Financial Reporting and Change Manager

Canada Life; Watford; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Canada Life in Watford is seeking a Financial Reporting and Change Manager to own ledger governance and accounting architecture, ensuring accurate reflection of transactions and robust controls within the general ledger and sub-ledger infrastructure.

The role will bridge commercial activity, technical accounting standards and operational finance delivery, leading a small team and coordinating with Finance, Actuarial, Technology, Change, Operations and Risk functions.

Qualifications

• Experience governing general ledger structures and accounting architecture.
• Strong knowledge of IFRS 17, IFRS 9, IFRS 15 and UK GAAP.
• Ability to translate complex transactions into compliant accounting treatments.
• Proven track record leading accounting change programmes.

Responsibilities

• Own the operational integrity of the general ledger and accounting infrastructure.
• Ensure postings, journals and ledger movements are complete and supported.
• Maintain end-to-end accounting flows from source to reporting outputs.
• Establish and maintain robust controls over ledger postings and period-end activities.
• Lead accounting policy and architecture changes and mapping logic across finance systems.
• Collaborate with Technology, Data, Actuarial and Change teams to reflect accounting requirements in systems.

Skills

Ledger governance

IFRS knowledge

Accounting architecture

Data quality improvement

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Job description

The Financial Reporting and Change Manager is the organisation's subject matter expert for ledger integrity, accounting architecture, and the operational implementation of complex accounting requirements. The role is responsible for ensuring that accounting transactions are accurately reflected within the general ledger and associated sub-ledger infrastructure, maintaining a robust control framework over accounting entries, reporting outputs, chart of account structures and accounting data flows.

Operating within a highly complex finance environment characterised by multiple data feeds, and evolving accounting requirements and IFRS 17 infrastructure, the role holder will act as the bridge between commercial activity, technical accounting standards and operational finance delivery.

The role holder will:

• Own the integrity and governance of the general ledger structure and accounting architecture.
• Ensure accounting entries accurately reflect underlying commercial transactions and comply with applicable accounting standards.
• Contribute to technical accounting papers
• Lead the development and maintenance of accounting rule frameworks
• Drive optimisation of financial reporting, data quality and accounting processes
• Manage and develop a small specialist team
• Influence stakeholders across Finance, Actuarial, Technology, Change, Operations and Risk functions.
• Lead the operational implementation of accounting change through complex finance and reporting infrastructure.

What You’ll Do

Ledger Governance & Accounting Control

• Own the operational integrity of the general ledger and associated accounting infrastructure.
• Ensure all accounting postings, journals and ledger movements are complete, accurate and supported by appropriate accounting rationale.
• Maintain oversight of end-to-end accounting flows from source systems through sub-ledgers into statutory and management reporting outputs.
• Establish and maintain robust controls over ledger postings, adjustments and period-end activities.
• Drive continuous improvement in ledger governance, control effectiveness and accounting transparency and ledger reporting.

Accounting Architecture & Taxonomy Ownership

• Own and govern finance taxonomies including:
• Chart of Accounts
• Profit Centres
• Cost Centres
• Units of Account
• Financial Dimensions
• Reporting Hierarchies
• Assess impacts of organisational, regulatory and business changes on accounting structures.
• Ensure accounting architecture remains scalable, controlled and aligned with reporting requirements.
• Define and implement accounting rules and mapping logic across finance systems.

Technical Accounting & Accounting Policy

• Translate complex commercial transactions into compliant accounting treatments under IFRS and other reporting frameworks.
• Lead technical accounting assessments for new business initiatives, products, transactions and strategic projects.
• Lead the preparation and review of technical accounting papers, accounting opinions and audit support documentation.
• Provide subject matter expertise on accounting standards including IFRS 17, IFRS 9, IFRS 15 and UK GAAP where applicable.
• Obtain stakeholder and audit buy-in for proposed accounting treatments.

Finance Change & Operational Implementation

• Lead the operational implementation of accounting policy and reporting changes.
• Work closely with Technology, Data, Actuarial and Change teams to ensure accounting requirements are accurately reflected within systems and processes.
• Define business requirements for ledger, reporting and accounting rule changes.
• Support testing, implementation and post-deployment validation of finance change initiatives.
• Act as the accounting lead for complex finance transformation programmes.
• Ensure accounting impacts are fully understood across upstream and downstream systems.

Reporting Optimisation & Data Quality

• Enhance reporting outputs generated from the ledger and associated finance systems.
• Improve transparency, drill-down capability and analytical reporting.
• Identify and remediate data quality, reconciliation and data lineage issues.
• Develop sustainable solutions to improve reliability of financial and management information.
• Support the evolution of automated and efficient reporting capabilities.