LOCATION:

Coventry

SALARY:

Competitive

PERMANENT/FIXED:

Permanent

Application Reference Number: 0030

Commercial Accountant

About the role:

UKBIC is the UK’s national manufacturing development facility for the battery sector, providing scale-up, laboratory expertise, module and pack assembly, as well as helping to develop skills to support the industry.

With its Giga-scale equipment and newly installed Flexible Pilot Line, battery technologies can be manufactured from electrode and cell materials through to battery modules and packs, providing the link between prototype scale, university-scale demonstrator lines, and mass production.

The open access facility has numerous world-class capabilities, including a Battery Development Laboratory, a flexible Clean and Dry Zone, cell cyclers, as well as specialist, bespoke training programmes for organisations.

UKBIC is part of the Battery Innovation Programme, an initiative delivered by UK Research and Innovation UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and funded through the Department of Business and Trade.   

We are seeking a hands-on Commercial Accountant to play a key role in delivering accurate financial insight, improving financial processes, and supporting business decisions. The role will provide financial analysis and business partnering support to management, ensuring that commercial decisions are informed, data-driven, and aligned with the company’s strategy. 

Key accountabilities and responsibilities 

• Partner with the leadership team.
• Support in the preparation of the monthly management account, revenue recognition and project costing.
• Provide variance analysis and commentary against budget & actuals
• Maintain balance sheet accounts, accruals and prepayments
• Support with cashflow management, monitor working capital.
• Assist with costing, margin analysis and pricing support for the commercial team.
• Prepare and submit VAT returns and support other statutory compliance
• Contribute to the improvement of financial systems, reporting tools, and processes
• Assist in managing customer profitability and evaluating contract performance.

Required Qualifications, Skills & Experience

Experience Required

• Commercially aware and proactive in identifying improvements and efficiencies
• High attention to detail with the ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Strong communicator who strives to provide finance for ‘non-finance’ colleagues.
• A strong grasp of budgetary control.
• Ability to enforce and manage procedural control and governance. 
• Strong financial analysis experience with a good knowledge of Excel and be confident in creating models and manipulating data from ERP systems.
• Experience managing sales and cost allocation within ERP.

Skills Required

• Part-qualified or qualified ACCA / CIMA / ACA, or equivalent experience
• Previous experience in a management accounting or commercial accounting role, ideally within an SME environment.
• Operationally focused and someone who can take a ‘hands-on’ approach. 
• A good team player who can integrate cross-functionally and develop business relationships. 

Personal attributes

Essential

• An individual with a customer-first mindset who is easy to do business with and makes people feel special, driven to deliver experiences that are personalised, transparent and dependable.
• An individual who is results-driven with the ability to deliver operational plans in a highly demanding environment.
• An individual with the ability to prioritise their workload.
• A good communicator with the ability to communicate complex ideas.
• An effective team player who supports team members.

Desirable

• Resilient and enthusiastic, an individual able to deliver results under pressure.

Application Reference Number: 0030