Accountant III - City Retirement Office

The Retirement Office is comprised of 18 positions that are responsible for providing pension information to members of the City of Phoenix Employees' Retirement System (COPERS) and the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS). The City's Deferred Compensation Plans (457/401(a)/ PEHP) are also managed within the office. Each of the benefit functions in the Retirement Office report to their respective Board of Trustees that are responsible for overseeing roughly $8 billion in retirement assets. The Retirement Office is divided into three areas: Administrative/Operations, Benefits, and Investments.

The City of Phoenix Retirement Office is seeking a dedicated professional to fill a vacancy for an Accountant III in the Operations Division. The Operations Division has two Accountant III positions. The primary function of this position will be to assist the Benefits Division with the monthly payroll processes including the reconciliation of over $28 million per month to retirees, bi-weekly active payroll process, managing contribution refunds and service purchase contracts and serve as back-up to the second accountant position. The Accountant III is responsible for highly technical accounting work involving reconciliation of revenues and expenses, processing wire transfers, payment of invoices, monitoring contract spending and analyzing budgets. Tracking movement of funds between various banking entities and ensuring timely transfer of funds between entities. The Accountant III is expected to understand major elements of the general accounting and budgetary systems such as the development of budgets and financial statements. This includes a diverse range of accounting and financial duties regarding accounting theory, principles, and practices and their application to various municipal accounting transactions and problems. Additionally, this position will collect, evaluate, and analyze data, manage vendor contracts and assist in preparing annual financial reports, and assist in external and internal audits. Must have experience with SRM, SAP and VIM reporting and analytics. Responsible for monitoring and ensuring compliance with all GASB regulations.

The working hours for this position are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. This position does not have the ability to work from home for at least the first six-months.

Responsibilities include:

• Analyzing, interpreting, and auditing fiscal and accounting records for reconciliation and prepares accurate and complete financial statements.
• Auditing accounts to ensure compliance with calculated budgets.
• Reviewing and maintaining monthly financial reports.
• Assisting with preparing annual financial reports including the ACFR and PAFR.
• Assisting with annual budgeting process including all capital, operating, personnel and trustee accounts.
• Liquidation of Purchase Orders.
• Processing payments for invoices and service purchases.
• Monitoring department contracts for compliance and budgeting.
• Act as fiscal liaison between banking institutions and various Boards.
• Assisting in the design and implementation of accounting policies, procedures, and internal control systems.
• Creating standard operating procedures and revising policy when necessary.

• Ability to continuously improve operations, decrease turnaround times, streamline work processes, and work cooperatively and jointly to provide quality seamless customer service.
• Ability to think critically, analyze data and detail oriented.
• Strong verbal and written communication and customer service skills.

Pay Range: $64,604.80 - $110,510.40 annually.

Hiring Range: $64,604.80.60 - $95,451.20 annually.

Pay Range Explanation:

• Pay range is the entire compensation range for the position classification.
• Hiring range is an estimate of where you can receive an offer. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, training, and internal equity.

A comprehensive benefits package is offered which includes:

• for more details: Pension Information
• 401(a) and 457 plans with employer contributions
• Choice of generous medical HMO, PPO, or HSA/HDHP plans
• Medical enrollment includes a monthly $150 City contribution to a Post-Employment Health Plan
• Wellness incentive of up to $720 annually
• Dental, vision, and life insurance options
• Employer paid long-term disability
• Free Bus/light rail pass
• Tuition reimbursement program up to $6,500 per year
• Paid time off includes 13.5 paid holidays, 12 vacation days, and 15 sick days and personal leave days
• Paid Parental Leave for eligible employees up to 480 hours (12 weeks) of paid leave for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child during a 12-month period
• Federal Student Loan Forgiveness offered through Savi

For more details, visit: Unit 007 Benefits

• Four years of progressively responsible experience as a professional accountant,
• including some experience training and supervising paraprofessional and professional accounting personnel.
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business or public administration or a related field.
• Other combinations of experience and education that meet the minimum requirements may be substituted.
• The City job description can be found here.
• All finalists for positions are subject to a criminal background check applicable to the department or position..
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The minimum qualifications listed above, plus:

• Experience in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting theory and practices.
• Experience with governmental accounting.
• Experience processing travel packets in Concur.
• Experience working with SAP or other large Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
• Experience with financial statement preparation and analysis.
• Experience with Governmental Accounting including budgetary and finance activities.
• Experience working with an audit team.
• Experience working with principles, methods and practices of municipal finance, budgeting, and accounting.
• Proficiency in Microsoft functions, such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

Recruitment closes February 6, 2025. All materials must be received by 11:59 p.m. on this date.

This is a position-based recruitment and will not result in any ongoing eligibility list. This recruitment and any selection processes resulting from this recruitment may be used to fill other related vacancies within the organization now or in the near future.

Apply online by completing the required information and attaching, as one document, your cover letter and resume. Please include your experience as it relates to the qualifications stated above. Only the highest qualified may be posted to the eligible to hire list. The results of the resume screening process will be sent to your primary email address.

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• If you need assistance applying for this job, please contact our HR Connection Center at (602) 495-5700.

Accountant III, JC:03240, ID# 56808, 01/24/25, USM, DB, Benefits:007.

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City of Phoenix is an equal opportunity employer. AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other national service alumni who meet the required qualifications are encouraged to apply.