Senior Financial Accountant

NBC Universal, Inc.; Camden Town; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A global media and entertainment company seeks a Senior Financial Accountant to provide operational and financial support across teams. The role includes managing month-end closure processes, ensuring compliance, and reporting. Ideal candidates are qualified accountants with strong analytical skills and experience in consumer products or FMCG sectors.

Qualifications

• Experience in Consumer Products, Retail, or FMCG business.
• Ability to navigate and troubleshoot system issues.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks under tight deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Account for month-end/quarter-end close process.
• Manage relationship with Accenture for outsourced activities.
• Support FP&A processes and reporting for Annual Budget and Quarterly Forecast.

Skills

Qualified Accountant or equivalent international qualification

Strong excel skills, including financial budget modelling

Detail oriented with strong financial reporting skills

Strong analytical skills

Excellent technical and systems skills

Budgeting and reporting experience

Strong organizational skills

Strong team player

Education

Qualified Accountant

Tools

Excel

Micro Strategy

Job description

The Senior Financial Accountant, is an integral member of Universal Products & Experience, responsible for providing operational and financial support to the Universal Products & Experience EMEA team across all teams (category, retail & marketing, etc). The primary focus will be accounting & business operations, reporting and to support both regional and country teams. The qualified candidate must be able to multi-task and balance priorities on competing initiatives and be used to working within a matrix organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Account for month-end / quarter-end close process, including the following:
  • Key contact for OpCo finance teams on Controllership related queries
  • Management of the Monthly/Quarterly Account Reconciliation process
  • Monitor compliance and effectiveness of accounting policies and procedures
  • Manage the relationship with Accenture on a day-to-day basis to ensure all outsourced activities are being performed as agreed
  • Aligning / Standardising applicable UP&E processes to already established international businesses
  • Ensuring data integrity, working closely with IT to stabilise and further enhance system controls, processes and procedures, and by being an SAP Super User
  • Manage key financial reporting projects with respect to UP&E international operations, including: International Compliance Filings, International Entity Creation/Dissolution, International tax matters, etc.
  • Work closely with Global UP&E Finance (LA); International Corporate Finance (London), including Int'l Tax; and other Int'l Business Units (e.g. UPI , UPHE , UNI ) to determine, execute on, and maintain a legal entity structure for all of UP&E Int'l's operations
  • Work closely with the Int'l O&TS teams to deliver proactive support to enable business growth - in particular office space, facilities services, IT infrastructure/equipment, applications, and support
  • Act as a "project manager" for other support functions - e.g. Legal, HR, Creative, Marketing - to deliver smooth agent transitions, and efficient and well-controlled business operations that enable business growth
  • Assess financial reporting processes outsourced to third party service providers (O2C, P2P, R2R), provide recommendations regarding process optimization, implement optimized processes.
  • Advise and support the Global UP&E Finance team with closing procedures to ensure accurate books and records
  • Own Overheads planning and actualization process, partnering with in market Finance Directors to develop accurate assumptions in overheads spend, and performing variance analyses to ensure spend within budget.
• Ad-Hoc responsibilities:
  • Assist with FP&A processes and reporting to deliver the Annual Budget and Quarterly Forecast.
  • Assist with the preparation of the overall forecast / close / budget review presentations within defined deadlines - at Country/Hub, Line of Business and Regional Level
  • Help to deliver the Quarter Close process, reviewing key P&L movements (revenue and costs) and interpret financial impact (i.e. latest True Ups and Non Accruables and ensuring Guarantee Shortfalls are fully reconciled and understood)
  • Support all centralized standard reporting to both finance and commercial stakeholders
  • Assist the Finance Manager to ensure EMEA consolidation is correctly reflected in all systems (Revenue, Costs and Overheads)
  • Assist with the preparation and accurate reporting of the Line of Business, Country/Hub and Regional P&Ls, providing commercial context, variance analysis and assist with any reconciliation requirements
  • Lead and support on ad hoc projects, as requested

Skills & Experience

• Qualified Accountant or equivalent international qualification
• Commercial awareness and curiosity together with experience in a Consumer Products and/or Retail/Online and/or FMCG business
• Highly numerate with strong excel skills, including financial budget modelling, pivot tables and experience of working with complex data
• Detail oriented with strong financial reporting and analysis presentation skills.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability quickly to grasp the "big picture" and exhibit judgment in drawing conclusions and solving problems.
• Excellent technical and systems skills (including development of reporting templates etc.)
• Budgeting and reporting experience, including reporting systems, preferable with exposure to Micro Strategy
• Acumen to navigate and troubleshoot system issues providing solid recommendations and workarounds where needed
• Strong organizational skills and ability to successfully manage multiple tasks simultaneously, working under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Strong team player with an ability to operate in a collaborative & flexible manner across multiple functions in a matrixed environment to achieve goals
• Sense of humour, with a commercial, pragmatic outlook

UP&E is committed to fostering equitable and inclusive environments that honor the experiences, perspectives, and uniqueness of each colleague.

At UP&E EMEA, we are proud of our unique culture. We are inclusive, curious and creative; channeling a growth mindset in order to drive the commercial and develop our people. In order to achieve this culture, we live by our 3 values: Being Human Matters to Us, Together We Can Achieve Anything.