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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Intangible Asset Analyst

💰 $ - $

FinanceAccountingValuationIntangible Assets

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking an Intangible Asset Analyst — a finance and accounting specialist responsible for the accounting, valuation, reporting, and lifecycle management of intangible assets including goodwill, acquired technologies, trademarks, customer relationships, software, and licenses. The Intangible Asset Analyst supports month-end close, impairment testing under ASC 350/IAS 36/IAS 38, purchase price allocations (PPA) for acquisitions (ASC 805), maintenance of capitalization policies, audit and SEC filing support, and cross-functional collaboration with legal, tax, M&A and product teams. This role requires strong accounting and valuation technical skills, advanced Excel and modeling ability, working knowledge of ERP and financial consolidation systems, and the ability to communicate complex technical conclusions clearly to stakeholders and auditors.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Staff Accountant specializing in fixed assets or general ledger accounting
  • Financial Reporting Analyst with exposure to SEC reporting or GAAP/IFRS technical accounting
  • Valuation Associate from a valuation/advisory firm or corporate finance group

Advancement To:

  • Senior Intangible Asset Analyst / Technical Accounting Lead
  • Manager, Accounting Policy & Technical Accounting
  • Director of Financial Reporting or Head of Intangible Assets & Valuation
  • Corporate Controller or VP Finance (for broader finance track)

Lateral Moves:

  • Valuation Advisory or Transaction Services (PPA and due diligence)
  • M&A Integration or Corporate Development
  • Tax accounting for intangible assets and R&D capitalization

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead and execute quantitative impairment testing for goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles in accordance with ASC 350, IAS 36 and local GAAP: design valuation approaches, build discounted cash flow (DCF) models, perform sensitivity analyses, document conclusions and provide clear disclosure language for financial statements.
  • Manage purchase price allocation (PPA) projects for business combinations under ASC 805: identify acquired assets and liabilities, coordinate with valuation specialists, allocate consideration to tangible and intangible assets, and prepare required journal entries and supporting schedules.
  • Perform periodic amortization and reclassification calculations for finite-lived intangibles; maintain amortization schedules, post accurate month-end journal entries, and reconcile intangible asset sub-ledgers to the general ledger.
  • Evaluate potential indicators of impairment (macro and company-specific), complete qualitative (Step 0) assessments where applicable, and escalate to quantitative testing as required, documenting conclusions per internal policy and audit requirements.
  • Build and maintain robust valuation models (DCF, relief-from-royalty, multi-period excess earnings method, comparables) for trademarks, customer relationships, software, technology, licenses and other acquired intangibles; ensure model assumptions are supportable and auditable.
  • Support the capitalization assessment for internally developed software and R&D: interpret development stage criteria, analyze costs for capitalization vs. expense, maintain workpapers and track project-level capitalization.
  • Prepare technical accounting memos and position papers on complex intangible asset matters, including policy interpretations, GAAP/IFRS differences, and impact assessments for proposed transactions or business changes.
  • Own the preparation of disclosure schedules and narrative for external financial statements and SEC filings related to intangible assets, goodwill rollforwards, impairment losses and acquisition accounting.
  • Coordinate with external valuation advisors, auditors and tax teams: manage scope, provide data and documentation, reconcile differences in valuation conclusions, and implement auditor feedback into final reporting.
  • Lead or participate in due diligence for acquisitions and divestitures: analyze target intangible assets, assess valuation and impairment risk, identify contract or IP issues, and quantify potential purchase accounting adjustments.
  • Implement and continuously improve internal controls (SOX) related to intangible asset accounting, including segregation of duties, approval workflows for capitalization, automated reconciliations and control testing documentation.
  • Maintain the intangible asset registry and fixed asset system configurations (e.g., SAP, Oracle EBS, Workday, OneStream): ensure accurate asset metadata, life assignments, cost basis, and retirement processing.
  • Reconcile intangible asset subsidiary ledgers to the general ledger monthly and provide variance explanations, drivers analysis, and corrective actions for audit trails.
  • Create and deliver management reporting and KPIs related to intangible assets: amortization expense trends, impairment risk heatmaps, PPA impact on future earnings, and capitalization rates for internal decision-making.
  • Prepare and post complex journal entries associated with acquisitions, write-offs, impairments, reclassifications, foreign currency translations and disposals; ensure appropriate account coding and narrative.
  • Provide technical and transaction support to corporate development, legal and product teams: review contract terms that drive capitalization (e.g., licensing, royalty agreements), advise on accounting implications and help negotiate financially material terms.
  • Drive standardization and automation of valuation processes and reporting using tools such as Excel with VBA, Power BI, Alteryx, or proprietary ERP/consolidation platforms to reduce manual effort and strengthen auditability.
  • Train and mentor junior accountants and analysts on intangible asset accounting processes, systems, and best practices; create process documentation and playbooks that can be used across the finance organization.
  • Respond to internal and external auditor inquiries: prepare schedules, provide reconciliations and testing evidence, and implement remediation items identified during audits related to intangible assets and goodwill.
  • Lead periodic policy reviews and updates for capitalization thresholds, useful lives, impairment indicators, and valuation methodologies to ensure compliance with evolving accounting standards and regulator expectations.
  • Support tax teams by providing tax basis calculations and book-to-tax adjustments for amortization and capitalization of intangible assets, and assist with ASC 740 and related tax disclosures when needed.
  • Participate in cross-functional projects such as ERP implementations, OneStream/BlackLine rollouts or chart of accounts redesigns to ensure intangible asset accounting requirements are embedded and tested properly.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Demonstrated expertise in intangible asset accounting under US GAAP (ASC 350, ASC 805) and familiarity with IFRS (IAS 38 / IAS 36) — able to apply standards to real-world transactions and disclosures.
  • Advanced valuation modeling skills: discounted cash flow (DCF), relief-from-royalty, multi-period excess earnings method (MPEEM), market and income approaches commonly used for intangible valuation.
  • Strong technical accounting and financial reporting skills for acquisition accounting, PPAs, amortization, impairment testing, and presentation/disclosure drafting for financial statements and SEC filings.
  • Proficient in advanced Excel (models, pivot tables, Index/Match, array formulas) and experience automating tasks using VBA, Power Query, or similar tools.
  • Experience with financial systems and consolidation tools (e.g., SAP Fixed Assets, Oracle EBS, Workday, OneStream, Hyperion, BlackLine) for maintaining asset ledgers and generating reconciliations.
  • Solid experience preparing audit-ready workpapers, supporting external valuations, and managing auditor engagements.
  • Familiarity with tax implications of intangible assets and ability to provide book-to-tax adjustments and support for tax accounting teams.
  • Ability to analyze contracts, licensing agreements, R&D project records and legal documents to identify capitalization drivers and accounting implications.
  • Competence in Microsoft Power BI, Tableau or similar tooling for management reporting and visualization of intangible asset datasets.
  • Experience with SQL or data extraction tools (Alteryx, Power Query) to pull, transform, and validate large datasets for valuation and reconciliation work.
  • Knowledge of SOX internal control frameworks, control design, testing, remediation and documentation as it applies to fixed/intangible assets.
  • Prior exposure to M&A process and transaction diligence including target asset identification, valuation inputs and negotiation of accounting-related terms.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication: translate complex accounting/valuation results into clear executive summaries and disclosures for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strong analytical and critical thinking: identify root causes, challenge assumptions, and propose defensible estimates and remedial actions.
  • Meticulous attention to detail and high standards for documentation to meet audit and regulatory scrutiny.
  • Project management skills: manage multiple concurrent PPAs, impairment cycles and ad-hoc requests with tight deadlines.
  • Collaborative mindset: work cross-functionally with Legal, Tax, IT, Corporate Development and Business Unit leaders.
  • Resilient and adaptable in fast-paced M&A-driven environments and during ERP or process transformation projects.
  • Ability to mentor junior staff and build effective, high-performing teams focused on continuous improvement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a closely related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Finance, Accounting, or an MBA; or a relevant valuation certificate.
  • Professional accounting qualification such as CPA, ACCA, or equivalent.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Economics
  • Valuation / Financial Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of progressive experience in accounting, financial reporting, valuation or transaction services with a focus on intangible assets, purchase price allocations, and impairment testing.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of direct experience performing PPA assignments, impairment testing, and technical accounting within a corporate finance or Big Four/valuation advisory environment.
  • Experience supporting SEC filings, external audits, and complex cross-border acquisition accounting.
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