Interim Senior Management Accountant - grants

Interim Senior Management Accountant – Grants

MLC Partners are recruiting an Interim Senior Management Accountant – Grants for a leading research organisation based in Harpenden.

This is a hands-on interim role providing senior management accounting and grants support across a portfolio of externally funded research projects.

The successful candidate will need previous experience working within a research, charity, university, not-for-profit or other grant-funded environment, with the ability to support both pre- and post-award activity.

Key responsibilities

• Financial management of research grants and funded projects.
• Supporting the full grant lifecycle across pre- and post-award activity.
• Preparing grant budgets, costings and financial models.
• Monitoring expenditure against approved budgets.
• Producing monthly management accounts, forecasts and variance analysis.
• Preparing grant claims, reconciliations and financial reports.
• Ensuring expenditure complies with individual funder requirements.
• Supporting the financial set-up and close-down of grants.
• Identifying and managing financial risks across the grant portfolio.
• Providing clear financial advice to researchers, project leads and budget holders.
• Supporting improvements to financial processes, controls and reporting.

We are looking for somebody with:

• Strong grants accounting experience.
• Previous experience within a research, charity, university or similar grant-funded organisation.
• Experience working across both pre- and post-award finance.
• Strong management accounting, budgeting and forecasting experience.
• Strong technical accounting skills and the ability to work through financial issues independently.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The ability to explain complex financial information to non-finance colleagues.
• A proactive approach and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

A recognised accountancy qualification such as ACA, ACCA or CIMA is preferred.

This role requires three days per week on-site in Harpenden on an initial 3 month contract.