Accountant

North Yorkshire Council; Harrogate; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government council in Harrogate is seeking a qualified Accountant to support financial management across departments. The role offers hybrid working, with responsibilities including budget setting and strategic planning. Ideal candidates will hold a CIPFA, CIMA, or ACCA qualification, and experience in Local Government is preferred. Benefits include a local government pension scheme and employee discounts.

Benefits

Local government pension scheme

Employee discount benefits

Travel loans

Health support services

Qualifications

• Qualified accountant with a CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent qualification.
• Experience in leading small to medium change projects.
• Local Government experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Support improvement projects across the organization.
• Assist departments in setting accurate service budgets.
• Contribute to strategic financial planning.

Skills

Financial modelling

Scenario analysis

Collaborative teamwork

Change project leadership

Education

CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a qualified Accountant (CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent) to join our highly regarded finance team.

The Role

It’s more than just the bottom line…

As a key enabling service, the recently restructured finance team supports financial management across the whole council, as well as external clients and our council owned companies.

As a qualified accountant you will make a real contribution, stretching your abilities to overcome challenges and benefitting from the resulting opportunities and rewards.

This role offers a varied workload with numerous opportunities to apply and grow your financial expertise, including:

• Supporting improvement projects across the organization
• Assisting departments in setting accurate service budgets
• Contributing to strategic financial planning
• Enhancing commercial effectiveness
• Performing traditional accounting functions such as treasury management and producing statutory accounts

Add to this the satisfaction of contributing to the achievement of great outcomes for our community, using your professional finance skills to help deliver services that make a positive change to people’s lives (very often the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our communities) and it adds up to a rewarding and stimulating role.

The role works on a hybrid basis and your office base will be one of the key NYC locations, whichever is most convenient for you! There will be an expectation to occasionally attend in person meetings in County Hall, Northallerton

The Service

The service comprises a range of professional/technical roles which support a generic flexible structure.

The Finance Team is organised into directorate (or specialist) teams and targeted at higher risk budgets/services/projects. This in turn enables strong working relationships; an in-depth understanding of client finances; and value-added services. Whilst these roles will be initially supporting our Highways, Leisure or Resources and Central services, building knowledge and expertise across our service is key to our success and therefore over time, our flexible structure provides opportunity for job rotation, giving team members the chance to grow their skills and experience whilst building resilience across the whole team.

What you can bring

As the ideal candidate you can bring:

• CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent qualification
• Confidence in financial modelling and scenario analysis to support strategic projects.
• A collaborative approach to working with finance business partners and wider teams.
• A commitment to upholding professional standards and promoting evidence-based decision making.
• The ability to contribute to business cases, commercial ventures, and financial reporting.
• Experienced in leading small to medium change projects

If you have Local Government experience in addition, please highlight in your supporting evidence.

What We Offer

In return for your hard work, we can offer you a friendly, supportive team environment and, in addition to your salary, we offer a range of great benefits to help you financially and make life a bit easier.

These include:

• a local government pension scheme
• salary sacrifice schemes
• employee discount benefits including shopping, supermarkets, gym discounts and more!
• travel loans
• Health Assured – confidential help and support for your wellbeing

The service has embraced modern work practices, enabling colleagues to work from home, or any of our offices across the county. We come together as a team for development, connection and collaboration, otherwise we work where its most productive to do so. You will be provided with technology to enable efficient and effective work, ensuring that you are connected and well supported.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

Contact

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact: Suzanne Truman or Abby Barker

Key Dates:

Closing date: 19th October 2025