R&D Financial Analyst

Join Sumer Ni’s growing Innovation Tax team and play a key role in helping innovative businesses access valuable R&D Tax incentives. As part of a collaborative and highly experienced team, you will support clients across a diverse range of industries by preparing the financial aspects of R&D tax relief claims, contributing to work that helps businesses invest in innovation and growth.

Department: Corporate Tax

Location: Belfast

Key Responsibilities:

• Collating financial information from client companies, including payroll reports, general ledger data, purchase ledger reports, invoices, contractor schedules and project cost records.
• Preparing R&D claim cost schedules across relevant expenditure categories, including staff costs, externally provided workers, subcontractors where applicable, consumables, software, cloud computing and data costs.
• Reconciling claim figures to the client company’s accounting records, including management accounts, payroll records, nominal ledger and Corporation Tax schedules.
• Supporting apportionment calculations where costs relate partly to qualifying R&D activities and partly to non-qualifying activities.
• Documenting assumptions, methodologies and evidence used to support the financial values included in each claim.
• Identifying gaps, inconsistencies or unsupported costs in client data and raising queries with R&D Managers or client finance teams.
• Supporting the preparation of financial inputs for the R&D additional information form and claim reports.
• Maintaining clear working papers and evidence packs to support internal review and potential HMRC enquiry responses.
• Working across multiple client files, ensuring claim costings are accurate, consistent and completed within agreed deadlines.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise:

• Proven experience in finance, accounting, audit, tax, R&D tax support or financial analysis.
• Strong Excel skills, including reconciliations, pivot tables, data analysis and structured working papers.
• Ability to interpret payroll, ledger, invoice and project cost data.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to identify anomalies in financial information.
• Understanding of R&D Tax Relief qualifying cost categories, or the ability to develop this knowledge quickly.
• Ability to work with internal R&D Managers and client finance teams.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple deadlines.
• Clear written communication for documenting assumptions, queries and claim methodologies.
• Awareness of the importance of evidence, audit trails and HMRC compliance in R&D claims.
• Proactive and inquisitive approach, with the confidence to question and challenge financial data.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work with incomplete or ambiguous information.
• Ability to communicate financial concepts clearly to non-specialist stakeholders.

Belong @ Sumer:

At Sumer, we know everyone’s journey is different. That’s why we’re committed to fairness, removing barriers, and giving people the support they need to do their best work. If you need any support during the hiring process, just let us know. Our values represent what matters most to us and guide how we work every day:

• We Shine Together
• We Do the Right Thing
• We Make It Count

We know diverse teams make us stronger. That’s why we’re creating an inclusive workplace where everyone belongs and differences are valued and celebrated.