Staff Accountant

Founded in 1898 and headquartered in Chicago, IL, GATX Corporation (NYSE: GATX) is an industry leader with 125+ years of success—success that is powered by our people. We are proud of our high-performance culture, hard-working and enthusiastic management team, and beautiful office space in the Willis Tower.

At GATX, we hire the best and offer our employees a dynamic, energetic, collaborative environment to enable them to make an impact from day one. Enjoy the perks and benefits of a global company with the close-knit culture and community of a much smaller one. In the same way we strive to empower our customers to propel the world forward, we are dedicated to providing our people with the tools and resources they need to move forward in their careers. And, thanks to our employees, in 2023 we were named one of Chicago’s Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune for the fourth time!

This HYBRID position is responsible for performing general accounting functions for GATX’s Rail North America and Corporate segments.  This includes the accurate and timely recording of transactions, assisting in maintaining the integrity of the general ledger and applicable subledgers and preparation of monthly reporting requirements.

• Ensure monthly activities are recorded in accordance with GATX accounting policies and prepare relevant journal entries for areas including recording and tracking of accrued expenses, work in process (WIP), revenue accruals, and prepaid expenses, amongst others.
• Prepare monthly trend analysis reports
• Assist in the preparation of the monthly and quarterly reporting package by investigating and documenting income statement and balance sheet variances and statement of cash flows.
• Display a knowledge of intercompany processes and effectively ensure all intercompany transactions are appropriately offset
• Prepare quarterly and annual supporting schedules as required for financial reporting department in accordance with 10-Q and 10-K disclosure requirements
• Assist with internal and external audit requests.
• Assist in maintaining an effective control environment by executing controls to ensure compliance with established accounting policies
• Reconcile assigned balance sheet accounts monthly
• Effectively document reconciliations and other supporting schedules to enable reviewers to quickly understand and assess them
• Understand the full end to end process for recording transactions and develop and propose process improvements
• Perform analysis of balance sheet accounts to enable others to understand the nature of transactions and key drivers of activity
• Perform adhoc requests and special projects as requested, such as documentation of business processes, process improvement recommendations

Contacts:

• Financial Reporting
• Tax Department
• Treasury Department
• IT Department
• Legal Department
• Human Resources Department
• External and Internal Auditors 

Typical Decisions:

• Ensure transactions are in compliance with GAAP and/or GATX policy
• Supporting documents are accurate
• Escalation of accounting issues to manager with recommendation solution

Job/Work Environment Characteristics: 

• Deadline pressures, particularly the first week and a half of the month. Also, be expected to work some weekends in January for year-end reporting requirements
• Tasks prioritized to meet deadlines
• Special projects to improve accounting processes
• Ability to communicate with various groups
• Structured with procedures that need to be followed

Qualifications/Requirements:

Education:

Bachelors Degree required

Area of Concentration:

Accounting or Finance

Specific Training, Certifications, and Special Licenses:

CPA or working towards one desired

Type and Amount (# of years) of Experience and Knowledge:

2-4 years of accounting experience

Knowledge:

Solid understanding of basic accounting and associated accounting skills Excel and Microsoft Office products SAP experience

As of March 3, 2025, the salary range for this position is $59,600.00 to $70,000.00. This range is a reasonable estimate and takes into account several factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including, but not limited to, geographic location, skill set, experience, education, training, internal equity, and other business needs. 

This role may be eligible to participate in the Company’s short-term incentive plan, the details of which will be provided to the applicant upon hire.

This posting will remain open until the role is filled.