Technical Accounting Lead

Kantar Group Limited; London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Technical Accounting Lead to drive financial excellence within a dynamic global organization. This pivotal role involves managing financial reporting, consolidations, and technical accounting guidance, ensuring compliance with IFRS and GAAP standards. The successful candidate will collaborate with stakeholders, oversee audit processes, and lead projects that enhance financial operations. If you're a passionate accountant ready to make a significant impact in a fast-paced environment, this opportunity is tailored for you.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Health insurance

Professional development opportunities

Wellness programs

Employee assistance programs

Qualifications

• Professionally qualified with 10+ years in Group roles.
• Strong technical accounting skills with financial statement preparation.
• Good knowledge of UK & US GAAP and IFRS.

Responsibilities

• Prepare Group year-end and interim financial statements under IFRS.
• Manage external and internal audit processes effectively.
• Ensure compliance with accounting policies and standards.

Skills

IFRS

UK GAAP

US GAAP

OneStream Finance System

Financial Statement Preparation

Excel

PowerPoint

Stakeholder Management

Education

ACA/CIMA or equivalent

Tools

OneStream

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Technical Accounting Lead page is loaded

Technical Accounting Lead

Apply locations London, Grays Inn Road time type Full time posted on Posted Yesterday time left to apply End Date: June 1, 2025 (30 days left to apply) job requisition id R093962

Media help partners understand the changing advertising landscape. Specialising in audience measurement, consumer targeting and in-depth intelligence into paid, owned and earned media, their global coverage and local expertise enable better understanding of media audiences and their relationships with brands.

Kantar Media is a wholly owned but operationally independent part of the Kantar Group.

#LI-KantarMedia

Job Details

As people increasingly move across channels and platforms, Kantar Media’s data and audience measurement, targeting, analytics and advertising intelligence services unlock insights to inform powerful decision-making.

Working with panel and first-party data in over 80 countries, we have the world’s fastest growing cross-media measurement footprint, underpinned by versatility, scale, technology and expertise, to drive long-term business growth for our clients and partners.

Job Title: Group Technical Lead

Location: London, Grays Inn Road

Work pattern: Permanent/Hybrid

About the Company:

Kantar Media is a global leader in media measurement and analytics, operating in over 60 markets with more than 4,500 employees worldwide. The company specializes in providing data and insights across various media platforms, including television, radio, print, digital, and social media, enabling clients to make informed decisions about their content and advertising strategies.

In January 2025, Kantar Media was acquired by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital for approximately $1 billion. This acquisition aims to accelerate Kantar Media's growth and enhance its capabilities in the evolving media landscape. Patrick Béhar, who joined Kantar Media in 2023 from Sky, continues to serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer under the new ownership.

Role Description:
Within the finance function, working for the Group Controller the Group Technical Accountant will be a strong stakeholder manager (both internally around the leadership table and externally with advisors, the new buyers etc).

The role will work closely with the Group Reporting Accountant to ensure management and external reporting are aligned. The successful individual will set up and manage the Accounting Policies and Procedures, the External Reporting process and providing technical accounting guidance. The role will specifically own the legal entity structure in the OneStream system.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Reporting:

• Prepare Group year-end and interim financial statements under IFRS.
• Oversee the preparation of monthly Group reporting to the Board.
• Ensure accurate and timely internal and external financial reporting, including quarterly shareholder reporting and bondholder reporting.
• Ensure all group statutory accounts are prepared filed and manage the audit process for Group statutory financial statements.
• Provide financial information to the Group's banking syndicate, including covenant calculations.

Group Consolidations:

• Support the monthly consolidation process ensuring accurate, efficient, and timely reporting of group results.
• Review Group consolidations for statutory reporting purposes.
• Assist with the preparation of group accounting entries, including holding company accounting. Specific area covered will include equity eliminations, Investment in associates, Pension adjustments, Acquisition / disposal accounting, derivatives disclosure / accounting , Hyper inflation adjustments and group cashflow corrections.

Technical Accounting Guidance:

• Own the Group Accounting Policy manual, ensuring this is up to date and used to drive standardisation of accounting treatment across the Group
• Perform technical accounting analysis including preparing technical accounting papers and oversee regular accounting and reporting updates for the wider Finance team.
• Handle specific accounting areas such as IFRS 13 Fair Value, IAS 38 Intangibles, IAS 36 Impairment of assets, IFRS3 Business Combinations, IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements, IFRS 15 Revenue recognition, IFRS2 Share Based Payments, IFRS 7 & 9, IAS 32 Financial Instruments, derivatives, IAS 28 non-controlling interests accounting, and IFRS 16 Lease accounting.
• Provide ad-hoc technical accounting guidance to the finance team.
• Stay updated with industry trends and accounting regulations specifically FRC guidelines.

Audit Management:

• Manage the external and internal audit processes, ensuring a smooth and effective process.
• Lead discussions with Group auditors on annual financial statements.
• With reporting accountant manage planning and deliverables for the Audit Committee.

Compliance and Controls:

• Ensure compliance with accounting policies and standards.
• Oversee the UK and international control environment through review of finance team input and preparation of control schedules.
• Identify and drive process improvements for Group holding entities.

Project Leadership:

• Lead or support ad hoc Group Finance related projects as required.
• Support the implementation and embedding of OneStream, including new policies, processes, and controls.

M&A and Technical Projects:

• Project manage the technical accounting / group reporting workstream for various projects including acquisitions and disposals.
• Prepare technical accounting papers for management and auditors on transactions, documenting issues clearly and comprehensively.
• Assist in financial due diligence, preparation of closing and opening balance sheets, purchase accounting, transaction cost tracking, post-close account and purchase price adjustment for acquisitions.
• Support accounting integration including systems, policies, procedures, and internal controls.
• Lead and perform key technical accounting research, keeping up to date with changes in IFRS, IFRIC, FRC guidance and audit reform, etc.

Required

• Professionally qualified (ACA/CIMA or equivalent) with at least 10 years of experience in Group roles.
• Strong technical accounting skills with financial statement preparation experience, including cash flow preparation.
• Good knowledge of UK & US GAAP and IFRS, including current and upcoming accounting standards.
• Experience of working with the OneStream finance system.
• Strong Excel, PowerPoint, and accounting system knowledge.
• Excellent planning and organizational skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both written and spoken.
• Ability to collaborate and build relationships across the business.
• Resilient - able to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Approachable, confident, and personable.

This role is ideal for a passionate and experienced accountant looking to take on a leadership position within a dynamic and global organization. If you are ready to make a difference and drive financial excellence, apply now

Our offer

At Kantar we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear, and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver.

We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion, and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that’s out of the ordinary and join us.

We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted, and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and wellbeing is taken into consideration. We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes.

At Kantar, the diversity of our employees provides a richer environment for our employees and broader depth and breadth of thinking for our clients. Kantar is committed to inclusion and diversity; therefore, we welcome applications from all sections of society and do not discriminate because of age, race, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, or any other legally protected characteristics.

Privacy and Legal Statement

PRIVACY DISCLOSURE: Please note that by applying to this opportunity you consent to the personal data you provide to us to be processed and retained by The Kantar Group Limited (“Kantar”). Your details will be kept on our Internal ATS (Applicant Tracking System) for as long as is necessary for the purposes of recruitment, which may include your details being shared with the hiring manager(s) and for consideration for potential future opportunities by Kantar and its affiliate Kantar group companies. For full details of our privacy policy please visit www.kantar.com

Country

United Kingdom

Why join Kantar?

We pride ourselves on understanding people, and what makes us think and act the way we do.

And because we know people, we like to make sure our own people are being looked after as well. Equality of opportunity for everyone is our highest priority and we support our colleagues to work in a way that supports their health and wellbeing. While we encourage teams to spend part of their working week in the office, we understand no one size fits all; our approach is flexible to ensure everybody feels included, accepted, and that we can win together. We’re dedicated to creating an inclusive culture and value the diversity of our people, clients, suppliers and communities, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds and sections of society. Even if you feel like you’re not an exact match, we’d love to receive your application and talk to you about this job or others at Kantar.