Director, Americas & Function Operations

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the annual risk assessment and audit planning process for the Americas region, ensuring alignment with enterprise risk priorities and McCormick's global strategic agenda.
• Lead the execution of financial, operational, compliance, and integrated audits across Americas operations, including manufacturing, supply chain, commercial, and shared service functions.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager with regional business leaders, Finance, Legal, and Compliance stakeholders, fostering trust, transparency, and a risk-aware culture.
• Provide timely, insight-driven audit findings and recommendations that deliver tangible business value and support management in strengthening the control environment.
• Monitor the status of open audit recommendations and management action plans for the region, escalating systemic or high-risk items to the CRAO as appropriate.
• Represent the Americas region in global audit leadership forums, contributing regional perspective to enterprise-wide risk discussions and audit strategy.
• Design, maintain, and continuously improve the Global Risk Management and Audit Methodology, ensuring alignment with the IIA's International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) and other applicable standards.
• Lead the function's Quality Assurance and Improvement Program (QAIP), including internal quality assessments, preparation for external quality assessments, and remediation of improvement opportunities.
• Facilitate the global Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program on behalf of the CRAO — facilitating the enterprise risk identification, assessment, and reporting cycle in partnership with business leaders and the Board's Audit Committee while advancing the programs agenda.
• Collaborate closely with the GRAM leadership team to manage the internal audit technology ecosystem (audit management platform, data analytics tools), driving adoption, optimization, and innovation in how the team leverages technology.
• Oversee audit department policies, procedures, and the Charter, ensuring they remain current, compliant, and fit for purpose.
• Coordinate and manage the function's annual operating plan and budget, resource allocation across global engagements, and staffing/recruiting initiatives.
• Drive the function's talent strategy including performance management, professional development, professional certification support, and succession planning.
• Prepare materials for the Audit Committee and senior leadership, including the quarterly Internal Audit activity report and the annual QAIP results.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field.
• PREFERRED: Advanced degree (MBA, MAcc).
• REQUIRED: CPA, CIA, or CISA certification.
• PREFERRED: Additional risk certifications CRMA, CERM or similar.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in internal audit, external audit, or risk management, with at least 4 years in a leadership capacity.
• DEEP, HANDS-ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE IIA STANDARDS AND THE IPPF; DEMONSTRATED EXPERIENCE DESIGNING AND MANAGING A QAIP.
• PROVEN EXPERIENCE OWNING OR SIGNIFICANTLY CONTRIBUTING TO AN ERM PROGRAM, INCLUDING RISK FRAMEWORK DESIGN, FACILITATION, AND EXECUTIVE REPORTING.
• EXPERIENCE MANAGING CROSS-REGIONAL OR MULTI-COUNTRY AUDIT PROGRAMS, WITH SPECIFIC EXPOSURE TO EMERGING MARKETS WITH REGIONS.
• STRONG TRACK RECORD OF LEADING HIGH-PERFORMING AUDIT TEAMS AND DEVELOPING TALENT AT ALL LEVELS.
• EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNICATION, INFLUENCING, AND EXECUTIVE PRESENCE SKILLS — ABILITY TO PRESENT COMPLEX RISK AND AUDIT TOPICS TO C-SUITE AND BOARD AUDIENCES.
• PROFICIENCY WITH AUDIT MANAGEMENT AND GRC TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS (E.G., OPTRO, WORKIVA, SAP GRC, OR EQUIVALENT).
• LARGE, MULTI-BRAND, GLOBAL, PUBLIC COMPANY EXPERIENCE PREFERRED.
• M&A EXPERIENCE PREFERRED.
• TOTAL UNDERSTANDING OF INTERNAL AUDITING STANDARDS, COSO, SOX, US GAAP AND RISK ASSESSMENT PRACTICES.
• STRATEGIC THINKER WITH ABILITY TO THINK “BIG PICTURE” AND PARTNER ACROSS TEAMS TO DEVELOP AND SUPPORT BEST-IN-CLASS RISK SOLUTIONS TO PROTECT AND DRIVE VALUE.
• STRONG ENTERPRISE MINDSET, FINANCIAL ACUMEN, AND CUSTOMER CENTRICITY TO NAVIGATE COMPLEXITY AND SUPPORT THE BROADER GROWTH ASPIRATIONS OF THE BUSINESS, LEVERAGE STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF DATA TO INFORM BUSINESS DECISIONS.
• EXCELLENT JUDGMENT AND CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS INCLUDING NEGOTIATIONS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS.
• INDIVIDUAL WITH ENTHUSIASM AND INFECTIOUS ENERGY TO ADVANCE NEW IDEAS AND METHODS FOR PROACTIVE, FORWARD-LOOKING RISK FRAMEWORK THAT PRODUCES RESULTS.
• STRONG PROCESS IMPROVEMENT SKILLS AND DEMONSTRATED ABILITY TO INFLUENCE AND OPTIMIZE PROCESSES TO DRIVE BUSINESS SYNERGIES AND PRODUCTIVITY.
• EXCELLENT ORGANIZATIONAL, TIME MANAGEMENT AND PRIORITIZATION SKILLS.
• COMMITMENT TO MAINTAINING A HIGH DEGREE OF DISCRETION AND CONFIDENTIALITY.