Project Accountant

Job Title – Project Accountant

Job Location – Brighton, UK

Our Brighton business is moving to a new location in 2027. The new site is expected to be located in either Shoreham, Burgess Hill or Horsham and will be within a 15-minute drive of our current site.

Job ID – 44385

About this opportunity and L3Harris UK

Operating at 11 sites in the United Kingdom, L3Harris supports Britain's mission to secure and strengthen the country by delivering sovereign innovation across the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains.

L3Harris in Brighton are part of our Release Systems & Antennas division operating in the Aerospace domain. For over 70 years, L3Harris has designed and developed industry-leading carriage and release systems for fighter, rotary-wing and unmanned platforms and we design, manufacture and test a large portion of our release systems portfolio in our Brighton facility which offers 48,500 square feet of manufacturing space. Our mission-critical release systems equipment is on most major airborne fighter platforms worldwide, including the F-35, along with other aircraft like the Gripen and Typhoon.

Please note, our Brighton business is moving to a new location in 2027. The new site is expected to be located in either Shoreham, Burgess Hill or Horsham and will be within a 15-minute drive of our current site.

A few of our employee benefits are:

• Hybrid working where possible, three days onsite per week upon successful probationary period.
• Half day finish on a Friday
• 25 days holiday per year (plus bank holidays), increasing with long service and with the opportunity to buy/sell up to 5 days
• Private medical insurance with optional family cover
• Pension scheme of up to 8% employer contribution
• Life Assurance 4x salary (flexible up to 10x)
• Group income protection
• Flexible opt-in extras such as a health care cash plan, dental insurance, gym membership, critical illness cover, cycle to work scheme, travel insurance and electric car scheme
• Employee Family Assistance Program providing mental health and wellbeing support
• Professional membership reimbursement (discretionary)

What the role will involve

The responsibilities of your role will include the following:

• Receiving cost inputs from multiple functions (Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Contracts / Subcontracts) and ensuring they are captured accurately in the Basis of Estimate (BoE) tool.
• Take ownership of Basis of Estimate tool maintenance and development.
• Attend cost and price reviews with senior management and take ownership of all financial data being presented.
• Support the business in defining and regularly reviewing labour and material rate structures, analysis of overheads and application at project level.
• Project planning including preparation and control of a detailed project plan, associated work package management and monthly cost analysis.
• Prepare and analyse monthly project financial reports and support the Program Managers in reporting to senior management.
• Ensure consistent project reporting, data collection and analysis across the defined projects.
• Support the preparation and submission of budgets and forecasts.
• Understand risk identification and registers.  Be involved in collating risk assessments and assist in risk management and mitigation.
• Support financial audits with internal, external, and customer auditors as required.
• Provide support and cover to the existing finance team.
• Other projects and reporting as identified.

What you’ll bring 

The role requires the following experience and skills:

• Degree-qualified in a related discipline, plus a minimum of 5 years' experience operating within a program finance, program accounting, or program financial analyst role.
• Good understanding of financial accounting principles and project financial management, including budgeting, forecasting, revenue recognition, profitability analysis, and cash flow forecasting.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret financial data and provide meaningful insights to support business decision-making.
• Strong Excel skills are essential, with experience using spreadsheets to support financial reporting, forecasting, analysis, and project performance monitoring.
• Ability to work effectively with stakeholders across multiple functions, building strong working relationships with programme, engineering, operations, and leadership teams.
• Well-organised and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Self-motivated and proactive, with a willingness to take ownership of tasks and continuously improve processes and reporting.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the confidence to present financial information to both finance and non-finance stakeholders.
• Experience of Earned Value Management (EVM), project controls, defence, aerospace, or other project-based environments would be advantageous.

Important to know

Due to the nature of our work many our roles require a UK nationality and the ability to obtain a security clearance. Applicants who accept a conditional offer of employment must meet the requirement of right to work in the UK and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information and will be subject to government security checks.

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