Internal Control Lead at Pernod Ricard

Job Purpose

• The Internal Control Lead is responsible for identifying control gaps across financial and operational processes, recommending improvements, and driving remediation efforts in collaboration with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate combines analytical rigor with practical insight to enhance governance, reduce risk, and support strategic decision-making.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Internal Control & Risk Management

Control Assessment & Gap Identification

• Lead proactive evaluations of internal controls to uncover weaknesses, inefficiencies, and compliance risks across financial and operational processes
• Conduct risk-based reviews of financial and operational processes.
• Identify control deficiencies, process inefficiencies, and compliance risks.
• Map existing controls and assess their design and operating effectiveness.
• Performs operational audits, recommends corrective actions, and convinces internal stakeholders of the legitimacy of his/her recommendations.
• Identifies Best Practices during the audit phase.
• Participate in the Group internal audit process and assist with co-ordination activities as required.
• Understands the key concepts of risk management (identification, assessment including frameworks, mitigation).
• Identifies basic business risks.
• Understands the internal systems and processes.

Remediation & Advisory

• Collaborate with stakeholders to design and implement effective remediation plans, offering practical recommendations that strengthen the control environment
• Collaborate with process owners to develop and implement remediation plans.
• Provide actionable recommendations to strengthen internal controls.
• Monitor and report on remediation progress and effectiveness

Risk Management

• Drive enterprise-wide risk assessments to identify emerging threats, develop mitigation strategies, and embed risk awareness into core business practices.
• Perform risk assessments to identify emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop mitigation strategies and embed risk awareness into business processes.
• Monitor key risk indicators and support enterprise risk reporting.
• Participates to risks analysis and makes recommendations for corrective actions
• Ensures the implementation of corrective action plans related to risk management
• Identifies and qualifies complex or inter-related business risks and recommend corrective action plans

Governance & Reporting

• Ensure transparency and accountability through clear reporting of control and risk findings to senior leadership and audit committees.
• Prepare clear, actionable reports for senior leadership and audit committees.
• Maintain documentation of control and risk assessments, findings, and resolutions.
• Support internal and external audit engagements with relevant insights and evidence.

Continuous Improvement

• Champion a culture of control excellence by staying ahead of regulatory changes and leading initiatives that enhance and automate risk and control processes.
• Champion a culture of control and risk awareness across the organization.
• Stay abreast of regulatory changes, industry trends, and best practices.
• Lead initiatives to automate, streamline, and enhance control and risk processes

Business Acumen

• Ability to view and understand business from a holistic perspective
• Demonstrates general awareness of the Business Environment
• Understands the key drivers and challenges of the company
• Has a basic knowledge of local organizational structures and functions

Project Management

• Ability to plan, monitor and deliver projects in line with objectives
• Project management basics (task list, meetings, write wrap-up report etc).
• Coordinates information flows between project participants in a few departments.
• Reports project progress with accuracy.
• Understands what is at stake in the project (risks and opportunities).

Relationship Building & Communication

• Ability to build, nurture and leverage quality and trusting relationship
• Ability to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of the organization,
• Initiates and/or improves positive working relationships and interactions within the team
• Communicates clearly both written and verbally, adapting the messages to the audience
• Builds trusting relationships by acting with integrity
• Proactively communicates across departments to improve cooperation
• Builds quality relationships, understanding organisation and individual issues, through strong interpersonal skills
• Identifies potential conflicts and escalates them to the appropriate level
• Is comfortable dealing with people at all levels of the organisation

Key Competencies and Experience

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes: 

Functional and Technical Competencies:

• Proactivity, Planning & Organising, Quality Orientation, Stress Management, Agility
• Strong understanding of financial processes and control frameworks
• Excellent analytical, problem solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to influence and drive change across diverse teams

Qualifications and Experience:

•  Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field (CPA, CIA, or CISA etc)
• +5 years’ experience in Internal Control or Risk Management