Financial Accountant

Overview

Job description

Salary: London: £47,677 or £49,065 (dependent on experience);
Cheltenham: £45,331 or £46,739 (dependent on experience).

Flexible working: due to its sensitive nature this role is office-based and home-working will not be possible. We value a good work-life balance and offer part-time (minimum 4 days), compressed hours, and flexibility around start and finish times. Full time hours are up to 37 hours, depending on location.

Our finance teams keep internal spending on-track, which makes them critical to our work. As a Financial Accountant, you could be working in one of the various teams across our finance function. During the recruitment process, we'll get to know you and assess which area best reflects your strengths and interests.

Financial Analysis

One area you could join is Financial Analysis. This team provides key insights that guide decision-making across the organisation. As a Financial Accountant here, you ll be responsible for key month-end activities and ensuring reports are accurate. You ll keep our financial systems reliable by maintaining strong controls, and you ll use management reports to provide insightful analysis for senior managers.

You ll manage all month-end activity, approve journals, support budget profiling and produce forecasts. You ll explain significant changes in forecasts or actuals where needed, produce management reports and build collaborative relationships with stakeholders, while leading your own small team.

Financial Accounting and Reporting

Or you could join our Financial Accounting and Reporting team. They handle the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions made by the agencies. In this area, you ll interpret data and carry out analysis that gives senior managers the assurance they need, ensuring the right information reaches the right people. You ll gather supporting information in line with accounting standards, query and challenge data, and ensure everything is documented clearly for audit purposes.

You ll analyse monthly balance sheet reconciliations, interpret financial data for the annual report and accounts, complete the NAO disclosure checklist and escalate potential issues when needed. In all you do, you ll always communicate clearly when explaining how data aligns with standards and maintain strong controls to keep information accurate.

Financial Operations

Finally, there s Financial Operations. This team manages accounts payable, accounts receivable, expenses and cash management services. As a Financial Accountant in this team, you ll develop a detailed understanding of financial objectives, transactions and business areas, and you ll bring structure to delivery. You ll also ensure operations can respond to different needs while following standard guidelines and frameworks. You ll promote a culture of excellent customer service, manage internal controls, monitor performance against agreed targets and become a trusted expert in your area.

You ll advise business units on financial processes, support transaction-processing services, assess the impact of changes, maintain the integrity of data in the finance system and oversee audit requests, working closely with clients to spot opportunities for improvement.

There are many different areas in the finance function you could join or explore during your career with us. Find out more about these roles on our Finance careers page.

You'll be part-qualified in ACCA, CIMA or equivalent, with demonstrable experience in a similar role within the public sector. Organised, positive, and eager to learn, you value teamwork, innovation and making an impact. You'll work professionally and collaboratively, enjoy solving problems as part of a team, and you'll be skilled at building strong relationships and negotiating with key stakeholders. All your skills will be underpinned by a passion for finance and aptitude for figures and spreadsheets.

You'll be working towards a CCAB (Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies) or CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification and have some supervisory experience. To be considered part-qualified, you'll…