Senior Accountant - Financial Reconciliations

We are looking for a qualified accountant to join our Financial Reconciliations team.  You will have experience of reconciliation processes and controls, along with strong accounting and finance knowledge.   

You must have the ability to work autonomously whilst also being able to utilise your strong relationship building and communication skills to engage and influence the team and wider stakeholders across the Society.  

You will have the ability to understand and improve reconciliation processes, with both efficiency and controls at the forefront. You will have the ability to assess risks applicable to our reconciliations and think about the controls needed to manage those risks. 

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, at our Swindon office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

A key role in achieving the team strategy

As the Senior Accountant in the Financial Reconciliations team, you will be a key member of the leadership team, helping to shape the future strategy as well playing an instrumental role in pursuing the team’s current strategic objectives. You will be an advocate of the strategy to the wider team, and you will help mentor the team leads to improve knowledge and expertise.  There may also be a requirement to manage a small team, who will support you in these objectives.

Provide accounting knowledge and guidance

This is a critical role for reconciliations, providing accounting advice and knowledge across a large operational team to support the daily and month end processes.  You will provide your accounting expertise and knowledge to help us accurately account for the transactions within our reconciliations.  You will also lead our monthly process to analyse, discuss and report outstanding reconciliation items, and you will be instrumental in the production and presentation of our regular management information packs to senior stakeholders.  You will lead stakeholder engagement for the resolution of more complex issues.  You will also be the central point of contact to resolve control and auditor queries.

Analyse the current suite of reconciliations and implement improvements

You will be responsible for working with the Financial Reconciliations team to understand and critically analyse the reconciliations, considering efficiency, controls, functionality and integrity to the general ledger.

Once a reconciliation is understood, you will be responsible for generating improvement ideas, obtaining feedback from stakeholders, and then working with the reconciler to implement the change in a controlled and effective manner, whilst ensuring all new procedures are documented and understood.  You will also initially support the new processes in production.

During the process you will be in regular contact with management, discussing ideas and providing regular updates.

Support wider Financial Reporting initiatives and priorities

You will be part of the wider Financial Reporting sub-community and you’ll be expected to support various initiatives and priorities. Financial reconciliations are currently impacted by a large number of IT projects in the Society, and you will need to use your knowledge and expertise to support the team through all phases of the project life cycles.

About you

• You will have experience of reconciliation processes and controls, along with strong accounting and finance knowledge.   
• You must have the ability to work autonomously whilst also being able to utilise your strong relationship building and communication skills to engage and influence the team and wider stakeholders across the Society.  
• You will have the ability to understand and improve reconciliation processes, with both efficiency and controls at the forefront.
• You will have the ability to assess risks applicable to our reconciliations and think about the controls needed to manage those risks. 

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• Gympass – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up to date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

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