Lead Corporate Accountant

How We Work At Chick-fil-A: Chick-fil-A,  Inc. ('Chick-fil-A' or 'the Company') Staff members play a vital role in achieving our strategic goals by developing their skills,  fostering inclusive teamwork,  and embracing innovation. All Staff are expected to contribute to a compelling future by inspiring and motivating those around them. Growth and development are essential at Chick-fil-A. We want Staff to seek new perspectives and adopt new methods to drive continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving business needs. Lastly,  we ask Staff to seek wisdom,  expect the best,  accept responsibility,  respond with courage,  and think others first.

Our Flexible Futures Model offers a healthy mix of working in person (currently a minimum of 8-10 days per month) and virtually,  strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community. Overview:

The Lead Corporate Accountant, Operator Rent Strategy & Transformation serves as the subject matter expert for Restaurant Fee Calculation Report (FCR) Rent and related Operator Rent capabilities. This role develops a strong understanding of the end-to-end work across traditional and non-traditional Restaurant rent, including Operator Captive Venues, mall locations, percentage-rent structures, lease holdover, complex amendments, and other nonstandard occupancy arrangements. Combining accounting knowledge with process improvement, systems thinking, and data analysis, the role supports accurate execution and leads defined efforts to simplify, standardize, automate, and improve the work. The position partners with Restaurant Accounting, Restaurant Development, Legal, Financial Incubation & Integration, financial system owners, technology teams, and other stakeholders to implement sustainable improvements and build capacity as the portfolio grows. 

Responsibilities:

• Own the functional administration and oversight of FCR Rent and related capabilities, ensuring accurate, timely, and complete administration of traditional and complex Restaurant rent. Maintain clear methodologies, decision frameworks, controls, measures, documentation, and escalation practices while partnering with resources who perform day-to-day rent administration activities. 
• Lead defined process improvement initiatives for FCR Rent, with particular focus on complex or growing work such as Operator Captive Venues and other non-traditional arrangements. Apply process mapping, root-cause analysis, risk assessment, and continuous-improvement methods to identify practical opportunities for simplification, standardization, automation, integration, or defined exception handling, with appropriate input and approval from the leader 
• Use data and analytics to monitor process performance, identify trends, assess exceptions, and support risk-informed decision making related to FCR Rent and Operator Rent activities. Develop meaningful baselines and measures, identify trends and root causes, and translate findings into recommendations, and improvement initiatives that strengthen controls, improve data quality, increase operational efficiency, and support scalable administration of FCR Rent.  
• Develop business requirements for system-enabled Operator Rent processes in partnership with financial system owners, technology teams, data partners, and business stakeholders. Evaluate solution options; define accounting, control, integration, reporting, and data requirements; support testing and adoption; and confirm that implemented solutions meet business needs and improve scalability, reliability, user experience, and data integrity. 

Required Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities):

• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation 
• Advanced knowledge of accounting principles, financial reporting, and internal control concepts 
• Strong analytical and data-oriented mindset, including the ability to establish baselines and measures, identify patterns, evaluate root causes, and translate data into actionable recommendations 
• Ability to evaluate end-to-end processes and distinguish necessary business complexity from avoidable process variation 
• Ability to develop and maintain governance, policies, controls, decision frameworks, priorities, and scalable operating practices 
• Ability to work independently within established objectives, manage complexity and ambiguity, balance competing priorities, and exercise sound judgment 
• Strong problem-solving, project leadership, facilitation, communication, education, change enablement, and influence skills 

Preferred Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities):

• 7+ plus years of relevant work experience
• Experience using IBM TRIRIGA or another lease administration or lease accounting platform 
• Experience using analytical, automation, or AI-enabled tools such as Databricks, Alteryx, Power BI, SQL, Microsoft Copilot, or comparable platforms to improve decision-making, reporting, and operational efficiency. 
• Demonstrated experience leading defined cross-functional process improvement or system enabled initiatives through implementation and adoption 
• Previous experience with financial lease accounting standards, including ASC 842 and IFRS 16 
• Previous real property lease accounting or Restaurant rent experience, including complex occupancy or variable payment arrangements 
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification or comparable experience applying structured continuous-improvement methods to accounting or financial processes 
• Experience developing business requirements and supporting process, system, data, or integration improvements through testing and adoption 

Required Years of Experience: 3 Travel Requirements: 10% Required Level of Education: Bachelor's Degree Preferred Level of Education: Master's Degree Major/Concentration: Accounting or a business-related degree with equivalent accounting coursework Preferred Major/Concentration: Master's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Analytics, or a related field Relocation Assistance Provided: No