Head of External Reporting

Purpose of the role: The Head of External Reporting leads the external reporting team (3 heads in the UK) which is responsible for the half year and full year financial statements for the consolidated Group, the monthly Group consolidation, and the preparation of the UK and Ireland subsidiary statutory accounts. Delivery is supported by the Group’s offshore Finance Shared Service Centre in India who are responsible for the preparation of the UK and Ireland statutory accounts on behalf of the UK based team, general accounting processes for the Group (including fixed asset accounting, prepayments, the FX run, etc), bank reconciliations, and certain other balance sheet reconciliations.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and motivate the External Reporting team, managing their performance and setting their priorities
• Accountable for the External Reporting team’s preparation of the monthly consolidation for the Group, and the HY and FY financial statements that are externally reported
• Accountable for the UK and Ireland statutory accounts, the day-to-day delivery of which sits in the Finance Shared Service Centre in India
• Day-to-day relationship with the external auditors in respect of the audit of the Group and the UK and Ireland subsidiary financial statements – ensuring they receive the support they require on a timely basis from the team
• Build a close working relationship with other teams within Group Finance, including: the Commercial Accounting and Integrations team (that provides technical accounting support), FP&A (which includes the management reporting team), and the AP/AR team, as well as wider Finance teams in Tax, Treasury, the Finance Shared Service Centre, and finance directors and finance business partners outside of the central finance teams.
• Define key finance standards, including for example fixed asset accounting, subsidiary directorships, accruals, prepayments, manual journals etc – that all finance teams are required to adhere to.
• Responsible for the SAP ERP system from a finance perspective, defining rules and validations within the ERP system.

What we're looking for:

• Chartered accountant (e.g. ICAEW, ICAS)
• Extensive recent experience of preparing consolidated financial statements for a UK listed company (under IFRS), and UK subsidiary financial statements (under FRS 101)
• Experience of working with offshore Finance Shared Service Centres
• Ability to work closely with senior finance colleagues to deliver external reporting and provide guidance as required
• Ability to work closely with the external auditors
• Knowledge of: SAP, BPC, Workiva

What's in it for you?

• A competitive basic salary
• 25 days’ holiday (rising to 27) with the opportunity to buy extra leave
• The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office, volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice
• Company matched pension, life assurance, a cycle2work scheme, 15 weeks’ fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, paternity pay of two weeks...and plenty more
• Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle – from discounts on retail and socialising, to health & wellbeing, travel and technology
• Access to our Employee Network Groups, which represent every strand of diversity and allow colleagues to connect and learn from each other on an open, inclusive platform

We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. As part of our strategic goals, we are focused on accelerating gender and ethnic representation in leadership roles. We warmly encourage applications from women and individuals from Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority backgrounds. We’re an equal opportunity and Disability Confident employer, which means we recruit and develop people based on their merit and passion. We’re committed to providing an inclusive, barrier-free recruitment process and working environment for everyone.