Economics jobs in United Kingdom

Time Type: Full time

Worker Type: Employee

Senior Financial Accountant - Balance Sheet and Control

Permanent

Leeds / Hybrid

At QBE, our purpose is to enable a more resilient future.

We are an international insurer and reinsurer with a local presence in 27 countries

We're excited to announce that due to internal advancement, we are recruiting a Qualified Senior Financial Accountant to join our Balance Sheet and Control team within the Financial Operations department. This is a great opportunity for someone who is looking to excel their finance career in a forward-thinking business.

As a Senior Financial Accountant, you will play a key and leading role in accounting, balance sheet and control activities, ensuring the accuracy and consistency of underlying data and liaising with both external and internal customers to manage expectations and ensure continued process excellence.

• Gaining and maintaining an in depth understanding of the balance sheet through reviewing reconciliations and working with teams across finance to understand accounting entries
• Leading on investigation and resolution of unsupported balance sheet items
• Managing and driving the refinement of process, procedures and systems to continuously improve the efficiency and control across accounting and balance sheet substantiation activities
• Supporting key stakeholders through the delivery of meaningful variance and trend analysis
• Overseeing and mentoring colleagues in the onshore team and in our offshore shared service centre
• Representing Finance Operations and inputting into projects / change programmes, impacting accounting activities, as necessary
• Maintaining strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, including our auditors, to ensure service delivery meets customer expectations
• Working with Senior Finance Managers to set the tone and create a culture of continuous improvement within accounting activities in Finance Operations

In order to thrive in the role of a Senior Financial Accountant here at QBE, we would expect you to have experience in most of the following areas:

• Be a qualified accountant (for example ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with 2+ years PQE and currently in a manager or senior accountant role in industry or practice
• Have an in depth understanding of best-practice accounting (experience in an insurance environment and/or audit is preferred but not essential)
• Be confident building controls into processes and implementing process improvement
• Have a strong awareness of risk mitigation
• Have experience in thoroughly understanding and investigating issues, and driving these to resolution
• Have experience mentoring and developing others
• Have a strong understanding of excel
• Have experience working with accounting software (knowledge of tools such as Oracle Fusion, Blackline is beneficial but not essential)

At QBE, we want our people to feel rewarded and inspired to perform at their best, that’s why we have created “At My Best”. It’s our connection, our way of showing we have your back. We understand that one size doesn’t fit all and that priorities can change depending on your life stage. That is why our blend of wellbeing initiatives and benefits offer flexibility to suit what matters most to you. It’s in the culture of our business, our QBE DNA, to support our people. Everything we do is underpinned by our QBE DNA.

We’re an international insurer that’s building momentum towards realising our vision of becoming the most consistent and innovative risk partner. We can never really predict what’s around the corner, but at QBE we’re asking the right questions to enable a more resilient future – helping those around us build strength and embrace change to their advantage.

QBE aims to build a workplace that is fair and inclusive because we want to attract and retain the best people to do the job, we have adopted flexible working across the company and welcome this conversation (https://qbeeurope.com/careers/flex-qbe/).

With more than 13,000 people working across 27 countries, we’re big enough to make a real impact, but small enough to provide a friendly workplace, where people are down‑to‑earth, passionate, and kind.

To find out more about why you should work for QBE, visit our careers website.

You are more than your work – and QBE is more than a workplace, which is why we provide you with the benefits, support and flexibility to help you concentrate on living your best life personally and professionally. As well as the benefits below we also offer an extensive choice of other options to suit you!

30 days holiday a year with the option to buy up to 2 additional days.

Flexible working -balancing work and life is important so our flexible working opportunities are open to all, this can include part‑time, job share and compressed hours.

Pension – you are automatically enrolled into the QBE pension plan, which entitles you to receive employer contributions of 10% of your basic salary.

Private medical insurance – we fund fully comprehensive private medical cover for you and all the family.

Family friendly policies – we offer 26 weeks leave at full pay regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation or how you become a parent.

Short term remote work abroad -you can request up to 20 days per year to work remotely from certain locations abroad.

Sustainable investing - we believe sustainable integration is important for long term financial, environmental, and social outcomes. Our pension strategy supports our net‑zero goal to achieve year‑on‑year reductions in carbon footprint, by investing more in green businesses than the broader market, so your savings are looking after the planet's future, as well as your own.

Cycle‑to‑Work – benefit from regular exercise whilst making your commute greener and cheaper, select and bike and/or accessories up to the value of £5,000.

To find out more visit our Reward Page

Some of the award’s QBE are proud to have won, been a finalist for, and shortlisted for include:

Insurance Post British Insurance Awards 2025: Winner: Commercial Lines Insurer of the Year, Winner: Reinsurer of the Year - QBE Re, Winner: ESG, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year, Winner: Insurance Personality of the Year - Chris Wallace, Executive Director UK insurance

AXCO Global Insurance Awards 2024 Winner: Network Management of the Year

Insurance Business UK 5‑Star Cyber Awards 2024: QBE rated as a 5‑Star Cyber Insurer

UK IT Industry Awards 2023 Winner: Green Technology Innovation of the Year

You can view all our awards here

For more information on our strategy targets please take a look at our Careers Page

We are striving to create a workplace culture where all our people feel included, and we are committed to building a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities we operate in. We are proud to have partnerships with organisations such as Stonewall and Working Families, and our commitment to the Women in Finance Charter, the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and Race at Work charter helps keep us accountable and transparent. For more information on our strategy targets please take a look at our Careers Page

Here at QBE, we are promoting an accessible workplace for all, which includes supporting candidates to perform at their best during their recruitment process. If you require any accommodations, please make your Talent Acquisition contact aware.

At QBE, we believe that integrating sustainability into our business helps us deliver on our purpose of enabling a more resilient future. Our three key focus areas include fostering an orderly and inclusive transition to a net‑zero economy, enabling a sustainable and resilient workforce, and partnering for growth through innovative, sustainable, and impactful solutions. For further information regarding QBE’s sustainability targets, please visit our Sustainability homepage and read our latest Sustainability Report

What next?

We believe this is our moment – what if it was yours too?

Critical Thinking, Finance Strategy, Financial Data Reporting, Financial Management, Financial Products, Intentional collaboration, Managing performance, Presenting with Impact, Process Improvements, Professional Development, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Leadership, Team Management

QBE is an equal opportunity employer and is required to comply with equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction it operates.