Financial Controller

Axon Moore Group Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life Insurance

Job summary

Axon Moore Group Ltd is partnering with a Lancashire/London-based life insurance provider to recruit a Financial Controller. The role will build the finance function, own end-to-end financial reporting, and provide insights into key drivers and risks.

The successful candidate will be ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualified with substantial post-qualification experience in life insurance reporting, and will lead cross-functional projects while strengthening controls and governance across the reporting framework.

Qualifications

• Qualified ACA, ACCA or CIMA with post-qualification experience in life insurance reporting.
• Strong IFRS/GAAP knowledge and governance experience.
• Ability to challenge and influence senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of quarterly and annual financial reporting including balance sheet, P&L, reserves.
• Own end-to-end reporting process; ensure accuracy and deadlines.
• Review reconciliations and movement analysis; challenge and sign-off.
• Translate model outputs into financial results with Accounting and Actuarial teams.
• Analyze movements, assumption changes, variances and sensitivities to senior stakeholders.
• Prepare financial commentary, governance papers and disclosures for exec and committee-level forums.
• Own the financial reporting control environment; establish standards around validation and documentation.
• Lead audit activity and responses to regulatory and internal queries.
• Identify opportunities to improve transparency, strengthen controls and reduce reporting cycle times.
• Develop and deliver a reporting improvement roadmap.
• Act as a subject matter expert across financial reporting; set best practice and improve framework.
• Lead cross-functional projects and workstreams within a matrix environment.

Skills

ACA/ACCA/CIMA

Life insurance reporting

Financial reporting

Stakeholder communication

Education

ACA/ACCA/CIMA

Job description

Financial Controller £90,000 to £110,000 plus package 2 days in the office in Lancashire or London (Flexi-time) Life Insurance

Axon Moore is working with a life insurance and pensions provider in Lancashire as they build out their finance capability following recent growth.

This is a strong opportunity for a qualified accountant with life insurance to come in and build their own finance function from scratch.

The role will have responsibility for the production, review and governance of statutory, IFRS and GAAP reporting. You'll be responsible for understanding the numbers behind the results, challenging the outputs and providing meaningful insight into the key drivers, movements, assumptions and emerging risks.
You'll also play a key role in strengthening the reporting and control environment, improving processes and helping shape how the finance function operates going forward.

The role:

• Lead the delivery of quarterly and annual financial reporting, covering the balance sheet, P&L, reserves.
• Own the end-to-end reporting process, ensuring results are accurate, robust, well documented and delivered to agreed deadlines.
• Review reconciliations and movement analysis, providing appropriate challenge and sign-off recommendations.
• Work closely with Accounting and Actuarial teams to translate model outputs into meaningful financial results.
• Analyse and explain key movements, assumption changes, experience variances and sensitivities to senior stakeholders.
• Prepare financial commentary, governance papers and disclosures for executive and committee-level forums.
• Own the financial reporting control environment, establishing appropriate standards around validation, review and documentation.
• Lead audit activity and responses to regulatory and internal queries.
• Identify opportunities to improve transparency, strengthen controls and reduce reporting cycle times.
• Develop and deliver a reporting improvement roadmap.
• Act as a subject matter expert across financial reporting, setting best practice and improving the wider reporting framework.
• Lead cross-functional projects and workstreams within a matrix environment, influencing stakeholders without necessarily having direct line management responsibility.

About you:

• We're looking for someone who combines strong technical knowledge with the confidence to challenge and influence at senior level.
• You'll ideally be a qualified ACA, ACCA, CIMA, with significant post-qualified experience within life insurance reporting.
• You'll have strong technical experience across life insurance valuation and financial reporting.
• You'll also need to be comfortable getting into the detail, reconciling results back to the ledger, challenging assumptions and explaining complex financial and actuarial information to senior non-technical stakeholders.