diverse workforce strengthens the company’s ability to adapt and thrive in a changing world .