What will you be doing?

We are looking for Maternity Cover (Fixed Term Contract- 15-18 months) for our Senior Statutory Accountant. You’ll be able to make a positive impact in your community, joining us in our mission to create a sustainable Society, and working alongside a team of passionate people who’ll help you grow.

Central Coop’s Financial Control team plays a critical role in accurately reporting our financial results and working across the business to maintain appropriate financial control standards. We make a difference to our members and customers every day by working towards our Society’s purpose of creating a sustainable Society for all.

The Senior Statutory Accountant role reports to the Head of Financial Control, and forms part of the Financial Control team, with a clear purpose of being a critical friend to the business and ensuring the Society’s financial sustainability by maintaining excellent standards of financial control.

We work together with purpose

As an excellent team player, you’ll be responsible for statutory and regulatory reporting and governance to the wider business, confidently explaining accounting principles in an understandable manner to finance and non-finance professionals. You will prepare the year end Group and Subsidiary financial statements and lead the audit process with an approach of continuous improvement, building a strong relationship with our auditors as the main point of contact throughout the year.

Through keeping your working knowledge of financial standards and regulations current and forward looking, you will ensure that we are reporting to the most recent accounting standards and model impacts of new reporting requirements in advance along with planning across all subsidiaries.

We’re better every day

With a proactive approach, and background in audit practice, you will play a vital role in continuous improvement and best practice within the Society, ensuring the overall accuracy of accounts in line with accounting standards and compliance with statutory reporting requirements.

You will be instrumental in leading the Society through accounting standard changes and reporting these changes to the business.

You will also be a key role in the balance sheet governance process, using a risk-based approach to embed best practice processes.

In this varied role you’ll be involved with the year end audit process, as well as supporting with technical accounting advice within the business on accounting policies.

How will I know if I am right for this role?

This opportunity would suit an experienced Qualified Accountant from an audit practice background with at least 3 years post qualified demonstrable experience, who is skilled in statutory reporting at subsidiary and group accounts level, has lead audit engagements and is experienced in consolidating group accounts.

As a confident communicator, you’ll be excellent at managing stakeholders as well as able to work collaboratively across the whole of our business with colleagues at all levels.

This role would suit someone with excellent analytical skills and a strong attention to detail, who can build rapport across a team and develop those around them.

Experience of the retail or a multi-site industry or a FCA regulated business would be advantageous but is not essential.

What is in it for me?

We are a Society owned by our members. By becoming a colleague, you also become a member and are entitled to a share of our profits and a say in how we are run.

Our colleagues also benefit from:

• Fantastic colleague discount- including a discount of up to 20% on our products.
• Retail discounts- our new hub offers colleagues access to hundreds of exclusive retail discounts, save money on days out and take advantage of holiday discounts.
• Holiday buy- colleagues can buy up to a week extra of annual leave each year to enjoy the things that matter to them outside of work.
• Colleague recognition- we make sure we celebrate our colleague’s achievements both personally and professionally
• Enhanced family friendly policies- we want to help you feel fully supported during any significant life events.
• Paid time for volunteering- we encourage our colleagues to spend three days per year taking part in volunteering, fully paid for by us.
• Give as you earn- as a caring Society, we want to help you support charities which mean something to you.
• Healthcare Cashplan- your wellbeing is important, so you are able contribute to a voluntary plan that helps pay towards a range of healthcare expenses.
• Company Pension- Colleagues can access a company pension scheme with us and receive an employer contribution when they too contribute. We also offer Pension wellbeing information to help you plan for retirement.
• Life Assurance- You’ll get free life assurance cover, that pays your nominated beneficiary if you die while you’re working for us.
• Personalised learning and development- with easy access to a wide range of training programmes

We are the difference makers and understand flexibility makes a difference- we understand a ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work for colleagues when it comes to flexibility and balancing work with home life.

We have introduced new ways of working to support our colleague’s wellbeing and embrace ways of working that work for everyone.

Our hybrid working policy includes daily quiet time that is free of meetings, with an ‘unplugged’ Friday morning and shorter meeting durations for wellbeing breaks in between calls.

We are also trialling “Workflex” across our Support Centre, Funeral and Retail locations which offers colleagues the opportunity to work a compressed 4-day working week, 9-day fortnight or a mix of both.

Who are we?

We’re Central Co-op, a Member-owned and Member-led co-operative Society. We have over 400 sites, 7000 colleagues and £1Bn Revenue.

And with us, you’re not just a colleague, you’re a Member. You’ll own a share of the business.

To find out more about working for us, visit our website www.careers.coop