Finance Operations Senior Accountant

NATS Ltd; Whiteley; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Total reward package

Hybrid home/office working

Job summary

NATS is recruiting a Senior Accountant to join the Finance Operations Management Team in Whiteley on a 14-month fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave.

The successful candidate will oversee period-end close, provide variance analysis, collaborate with FBPs, and lead a small team of around three staff, driving continuous improvement and robust financial controls across multiple areas.

Qualifications

• Professionally qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA/CA) with broad finance experience.
• Demonstrated experience in leading, mentoring, and developing multiple direct reports and fostering a high-performing team.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across functions and levels.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and stakeholders with analytical mindset.

Responsibilities

• Oversee period-end close activities and P&L preparation.
• Budgeting and forecasting collaboration with FBPs.
• Balance sheet reconciliations and asset/funding management.
• Audit support and regulatory compliance across UK and overseas.
• Delegate and develop the Finance Operations Service Team to ensure quality outputs.

Skills

People management

Stakeholder collaboration

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

Technical accounting

Education

Professional accounting qualification (ACA/ACCA/CIMA/CA)

Tools

SAP

Power BI

Excel

SharePoint

Power Automate

VBA

Python

Job description

Closing date - 15th October 2026

Please note – this is a 14-month Fixed Term Contract, covering maternity.

NATS is the UK’s leading air navigation service provider, handling over 2.4 million flights each year. We provide air traffic control services from two control centres and at airports around the UK. We also provide a wide range of commercial products and solutions internationally. Our people are at the heart of our purpose to advance aviation and keep the skies safe.

Purpose of the Role

This role is central to the Finance Operations Management Team, acting as a key liaison between the accounting service team, business partners, and wider stakeholders. You will support continuous improvement initiatives and contribute to leading and shaping a high-performing, collaborative Finance Operations function aligned with our values: We are respectful, one team, courageous and safe.

The Senior Accountant plays a critical role in delivering accurate, timely, and insightful financial information and general accounting services across multiple business areas and/or multiple project or improvement activities.

You will be responsible for overseeing period-end close activities, providing variance and trend analysis, and ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Other duties include:

Team Management: Direct line management of circa three individuals.
You will review key outputs and workload of the Finance Operations Service Team in collaboration with the other Senior Accountants to maintain a high-quality service, equal work distribution, personal growth and continuous improvement within the team.

Continuous Improvement: Identify and drive continuous improvement activities. This includes identification of opportunities for automation, standardisation and digital improvement to increase control, efficiency and service quality within Finance Operations and across the wider finance community. This includes maintaining, reviewing and evidence-ing effective financial controls.

Commercial and Financial Insight: Develop business area knowledge and work with Finance Business Partners (FBPs) to identify, understand, interpret, and interrogate key cost drivers, contracts and financial balances to assess their impact on performance and ensure accurate financial treatments. Act as the primary point of escalation within Finance Operations for FBPs, in relation to performance updates, financial insights, and commentary provided by the Accounting Service Team.

Financial Oversight for assigned business areas, including but not limited to:

• Collaborating with FBPs on budgeting and forecasting
• Period-end close and P&L preparation
• Balance sheet reconciliations
• Fixed assets, external funding, and billing
• Statutory and regulatory compliance (UK and overseas)
• Audit support and external bid work
• Cross-company transactions
• Project work and ad hoc queries

Review & Commentary: Contribute to FP&A outputs, applying business knowledge to deliver meaningful commentary. Delegate low-risk reviews to the Finance Operations Accounting Service Team where appropriate.

Technical Accounting: Work with business area stakeholders to ensure accurate technical accounting decisions and liaise with Group Financial Control for endorsement.

Stakeholder Collaboration: Engage with operational and functional managers to resolve queries and ensure alignment on financial matters.

Query Management: Oversee and support Accountants with incoming queries from business areas, ensuring quality and timely responses are provided.

Delegation & Support: Appropriately delegate tasks to the Finance Operations Service Team and provide hands‑on support where needed.

Policy Compliance: Adhere to all relevant finance and business policies and procedures.

Qualifications: Professionally qualified accountant(e.g., ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CA) with broad finance experience.

People Management: Demonstrated experience in leading, mentoring, and developing multiple direct reports, setting clear objectives, conducting regular performance reviews, and fostering a high-performing, collaborative team culture.

Customer Focus: Demonstrated commitment to delivering excellent service to internal stakeholders including being able to constructively challenge and influence them.

Experience in using technology tools (e.g. SAP, BPC, Excel, AFO, SharePoint, visual task management tools, Copilot, Power BI, Power Automate, VBA, Python) for day-to-day tasks, to solve problems and collaborate across teams. This should be paired with the ability and desire to learn, adopt and maximise the value of these tools.

Change Agility: Open to procedural change, committed to continuous improvement and able to drive change initiatives within the team.

Communication: Strong interpersonal and communication skills; able to collaborate across functions and levels.

Prioritisation: Skilled in managing multiple priorities and stakeholders effectively.

Analytical Thinking: Ability to distil complex data into clear, actionable insights.

Technical Expertise: Deep understanding of financial controls and accounting principles.

Organisational Skills: Highly organised with attention to detail and accuracy.

Resilience: Able to perform under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

Additional Vacancy Information

This position is based at Whiteley, with a mixture of both home and office agile working depending on business needs.

If you share our passion to advance aviation and keep the skies safe – we would like to hear from you whatever your age, sex, race, faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, visible or invisible disability. Individuals that bring different perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds help us be at the forefront of our industry.

We are proud to offer a fantastic total reward package to help you thrive both personally and professionally - for more information on what NATS can offer you please visit - Why NATS? - NATS

All staff at NATS are subject to UK Security Vetting and Clearance (SC) and must maintain valid clearance throughout employment. We are unable to progress applications where an applicant does not meet eligibility requirements for clearance. For further guidance click here Security Clearance - NATS