Financial Accountant

Overview

Role: Financial Accountant

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Leamington Spa / Shoreham-on-Sea

Role ID: 2026-3431

Ricardo - Pushing Boundaries: A World leader in propulsion engineering from concept to production                                                                

Ricardo is a trusted engineering partner specialising in complex propulsion, driveline, and energy systems. We work with customers globally to deliver end-to-end solutions from initial design through to full production. For over 110 years, we have been at the forefront of world changing engineering innovation, partnering with many of the world’s most ambitious organisations to improve performance, push boundaries, and accelerate progress.Headquartered in Shoreham by Sea (UK), Ricardo brings together more than 1,000 experts and delivers in excess of 200 major programmes globally at any given time. For more information, visit www.ricardo.com 

The Role

We currently seek a Financial Accountant to join our team to ensure accuracy, integrity, and compliance of the company’s financial reporting. The position is responsible for delivering timely statutory and management accounts, maintaining robust financial controls, and supporting audit and regulatory requirements. The role partners with internal and Group stakeholders to provide reliable financial information and drive effective decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Accountable for the delivery of month-end close processes, ensuring financial transactions are accurately recorded, reporting deadlines are met, and outputs are complete, controlled, and audit-ready.
• Responsible for the preparation, review, and posting of journal entries, including accruals, prepayments, provisions, and other adjustments, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and robust supporting documentation.
• Accountable for maintaining the integrity of the general ledger, ensuring all postings, classifications, and adjustments are accurate, complete, and compliant with applicable accounting standards and internal policies.
• Responsible for the preparation and review of balance sheet reconciliations, ensuring all balances are fully substantiated, reconciling items are promptly investigated, and issues are resolved within agreed timelines.
• Responsible for the preparation of management accounts, delivering timely, accurate, and insightful financial information to support effective business decision-making.
• Responsible for monitoring cash positions, foreign exchange exposure, and key financial performance indicators, proactively identifying risks and opportunities.
• Responsible for overseeing working capital performance, including the provision of accurate cash flow reporting and forecasting to support liquidity optimisation and efficient financial management.
• Responsible for delivering group reporting requirements, ensuring adherence to group policies, reporting timetables, and consolidation frameworks.
• Consulted and actively engaged with Group Finance Reporting, Tax, and Treasury functions, ensuring alignment on consolidation requirements, technical accounting matters, and cash management strategies.
• Accountable for coordinating internal and external audit processes, acting as the primary point of contact and ensuring timely and effective resolution of audit queries and findings.
• Responsible for tax and regulatory compliance reporting, ensuring accurate preparation, timely submission, and adherence to all relevant statutory requirements.
• Supports the preparation of statutory financial statements, ensuring compliance with applicable accounting standards and local regulatory obligations.
• Accountable for non-financial reporting and regulatory submissions, including national statistics and other external disclosures (e.g. ONS, insurance questionnaires), ensuring accuracy, completeness, and timeliness.

Key Competencies and Experience                   

• Recognised professional accounting qualification (ACCA, ACA, CIMA, or equivalent).
• Post-qualification experience within an industry environment.
• Up-to-date knowledge of IFRS, with the ability to apply standards in a practical business context.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including the ability to produce concise management reports and develop robust financial models.
• Demonstrated ability to independently identify and implement process and procedural improvements, with minimal supervision.

Desirable

• Solid understanding of disclosure requirements and financial statement presentation, with attention to detail and technical accuracy
• Internal or external audit work experience

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

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