Head of Financial Reporting

A fast-growing, private equity-backed, multi-entity services group (t/o £250m) is seeking a Head of Financial Reporting to join its finance team. This is a technically demanding and senior position within a complex and evolving organisation. Operating nationally across a substantial site portfolio, the business continues to expand through organic growth and acquisition and is strengthening its central finance capability accordingly.

This is a senior leadership role responsible for statutory reporting integrity, external audit delivery and financial control oversight across the Group. Reporting to the Head of Finance, the role will take full ownership of several concurrent audits and act as the primary contact for external auditors and other advisers.

This is a high-profile position offering exposure to acquisitions, potential future exit processes, wider M&A activity and corporate finance initiatives within a group structure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the preparation, review and finalisation of statutory financial statements across multiple legal entities under UK GAAP
• Own all technical accounting matters, including complex judgements, estimates and disclosures
• Draft and review detailed technical accounting papers to support key positions
• Maintain and develop Group accounting policies, ensuring consistent application across entities
• Monitor new accounting standards and assess their impact on the Group
• Take full ownership of several external audits from planning through to completion
• Act as primary point of contact for auditors, managing technical queries and judgemental areas
• Lead audit status meetings and manage delivery timelines to minimise disruption to the wider finance team
• Proactively resolve audit findings and implement effective remediation plans
• Own the financial control framework over statutory reporting and close processes
• Design, document and test key financial controls, supporting strong governance
• Lead responses to audit control findings and ensure timely resolution
• Act as finance lead in engagement with external tax advisers, reviewing corporation tax, deferred tax and statutory disclosures
• Support acquisition accounting, group structuring and other technical advisory matters
• Provide authoritative technical guidance to senior finance stakeholders and review work across the wider team

The successful candidate will be a fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or equivalent) with post-qualified experience. Ideally, you will have trained within an audit firm. You will have a strong track record in statutory reporting and audit delivery within a complex, multi-entity environment and demonstrable experience managing multiple audits simultaneously.

You will possess deep technical knowledge of UK GAAP and be comfortable drafting and defending complex accounting judgements. The successful candidate will be confident and credible when dealing with auditors, calm under pressure, highly organised and rigorous in their approach to financial control. Prior exposure to acquisition accounting or experience transitioning from practice into a technical industry role would be advantageous.

If you are a technically strong financial reporting leader looking for a high-impact role within a growing and acquisitive organisation, please apply or get in touch for a confidential discussion.