Financial Accountant

Job Description

Anglo American Marketing transports, markets and sells the products that move the world towards a more sustainable future.

We seek to sustainably maximise cash flows from the marketing of Anglo American products and services and have set ourselves an ambition to deliver a considerable uplift in Value.

The Finance team empowers the business to achieve its ambition. We aim to provide analysis that shapes strategy and drives better decision making, while providing an independent viewpoint that ensures the business continues to operate in the interests of all its stakeholders.

Purpose

The Financial Reporting team strives to be Marketing's centre of excellence for efficient and effective Record to Report (RTR) processes while driving optimization on processes & implementing robust controls to capture accurate business and financial information in accordance and within the framework of accounting policies across all commodities in Marketing entities.

Reporting to the Team Lead – Financial Reporting, the Financial Accountant works with stakeholders across the Metal businesses to design, implement and optimise the processes and systems to ensure that people have access to accurate business and financial information as and when they need it. As such, this role needs to work closely with the Information Management department to employ technology to automate activities and evaluate its effectiveness.

The Financial Accountant also supports the Team Lead in delivering the full spectrum of financial closing and reporting activities under the Record to Report (RTR) workstream in accordance with Group Policies and relevant Accounting Standards and ensuring controls are operating effectively. This may involve working closely with Finance Services Team to identify any daily operational activities in the trading system that may impact month-end closing activities in the accounting and consolidation systems, assess the reporting impact and intervening where necessary.

From time to time, the Financial Accountant also interacts closely with Global Shared Services, Treasury, Risk, Group Finance and Tax to provide stewardship over complex accounting processes such as revenue recognition and fair value of financial instruments, inventories valuation and classification of commodity contracts and help to oversee the production of monthly commentary and analysis to Group Finance and Production Units within agreed timelines.

At key reporting periods, this role is responsible for supporting the timely delivery of all regulatory reporting requirements to auditors, tax agent and company secretary.

Key Responsibilities include

Drive efficient and effective Finance operations

• The Financial Accountant drives the engine room of the Finance function, understands the inter-linkages between Invoice to Pay (ITP), Invoice to Cash (ITC) and Record to Report (RTR) workstreams, identifies and resolves any anomalies and ensures all transactions are appropriately recorded in an effective manner within agreed timelines. 
• Works within the framework of our financial controls and accounting policies, and engages closely with Finance Operations – Services, Risk, Group Shared Services and other stakeholders to formulate, implement and perform robust controls and ensure documentation of key Finance processes. This must be in line with UK ICFR requirements.
• Designs and optimises process to communicate transaction information across to various stakeholders, ensuring adherence to workflow controls and eliminating manual intervention.

Deliver on-demand information

• The role plays a key role in ensuring data integrity and making information available for on-demand to support commercial decisions and new business initiatives. It works closely with Business Partnering and other stakeholders to design and implement the technical accounting logic to align data streams with business activities from financial and performance reporting perspectives while managing the systems and processes to capture and deliver them as efficiently and accurately as possible.
• Responsible for completion of reporting monthly results in an accurate, compliant and timely manner which includes coordination and collection of information from all relevant sources in delivering Monthly Financial Statements, Board papers and other regular information as required by the Marketing Business, Production Business Units or Group.
• Drafts accounting papers to support new business initiatives in conjunction with the financial control team.
• Anticipates information required to maximise business value and socialise accounting treatment and design process to capture expanded data streams that enable new analysis and insight.

Technology transformation

• Working closely with IM, the role looks to implement technologies that improve control, increase information available for the business and automate transactional activity as much as possible, freeing up the team to add value elsewhere. To think differently about the work Finance does and how it gets done, including the elimination of manual journals and reconciliation as a cost to quality.
• As we implement new systems, the role needs to establish appropriate processes for defining user needs and managing UAT for the Finance function, ensuring that accounting logic and financial controls are appropriately captured.

Project and Continuous improvement

• Creates a culture that actively looks to improve workflows and processes, minimising control weaknesses while increasing speed and accuracy.
• Optimise links between Aspect, Veslink, SAP, Blackline, Hyperion Financial Management, and other systems to ensure information is readily available.
• Design and improve processes around the systems to streamline efforts required to input and extract data.
• Drive standardization and automation of processes via continuous improvements.

Leadership

• As we look to create the future of finance, the Financial Accountant needs to guide the Junior Accountants, identifying the skills they need and helping them develop.
• Takes full ownership of the existing financial accounting processes and control environment which sit within the roles scope and remit whilst proactively engaging and leading on learning and process improvement initiatives.
• Lead and provide oversight for the Analysts to ensure their responsibilities are delivered to a high quality.

Qualifications

• Excellent academic credentials in Accountancy and other business-related degree.
• Solid business and financial acumen (through business training such as CFA, or similar).
• Familiar with process improvement methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma
• Excellent Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint skills.

Specific Knowledge requirements:

• Strong knowledge of Finance Operations ITP/ITC/RTR process flow and internal controls
• Strong understanding of how IT solutions can enable business processes, and able to communicate business requirements clearly to IT
• Prior SME experience in managing improvement projects independently
• Working knowledge of Accounting, Consolidation and CTRM systems such as SAP S4/Hana, Blackline, HFM and Aspect preferred.
• Experience within Metals commodities industry, with marketing, trading and logistics and trading knowledge is preferred.
• Ability to identify how the business generates value.

Additional Information

Who We Are
We aim to lead the industry by pursuing ever safer ways of working, demonstrating integrity and showing care and respect for people and the planet. That means we are constantly seeking new opportunities to mine and process our products sustainably, using less water, less energy and more precise extraction technologies. Our extraordinary teams work safely and collaboratively, with the utmost consideration for local communities, our customers and the world at large.

What We Offer
When you join Anglo American, you can expect to enjoy a competitive salary and benefits package. But more than this, you’ll find yourself in an environment where the opportunities for learning and growth are second to none. From technical training to leadership programmes, we bring out the best in our people. There are plenty of opportunities to move onwards and upwards too. We’re a large, successful multinational company – and we’re still growing all the time.

How We Are Committed To Your Safety
Nothing is more important to us than ensuring you return home safely after a day’s work. To make that happen, we have the most rigorous safety standards in the industry. Not only that, we’re also continually investing in new technologies that are helping to make mining safer.

Inclusion and Diversity
We are committed to promoting an inclusive and diverse workplace where we value and respect every colleague for who they are. We provide equality of opportunity to enable everyone to fulfil their potential.

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