Job Description

Attracting the best

We have an incredible opportunity to join us here at Standard Life, as a Financial Accountant to join our Financial Reporting team

Who are we?

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.

The role

We’re recruiting for a financial accountant to join our Financial Reporting team, with responsibility for delivering high‑quality monthly management information (MI) and quarterly statutory and regulatory reporting. The role focuses on the review and analysis of financial results, ensuring key drivers and variances are clearly understood and communicated to stakeholders. You will contribute to maintaining a strong control and governance environment, working closely with internal teams and outsourced providers to ensure accurate reporting, effective oversight and compliance with regulatory, reputational and commercial requirements. The position also involves active participation in finance projects and continuous improvement initiatives across the wider finance function.

Key Responsibilities

• Financial reporting delivery: responsible for preparation, review and analysis of statutory and regulatory financial results, ensuring outputs are accurate, timely and aligned with internal and external requirements.
• Insight and communication: provide clear, well‑structured written and verbal explanations of financial performance, highlighting key drivers, trends and variances for senior stakeholders.
• Control and governance oversight: maintain a strong control environment across outsourced and internal processes, ensuring risks are identified, monitored and appropriately addressed.
• Continuous improvement: evaluate existing reporting and control processes, propose enhancements, and support the implementation of more efficient and effective ways of working.
• Audit support: coordinate internal and external audit activities, ensuring high‑quality documentation, timely responses and strong audit outcomes.
• Cross‑team collaboration: work closely with teams across the wider group, including outsourced accounting providers, to ensure consistency, alignment and effective information flow.
• Project involvement: support and represent the reporting team on finance and business projects, shaping requirements, assessing impacts and ensuring business readiness for process or system changes.
• Knowledge sharing: support training and capability development within the finance team to embed new processes, systems and best practices.

What We’re Looking For

• Qualified accountant (ACCA, ACA, CIMA or equivalent) with strong technical grounding.
• Post‑qualification experience: ideally 2+ years in financial reporting, audit, insurance or another regulated environment.
• Analytical capability: ability to interpret complex data, identify anomalies and articulate the underlying drivers of financial outcomes.
• Professional curiosity: a proactive approach to understanding results, investigating issues and seeking clarity.
• Strong communication skills: able to present complex information in a clear, concise and structured manner to both finance and non‑finance stakeholders.
• Stakeholder engagement: comfortable working with multiple teams, including outsourced providers, and influencing outcomes through collaboration.

We want to hire the whole version of you.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and safe at work and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Everyone is valued at Standard Life regardless of age, gender identity, neurodiversity, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or anything else. Whether it’s joining one of our internal employee networks, being an ally, taking positive action or simply being there to listen, everyone at Standard Life is valued and respected.

If you need any help or adjustments to the recruitment process due to health, disability or anything else, please let us know so we can help you to be the best version of yourself.

Key Job competencies

• Stakeholder Management
• Delivering Results
• Communications & Influencing
• Commerciality
• Analytical skills

We value diversity in our workforce and welcome enquiries from everyone.

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