Financial Reporting and Change Manager in Watford

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies.

We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903.

We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Summary

The Financial Reporting and Change Manager is the organisation's subject matter expert for ledger integrity, accounting architecture, and the operational implementation of complex accounting requirements.

The role is responsible for ensuring that accounting transactions are accurately reflected within the general ledger and associated sub-ledger infrastructure, maintaining a robust control framework over accounting entries, reporting outputs, chart of account structures and accounting data flows.

Operating within a highly complex finance environment characterised by multiple data feeds, and evolving accounting requirements and IFRS 17 infrastructure, the role holder will act as the bridge between commercial activity, technical accounting standards and operational finance delivery.

The role holder will

• Own the integrity and governance of the general ledger structure and accounting architecture.
• Ensure accounting entries accurately reflect underlying commercial transactions and comply with applicable accounting standards.
• Contribute to technical accounting papers
• Lead the development and maintenance of accounting rule frameworks
• Drive optimisation of financial reporting, data quality and accounting processes
• Manage and develop a small specialist team
• Influence stakeholders across Finance, Actuarial, Technology, Change, Operations and Risk functions.
• Lead the operational implementation of accounting change through complex finance and reporting infrastructure.
• What You’ll Do
• Ledger Governance & Accounting Control
• Own the operational integrity of the general ledger and associated accounting infrastructure.
• Ensure all accounting postings, journals and ledger movements are complete, accurate and supported by appropriate accounting rationale.
• Maintain oversight of end-to-end accounting flows from source systems through sub-ledgers into statutory and management reporting outputs.
• Establish and maintain robust controls over ledger postings, adjustments and period-end activities.
• Drive continuous improvement in ledger governance, control effectiveness and accounting transparency and ledger reporting.

• Own and govern finance taxonomies including

• Chart of Accounts
• Units of Account
• Financial Dimensions
• Assess impacts of organisational, regulatory and business changes on accounting structures.
• Ensure accounting architecture remains scalable, controlled and aligned with reporting requirements.
• Define and implement accounting rules and mapping logic across finance systems.
• Technical Accounting & Accounting Policy
• Translate complex commercial transactions into compliant accounting treatments under IFRS and other reporting frameworks.
• Lead technical accounting assessments for new business initiatives, products, transactions and strategic projects.
• Lead the preparation and review of technical accounting papers, accounting opinions and audit support documentation.
• Provide subject matter expertise on accounting standards including IFRS 17, IFRS 9, IFRS 15 and UK GAAP where applicable.
• Obtain stakeholder and audit buy-in for proposed accounting treatments.
• Finance Change & Operational Implementation
• Lead the operational implementation of accounting policy and reporting changes.
• Work closely with Technology, Data, Actuarial and Change teams to ensure accounting requirements are accurately reflected within systems and processes.
• Define business requirements for ledger, reporting and accounting rule changes.
• Support testing, implementation and post-deployment validation of finance change initiatives.
• Act as the accounting lead for complex finance transformation programmes.
• Ensure accounting impacts are fully understood across upstream and downstream systems.
• Enhance reporting outputs generated from the ledger and associated finance systems.
• Improve transparency, drill-down capability and analytical reporting.
• Identify and remediate data quality, reconciliation and data lineage issues.
• Develop sustainable solutions to improve reliability of financial and management information.
• Support the evolution of automated and efficient reporting capabilities.

Who You Are

• Technical Expertise
• Exceptional understanding of double-entry bookkeeping and general ledger operations.
• Deep knowledge of financial accounting and financial control principles.
• Strong technical accounting capability, ideally including IFRS 17 and IFRS 9.
• Experience designing and operating accounting governance and control frameworks.
• Strong understanding of complex finance system landscapes and accounting data flows.
• Ability to trace, interpret and challenge complex accounting transactions through multiple systems.
• Strong problem-solving capability with an aptitude for resolving ambiguous accounting and data issues.
• Ability to understand and improve poor data lineage environments.
• Communication and relationship building
• Strong networking and relationship-building capability.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes.
• Taking Initiative
• Proactively identifies accounting, control and data quality issues and takes ownership of their resolution.
• Challenges existing processes and drives opportunities to improve efficiency, transparency and control effectiveness.
• Independently investigates complex ledger and reconciliation issues, using sound judgement to determine appropriate actions.
• Takes responsibility for delivering work through ambiguity, driving issues to conclusion and escalating risks appropriately.
• Contributes ideas and solutions that support finance transformation, reporting enhancements and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrates personal accountability for delivering high-quality outcomes and meeting deadlines.
• Developing Self and Others
• Ability to develop and motivate a high-performing team.
• Strong coaching and mentoring capability.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through change and ambiguity.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in Financial Accounting, Technical Accounting, Financial Control or Ledger Accounting environments.
• Experience operating within complex finance architectures involving multiple source systems and data feeds.
• Experience producing technical accounting papers and obtaining audit or governance approval.
• Experience implementing accounting change through finance systems and operational processes.
• Experience managing accounting teams and leading cross-functional initiatives.
• Life insurance experience highly desirable and IFRS 17 experience required.

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed.

As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance.

We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us.

We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures.

Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others.

Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward.

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces.

That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us.

We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus.

“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures.

Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.” Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.

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