Accountant

CMA Recruitment Group is working with a major, nationally recognised employer with a large Hampshire operation on the appointment of a Finance Operations Accountant, in on a 12 month fixed term contract.

This is one of the better places in the county to spend a year. It's a substantial organisation, an accredited Best Company to work for, and rated 4.3 out of 5 by its own employees on Glassdoor - around 20% above the average for its sector. We've placed a number of finance professionals here over the years and the feedback has been consistently strong on culture, flexibility and how people are treated.

The role itself is broad and genuinely technical rather than transactional. It sits within the Finance Operations team, reporting to the Senior Accountants and working alongside the Business Partners and FP&A team, with line responsibility for a small team of Assistant Accountants. Alongside the core accounting cycle there is a real mandate to improve how things are done, so it will suit someone who wants to leave the process in better shape than they found it - and who wants the systems and automation side of their CV to look stronger in twelve months' time.

What will the Finance Operations Accountant role involve?

• Owning period end close, P&L preparation and balance sheet reconciliations across multiple business areas
• Feeding into budgeting and forecasting, investigating variances and trends and presenting the findings to the Senior Accountants
• Fixed assets, external funding, cross company transactions, external bid work and billing
• Statutory and regulatory compliance across UK and overseas entities, plus supporting audit requirements
• Drafting technical accounting material, researching and applying the relevant standards to live situations as they arise
• Line management, coaching and mentoring across circa three Assistant Accountants
• Leading continuous improvement work — identifying and delivering automation, standardisation and digital improvement across the team's processes

Suitable Candidate for the Finance Operations Accountant vacancy:

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with a number of years post qualified experience
• Strong general accounting and period end background, ideally gained in a larger or multi entity environment
• Confident researching and applying accounting standards independently
• Experience of SAP or a comparable ERP alongside strong Excel; exposure to Power BI, Power Automate, Copilot, VBA or Python would be a real advantage
• Someone who takes ownership of a task list and self-allocates work rather than waiting to be directed
• Collaborative by nature, and motivated to develop less experienced colleagues around them

Additional benefits and information for the role of Finance Operations Accountant:

• Salary dependent on experience
• Employer pension contributions of up to 18%, against a 9% employee contribution
• 26 days' annual leave plus bank holidays.
• 35 hour working week with genuine flexibility over start and finish times — if you need a couple of hours out of your day, you make the time up later rather than booking leave
• Hybrid working
• Medical and dental cash plans
• 8x life assurance and 75% income protection
• Voluntary benefits scheme and retail discounts

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