Main Accountant

Laing O'Rourke; Aldringham; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

An international engineering firm is seeking a Main Accountant to join the Sizewell C Project. The role involves overseeing financial operations, ensuring compliance, and supporting a high-performing finance team. Candidates should have strong communication skills and experience with financial systems like SAP. This is a significant opportunity to influence a major infrastructure project in the UK.

Qualifications

• Confident in both spoken and written English.
• Comfortable working across diverse teams.
• Well-organized and dependable, meeting strict timelines.
• Experience managing people/direct reports.

Responsibilities

• Lead monthly close activities ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
• Manage subcontractor financials, including valuations and payments.
• Oversee tax compliance and manage accounting operations related to Brexit.
• Support audit readiness and improve accounting procedures.
• Drive process consistency and maintain financial controls.

Skills

Strong communication skills

Collaborative mindset

Deadline-driven

ERP experience

Tools

SAP

Job description

Overview

Main Accountant — Location: Ipswich Project Office / Sizewell C Project Site. Join the exciting journey of one of the UK's largest nuclear projects at Sizewell C!

The Civil Works Alliance (CWA) is seeking a capable and experienced Main Accountant to support the Head of Accounting and help oversee core financial operations.

In this role, you will act as deputy to the Head of Accounting, with direct responsibility for supervising the Accounts Payable and General Ledger teams. Your focus will be on maintaining strong financial controls, supporting timely and accurate reporting, and ensuring the smooth day-to-day functioning of the accounting team.

A key part of your responsibility will be to help build and sustain a reliable, high-performing, and service-oriented finance function—supporting both CWA and the broader Civil Works Programme (CWP).

If you\'re looking to step into a role with responsibility, visibility, and the opportunity to influence how finance supports a major infrastructure programme, this position offers a meaningful next step.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead monthly close activities including account reviews, manual accruals, income adjustments, balance sheet revaluations, bank reconciliations, and partner reporting—ensuring accuracy and timeliness across the board.
• Manage subcontractor financials, from reviewing and posting monthly valuations to coordinating payments and validating monthly accruals.
• Oversee tax compliance, including VAT and CIS returns, and manage accounting operations related to Brexit (e.g., import duties, postponed VAT). Ensure correct application of the Domestic Reverse Charge for new subcontractors and suppliers.
• Support audit readiness, coordinating both internal audits with the client and external audits with partners, while maintaining an up-to-date asset register and continuously improving accounting procedures.
• Contribute to a high-performing finance team by driving process consistency, maintaining strong financial controls, and supporting the Head of Accounting as deputy.

What skills & experience are we looking for?

• Strong communication skills – Confident in both spoken and written English, with the ability to clearly convey financial information to a wide range of stakeholders.
• Collaborative mindset – Comfortable working across diverse teams, including Production, Commercial, Finance, and Cost Control, building trusted relationships to support project success.
• Deadline-driven – Well-organised and dependable, with a commitment to meeting strict reporting timelines.
• ERP experience – Previous experience with SAP or similar systems is a strong advantage. Experience of managing people / direct reports

Why SZC?

This is your chance to contribute to one of the UK's most ambitious infrastructure projects, shaping the future of energy while working in a supportive, dynamic environment. Be part of a team that values innovation, safety, and sustainability at every stage of the journey—from investment to construction and beyond.

About Laing O\'Rourke

We are an international engineering and construction company delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure and buildings projects for clients in the UK, Middle East and Australia.

Certainty, reliability, quality – this is what our clients want. And at Laing O\'Rourke, we have more than 150 years of experience delivering it. Laing O\'Rourke\'s story is one of energy, passion, ambition, people and teamwork. We harness the power of our experience, stretching back over a century and a half to deliver certainty for our clients.

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we would like to enable access to candidates with long term health conditions and disabilities through the ‘Offer an interview scheme'. This supports applicants that meet the essential criteria by offering an interview for the advertised position. Please let us know prior to interview what adjustments are required as well as discussing how we can support you in the workplace.

We want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible to all. If you need the application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please email [e-mail]

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