Senior Manager, Internal Controls & SOXnew

About The Role 

As the SOX Senior Manager you will report to the CFO and play a central role in building and maintaining Kikoff's internal controls infrastructure as the company scales toward a public offering. You will serve as the primary owner of Kikoff's SOX program, coordinating across our teams to ensure the company maintains a well-controlled environment. You will also provide regular updates to Kikoff's Audit Committee, giving this role meaningful visibility at the board level. Much of Kikoff's financially relevant data are derived from various systems and applications, so a meaningful part of this role is assisting management identify the material risks and advising management on what good controls look like when the process is code & AI driven. Kikoff will work also with third-party SOX consultants who provide capacity and specialist depth. This role is the accountable owner of the program: you will set scope, make the judgment calls, and own the outcome with the auditors.

The position will initially be an individual contributor role and will be located in our San Francisco office (in office 3 days/week). 

What You Will Do:

• Own and manage Kikoff's end-to-end SOX program, including scoping, risk assessment, control documentation, and remediation tracking
• Direct the third-party SOX consultants:  set their scope, review their work product for quality, and make the final call on control design and deficiency conclusions.
• Scope and right-size the program: decide what is in scope for SOX and what is not, and defend that boundary with the external auditors
• Partner with engineering and data  to identify and test ITGCs in a modern stack: change management over CI/CD deployments, access defined in code, service account risk, and controls over automated reconciliations and data pipelines.
• Partner with control owners across accounting, finance, legal and ops to document, test, and maintain internal controls over financial reporting.
• Oversee the design and operating effectiveness testing of key controls, identifying deficiencies and driving remediation to closure
• Prepare and present SOX program updates to the CFO, C-suites,  Audit Committee, and external auditor including status reporting, deficiency summaries, and remediation progress
• Coordinate with external auditors on SOX-related matters, including walkthroughs, testing support, and issue resolution
• Work with process owners to develop and maintain SOX documentation including risk and control matrices (RCMs), process narratives, and flowcharts
• Identify opportunities to streamline and automate controls as Kikoff's systems and processes evolve
• Build SOX awareness across the organization by educating control owners on their responsibilities and the importance of a well-controlled environment

About You:

Required

• 8+ years in internal controls, SOX compliance, or external audit
• At least 3 years in-house at a public or pre-IPO company as the accountable owner of some or all of ICFR. You have been the auditor through at least one external audit, and you have lived with controls you designed for more than one cycle.
• Experience in an environment where financially relevant data flows through automated pipelines, with a practical view on ITGCs in a modern data stack
• Demonstrated judgment on right-sizing. You can point to controls you simplified or removed, and to a time you pushed back on an external auditor and made it stick.
• Able to move cross-functional stakeholders without formal authority
• Comfortable presenting to senior leadership and audit committee members
• Strong documentation skills: clean, auditor-ready narratives and control matrices

Preferred

• Big 4 or equivalent risk advisory foundation
• Was in-house through an IPO transition and has seen both sides of it
• Fintech, lending, or payments
• CPA license; working knowledge of PCAOB standards, COSO, and SOX 302/404
• AuditBoard or Workiva; comfortable enough with SQL to review evidence directly