Senior Management Accountant - FP&A

Sovereign Housing Association Limited; Basingstoke; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading housing association in Basingstoke is seeking a Senior Management Accountant to oversee financial planning and analysis. You will prepare management accounts, manage budgets, and deliver financial insights to senior management, driving effective decision-making. The ideal candidate is a qualified accountant with strong analytical skills and the ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders. This role offers a hybrid working model, combining office and home working.

Benefits

25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays

Matched pension scheme up to 12%

Private medical insurance options

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in a senior management accounting role.
• Experience with budgeting, forecasting, and management account preparation.
• Effective communicator able to build relationships with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Prepare SNG management accounts in a timely manner.
• Manage the overall budget and forecasting process.
• Deliver robust analysis of actuals and forecast to senior management.

Skills

Budgeting processes and controls

Communication with stakeholders

Variance analysis

Proactive problem-solving

Strong IT skills including MS Excel

Education

Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)

Tools

Agresso Accounting System

Workday

Power BI

Job description

Are you an experienced Management Accountant with experience in FP&A?

We have a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Management Accountant – Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) to join SNG. You'll be based from our office in Basingstoke, combining office and home working in line with our hybrid approach.

SNG is one of the largest housing associations in England. We provide over 85,000 homes and invest in communities across London, the South East, South West and East of England, as well as aiming to create thousands of new affordable homes every year.

The Role

Reporting to our Head of FP&A, you'll ensure timely, accurate and comprehensive delivery of internal financial management accounts to senior management teams, telling the ‘story' of the results across Sovereign Network Group (SNG), giving insight into business performance and helping to drive business decision‑making.

This role is key in linking together operational and financial data across SNG and you'll be instrumental in providing key support to the Head of FP&A to ensure robust delivery of analysis and commentary explaining monthly performance variances against Budgets and Forecasts, highlighting Risks and Opportunities, and supporting the business with reforecasting.

Key responsibilities include:

• Taking the lead to ensure that SNG management accounts are prepared in a timely and accurate manner including variance analysis and commentary tailored for senior management teams
• Responsibility for management and delivery of overall SNG budget and forecasting process, ensuring instructions are clearly understood and deadlines met across the business, resolving issues arising promptly
• Providing challenge on numbers coming from Directorates across the business, working with teams to ensure commentary and associated analytics are concise with focus on key drivers and actionable insights
• Delivering robust analysis of actuals and forecast to senior management, ensuring the ‘story' of the business is conveyed and making recommendations for senior management
• Collaborating with both financial and non-financial staff to ensure the production and delivery of accurate SNG management accounts, forecasts and budgets, along with all financial and non-financial metrics – including FTE, Value for Money, Sector Scorecard and Early Warning reporting
• Being a Reporting Champion, providing a constant critical eye on SNG reporting and analytics to ensure standardised, streamlined and made consistent where possible
• Presenting financial reports to senior management teams and key stakeholders, being able to explain complex financial concepts to non-financial colleagues
• Acting as a trusted partner with SNG's management teams, providing expert advice, opinion and challenge, and deputising for the Head of FP&A as required

What we’re looking for

You’ll be a Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with demonstrable experience in a similar senior management accounting or FP&A role, ideally within a large or complex organisation. Previous experience working for a Housing Association would be advantageous but is not essential. You’ll also:

• Have strong, clear working knowledge of processes and controls surrounding budgeting, forecasting and management account preparation, including detailed report writing and analysis
• Have strong, clear working knowledge of management information report writing and design, including detailed variance analysis
• Be an effective communicator with the ability to build strong relationships with key stakeholders, providing advice and influencing at all levels
• Have experience in presenting financial reports, data and insights clearly and confidently to non-finance stakeholders
• Have a ‘continuous improvement’ mindset, able to demonstrate a proactive approach to problem‑solving
• Be highly numerate with strong IT skills, including MS Word and Excel
• Be able to take a holistic approach, reviewing the business as a whole and joining up information where relevant to ensure appropriate ‘storytelling'
• Work well to deadlines, prioritising workloads effectively and adapt quickly to changing business needs, holding others to account where necessary

Knowledge of Agresso Accounting system, Workday or Power BI would be advantageous but is not essential.

Your Benefits

We have some great benefits at SNG, including:

• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays (with an extra day every year up to 30 days)
• Chance to buy or sell holiday as part of our flexible benefits package
• 3 additional wellbeing days and 2 paid volunteering days
• Generous matched pension scheme up to 12% and Life cover at 4x salary
• Options for private medical insurance, dental insurance and critical illness cover
• Wellbeing discounts, including Gym Memberships and access to a 24/7 virtual GP service

At Sovereign Network Group, we are passionate about inclusion for all and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive. We are committed to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and believe that you can truly be yourself at SNG. Take a look at our careers site to learn more about us and our values.

If you would like the opportunity to make a real impact within our changing and growing organisation, we would love to hear from you!