Accountant

Laing O'Rourke is an international engineering and construction company delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure and buildings projects for clients in the UK, Middle East and Australia.

Laing O'Rourke is seeking to recruit a high calibre Accountant, directly reporting to Dartford based Senior Finance Manager and providing support to our delivery portfolio and wider business unit management team. There will be exposure to the business unit leaders, central finance and commercial & operational staff across the business.

Key Objectives

This role includes the preparation of monthly financial statements, budgets & forecasts; overseeing preparation and accurate reporting of Joint Venture accounts, adhering to regulatory requirements and ensuring LOR's accounting policies and procedures are complied with. Proactive cash management is also a key to performing well in this role.

Key Role Responsibilities

• Preparation of monthly business unit P&Ls, Cash flows and Balance Sheets - including accounting for contract performance and performing variance analysis against budget and forecast. Investigating key variances with the individual project teams and challenging assumptions where necessary.
• Preparation of monthly rolling forecasts, along with quarterly Group submissions and preparation of annual budgets.
• Constant monitoring of project cash flow forecasts, understanding the rationale for significant movements and communicating changes proactively.
• Ensure all monthly controls are performed in a timely manner such as balance sheet reconciliations and review.
• Work closely with Joint Venture finance and commercial teams to accurately report the JV financial statements on a monthly basis. Undertake deep dive reviews of JV financial balances to check that controls are being adhered to and figures are being reported accurately.
• Perform financial reviews / credit checks on prospective employers, JV partners and suppliers, liaising with procurement and commercial to communicate any financial risk and make recommendations.
• Support Infrastructure Portfolio Finance Team in delivering ad-hoc project work (e.g. cash maximisation, efficiency reviews, new accounting standard implementation, IT projects etc).
• Responsible for ensuring that accounting records are prepared and maintained in accordance with statutory obligations and in line with LOR wide policies and principles. Provide maintenance and oversight of financial records for example to ensure costs are recorded in the correct place and new jobs are set up correctly.

Skills

Desirable

• Some experience of reporting to senior management teams
• Commercial awareness and ability to understand long term accounting
• Experience of working across multiple businesses/disciplines
• Strong financial and analytical skills
• Excellent IT skills - particularly Excel and accounting systems and data manipulation
• Business aware and customer focussed

Essential

• Qualified accountant (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or finalist.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills. An ability to communicate effectively at all levels and to build and maintain good working relationships.
• Focused on meeting deadlines with the ability to prioritise workload.
• Candidates must have a record of academic success and a mix of the following personal and professional characteristics:
• Committed, enthusiastic, resilient and collaborative.
• Strong team ethic with a desire to share knowledge.
• Analytical, flexible and creative. Able to research complex issues and solve poorly defined problems in an innovative way with an attention to detail.

Don't match all the criteria? We are open and always happy to hear from people with transferable skill sets and a commitment to learning.

About us:

Laing O'Rourke 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 get in touch.