Financial Accountant in Cambridge

About The Role

We’re looking for a Financial Accountant to join our Finance team. This role is central to strengthening how Finance operates across accounting, controls, statutory reporting, audit, payroll, tax-related processes, and financial systems.

This is a hands‑on role for someone who enjoys working with financial data, accounting processes, and control environments, and who takes pride in accuracy, structure, and continuous improvement. You’ll play a key part in ensuring GÉANT’s financial records are complete, reliable, and ready to support reporting, decision‑making, audits, and compliance requirements.

The work is varied and detail-focused. From month‑end and year‑end close activities to statutory reporting, balance sheet reconciliations, payroll processes, audit coordination, and finance system improvements, you’ll be involved in the core accounting backbone of the organisation.

This role suits someone who enjoys taking ownership, improving how things work, and making sure the detail is right.

Financial Accounting, Reporting & Control

You’ll lead and support key month‑end and year‑end accounting activities, ensuring financial information is accurate, complete, and recorded in the correct accounting period. This includes preparing and reviewing accounting entries such as accruals, prepayments, deferred income, accrued income, revenue recognition adjustments, and balance sheet reconciliations.

You’ll help maintain the general ledger, support monthly management accounts, oversee fixed asset records, and ensure documentation is clear, consistent, and audit‑ready.

Your work will include:

• Month‑end and year‑end close activities
• Accruals, prepayments, deferred income, accrued income, and revenue adjustments
• Balance sheet reconciliations and supporting documentation
• General ledger accuracy and financial record integrity
• Fixed asset register maintenance and verification
• Payroll processing across relevant jurisdictions

Audit & Compliance

You’ll act as a key contact for external auditors and help coordinate statutory audit activity. Working closely with colleagues across Finance, you’ll support the preparation of audit schedules, statutory accounts, technical accounting analysis, and supporting documentation.

This is an important part of the role, helping ensure GÉANT remains compliant with relevant accounting standards, statutory requirements, tax regulations, EC rules, and internal control expectations.

Treasury & Cash Management

You’ll support cash management and cash flow forecasting processes, helping ensure bank transactions are recorded accurately and financial information remains up to date.

You’ll monitor bank activity, support payment‑related processes where required, and contribute to the overall accuracy and reliability of cash and treasury records.

Systems & Process Improvement

GÉANT is currently strengthening its accounting environment, with further improvements planned across processes, systems, and controls. This role offers the opportunity to contribute directly to how the Finance function works in the future.

You’ll support finance system development, process automation, reporting improvements, and continuous improvement activities. You’ll also help maintain high‑quality financial data and contribute to better structures, controls, and ways of working across the team.

Organisation & Delivery

This is a detail‑heavy role where you’ll manage multiple priorities across reporting cycles, audits, payroll deadlines, accounting processes, and stakeholder requests. You’ll need to be organised, proactive, and comfortable working across different locations and teams.

The CFO team operates across Cambridge and Amsterdam, so effective collaboration will be important. Regular travel between offices is anticipated while you build relationships, and occasional travel within Europe may also be required.

About You

We're open to candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and sectors. You may not have worked in a role exactly like this before, but you should be able to demonstrate many of the skills, experience and capabilities needed to succeed.

You’ll likely be a qualified, part‑qualified, or qualified‑by‑experience accountant with experience in financial accounting, controls, reporting, and close processes. You should be comfortable working with complex financial information, maintaining accurate records, and supporting statutory reporting and audit activity.

You may be a good fit if you:

• Have experience in financial accounting, controls, statutory reporting, or management reporting
• Are confident managing month‑end and year‑end close processes
• Have strong technical accounting knowledge and sound judgement
• Are comfortable preparing reconciliations, journals, accounting adjustments, and supporting documentation
• Have experience supporting external audits
• Communicate clearly and work well with multiple stakeholders
• Take ownership of your work and are committed to accuracy, control, and continuous improvement

You’ll also be someone who is proactive, collaborative, and practical in how you approach problems. You’ll enjoy improving processes, strengthening controls, and finding effective solutions in a changing Finance environment.

Experience That Could Be Beneficial

The following experience would be beneficial, although none are essential:

• Experience in project or grant accounting, including grant claims
• Experience working in a complex, multi‑currency or multi‑VAT jurisdiction environment
• Broad understanding of the EU VAT environment
• Experience using ERP or finance systems
• Experience contributing to finance system, reporting, automation, or process improvements
• Dutch or another European language
• Exposure to automation, AI, or technology‑enabled finance solutions

We recognise that people build experience in different ways and don't expect candidates to meet every point listed above. If your background aligns with many of these areas and you're excited by the opportunity, we'd love to hear from you.

About Us

Why work for GÉANT? As an organisation at the heart of research and education networking, we offer talented individuals the opportunity to be part of something worthwhile. Thanks to our terabit network, 50 million researchers, scientists, academics and students can share record volumes of data unconstrained by location, solving some of humankind’s biggest challenges. Work at GÉANT and you’ll be supporting critical research into sustainable energy, deep space, high‑energy physics, earth observation, environmental disasters, medicine and much more!

As well as a competitive salary, you’ll receive excellent benefits including a generous holiday allowance, company pension scheme, option for medical insurance, and annual bonus scheme.

• generous holiday allowance
• company pension scheme
• option for medical insurance
• annual bonus scheme

We are keen to help our people to become the best at what they do so you will have plenty of opportunity to develop your skills through training. In addition, at GÉANT you’ll be able to work flexibly after your initial training period is complete, spending at least 3 days in the office each week with the rest of the time spent working remotely. Please note, during month end you will need to be in the office full time. You will need to be physically located in the UK and live within commuting distance of our office in Cambridge.