Accounting Manager

About Canada Rocket Company

Canada Rocket Company is developing Canada's first medium-lift launch vehicle.

We are a team of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup, Pangea Propulsion, Tesla, MDA, and more, bringing over a century of combined launch and space systems experience back to Canada.

Our mission is to provide reliable, independent access to space for Canada and its allies in a rapidly expanding global market

Our approach is defined by pragmatic engineering:

• We utilize a single 725 kN engine that scales from light- to medium-lift via engine clustering.
• We lean on simple, proven technologies to reach orbit faster, avoiding the pitfalls of complex or novel designs.
• We test early and often, catching problems on the bench instead of at the pad.

Backed by over $20M in funding secured within our first four months, including the largest all-Canadian seed round in the sector and an $8.3M Department of National Defence grant, we are moving with the speed and institutional backing required to meet Canada’s orbital launch needs.

About the role

The Accounting Manager is responsible for the day-to-day accounting operations of Canada Rocket Company, including the general ledger, month-end close, financial reporting, accounts payable, and treasury operations. Accounting is currently performed by an external provider; the Accounting Manager will lead the transition of these activities in-house and establish the supporting processes, systems, and internal controls.

The role carries significant scope in the design and implementation of CRC's procure-to-pay environment and in the deployment of AI-native processes at the enterprise level, and serves as the company's principal point of contact for external tax, SR&ED, and grant advisors.

What you'll do

Accounting Operations and Financial Reporting

• Lead the transition of accounting activities from the external provider to in-house execution
• Develop and document accounting policies and procedures, and design and operate internal controls appropriate to the company's stage.
• Design and deploy AI-native accounting and finance processes at the enterprise level, applying AI tooling to close, reconciliation, documentation, and transaction workflows in a controlled and auditable manner.
• Manage the month-end close cycle and prepare monthly financial statements, including accruals, prepaid expenses, and depreciation.
• Establish and maintain the fixed asset register and related capitalization policies.
• Support the evaluation and implementation of a scaled accounting or ERP platform as company requirements evolve.
• Maintain the general ledger and chart of accounts, record transactions, and perform bank, credit card, and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Maintain payroll accounting and employee-related accruals, and assume responsibility for payroll processing and statutory remittances as the function matures.

Procure-to-Pay

• Lead the selection, implementation, and ongoing administration of a purchasing system integrated with the accounting platform.
• Design and maintain purchase approval, receiving, and matching workflows, including control thresholds and supporting documentation standards.
• Maintain reporting on open purchase commitments.
• Manage the accounts payable cycle and the corporate card and expense reimbursement programs, including vendor onboarding, invoice processing and coding, payment run preparation, and policy compliance.

Cost and Project Accounting

• Support the CFO in the design of the company's program costing and cost accounting framework.
• Maintain the project accounting structure, cost allocation methodology, and supporting timekeeping processes.
• Prepare program and departmental cost reporting.

Tax, Government Funding, and External Advisors

• Manage the SR&ED claim process in conjunction with external consultants, with a view to performing the process substantially in-house over time.
• Maintain eligible cost tracking, substantiation, and documentation for government grant and funding programs, and prepare periodic claims and cost reports.
• Act as the primary liaison to external advisors for corporate income tax compliance, and support insurance administration and renewals.

Treasury and Cash Management

• Prepare and maintain the rolling cash flow forecast.
• Manage daily cash operations across Canadian and U.S. dollar accounts, including foreign exchange conversion, cash positioning, banking administration, and collection of grant funding receivables.

Qualifications

Required

• CPA designation.
• Minimum six years of relevant accounting experience.
• Demonstrated ability to independently perform and complete a full accounting cycle, including month-end close and financial statement preparation, without supervisory support.
• Experience developing accounting processes, workflows, or controls in an environment where they were not previously established.
• Experience in an early-stage or high-growth company.
• Full-cycle accounts payable experience.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools in a professional finance or accounting setting, and the judgment to apply them to process design rather than to isolated tasks.
• Strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency in Excel.

Preferred

• Eight or more years of relevant accounting experience.
• Public practice experience, followed by industry experience in a hands-on accounting capacity.
• Experience with both small-business accounting platforms such as QuickBooks Online and enterprise-grade systems such as NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics.
• Cost accounting, project accounting, or job costing implementation experience.
• SR&ED, government grant, or investment tax credit experience.
• Purchasing or procurement system selection and implementation experience.
• Experience in manufacturing, hardware, or another capital- or inventory-intensive industry.
• Canadian payroll processing and statutory remittance experience.
• Multi-currency operations and import transaction experience.
• Working knowledge of a programming or query language, such as SQL, Python, or VBA.
• Experience configuring, administering, or integrating business software applications, including workflow automation between systems.

Employment eligibility

Canada Rocket Company is registered under Canada's Controlled Goods Program (CGP), administered by Public Services and Procurement Canada, and this role requires access to controlled goods and controlled technical data. It is a condition of employment that you are eligible for, obtain, and maintain the security assessment required under the CGP. Any offer of employment is contingent on the successful completion of that assessment

Canada Rocket Company is an equal-opportunity employer. Accommodations are available on request at any stage of the recruitment process.

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