Chartered Accountant – Real Estate Accounting

Job description

**About Wahed:** The global financial system wasn't built for everyone. For millions of people, its reliance on interest (riba) creates a barrier to managing money and building wealth without compromising their values. At Wahed, we're changing that. We are a global fintech company on a mission to build a new financial system—one that is ethical, accessible, and entirely interest-free. From our offices across the globe, our team is building products that were once deemed impossible, from pioneering Shariah-compliant equity ETFs, creating true riba-free alternatives to high yield savings accounts, to creating no-leverage real estate investments for truly interest-free income producing assets. If you're driven to solve complex problems and believe finance should empower, not exclude, join us in building a more equitable financial future. **Job Brief:** As a Chartered Accountant – Real Estate Accounting at Wahed, you will own end-to-end accounting for our real estate investment platform, held through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in the US, UK, Malaysia and other jurisdictions. Reporting to the Finance Director, you will keep the books accurate, compliant and audit-ready across multiple entities and accounting platforms. Beyond the core accounting cycle, you will lead automation that makes our real estate finance processes faster, more reliable and scalable, and work closely with stakeholders across India, the UK, the US, Malaysia and other geographies. ### Job Description: **End-to-End Real Estate Accounting**- Own the full accounting cycle for real estate SPVs, including bookkeeping, accruals, prepayments, reconciliations and month-end, quarter-end and year-end close. - Account for property acquisitions, disposals, capital expenditure, depreciation, impairment and fair value movements. - Manage rental income, service charges, lease accounting (IFRS 16 / ASC 842), tenant receivables and deposits. - Account for investor capital contributions, distributions, intercompany funding and the related equity and cash movements. - Prepare property-level and entity-level P&L, balance sheets, cash flow statements and management reports. **Multi-Jurisdiction SPV Accounting & Compliance**- Maintain accounts for SPVs in the US, UK, Malaysia and other jurisdictions under the applicable frameworks (US GAAP, UK GAAP / FRS 102, MFRS / IFRS) and support group consolidation. - Handle intercompany transactions, eliminations, transfer pricing documentation and multi-currency reporting. - Prepare statutory financial statements and coordinate annual audits with external auditors. - Support tax compliance with local advisors, including VAT, GST, SST, corporate tax and withholding tax filings. - Maintain a compliance calendar for every entity and ensure all regulatory and filing deadlines are met. **Finance Automation & Systems**- Identify manual accounting processes and automate them using ERP features, workflow tools, Excel/Google Sheets automation, scripts or low-code platforms. - Build standardised templates, reconciliations and reporting packs that work consistently across all entities. - Work across major accounting platforms (e.g., Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Zoho Books, SAP, Sage, Yardi, MRI) and keep the chart of accounts and data consistent between them. - Support system implementations, migrations and integrations between accounting and banking platforms. - Strengthen internal controls, documentation and SOPs so that every process is auditable and easy to hand over. **Stakeholder Management**- Work with stakeholders across India, the UK, the US, Malaysia and other geographies, managing time zones and priorities effectively. - Partner with the real estate investment team, property managers, administrators, banks, auditors and tax advisors. - Provide the Finance Director and senior leadership with timely financial insight, variance analysis and reporting. - Respond to investor, auditor and regulator queries promptly and accurately. ### Job Specification: - Qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAI, ICAEW, ACCA or equivalent). - 4–8 years of post-qualification experience, including at least 3 years in real estate accounting. - Proven experience accounting for SPVs or multi-entity structures across more than one jurisdiction, ideally including the US, UK or Malaysia. - Hands-on experience across at least two major accounting platforms. - Strong working knowledge of IFRS, US GAAP and UK GAAP, including lease and property accounting. - A track record of automating at least one recurring accounting or reporting process. Desirable:- Experience with real estate accounting systems. - Experience in a real estate fund, property investment, fintech or Big 4 / mid-tier audit environment. - Familiarity with automation tools (e.g., Power Query, Google Apps Script, Python, n8n, Zapier) and working with APIs. - Familiarity with reporting and BI tools (e.g., Power BI, Looker Studio, Metabase). - Understanding of Islamic finance or Shariah-compliant real estate investment structures. Key Skills- Real Estate Accounting: property and lease accounting, capex, fair value, rental income, investor capital and distributions. - Multi-Entity Reporting: SPV accounting, intercompany, consolidation, multi-currency, statutory accounts and audits. - Systems & Automation: major accounting platforms, advanced Excel/Google Sheets, automated reconciliations and reporting. - Compliance: local GAAP and tax requirements across the US, UK, Malaysia and other jurisdictions. Skills & Attributes:- High attention to detail and strong ownership of accuracy, controls and deadlines. - A builder’s mindset: you instinctively ask “how can this be automated?” and enjoy turning manual processes into scalable systems. - Clear written and spoken communication, able to explain financial matters to non-finance stakeholders. - Self-driven and organised, able to manage multiple entities and priorities with minimal supervision. - Comfortable working across cultures and time zones, with flexibility for occasional overlap with UK and US hours. - Passion for ethical finance and alignment with Wahed’s mission of building a riba-free financial ecosystem.