Project Financial Controller

Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.

We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022.

Job purpose

The Project Financial Controller plays a key role in tracking, analyzing, and supporting the delivery of strong project margins across a range of customer projects within our technology and engineering consultancy.

Working closely with Technical Project Managers, this role ensures margin performance is accurately monitored and clearly reported to enable informed decision-making and alignment with strategic targets.

The Project Financial Controller contributes to the wider transformation of internal Project Control processes, with a particular focus on reporting automation and improved operational insight.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Monitor and report on project margin performance against defined half-yearly targets, identifying risks and opportunities.
• Partner with Technical Project Managers to ensure margin-impacting factors (revenue, costs, financial progress) are tracked and understood.
• Analyse movements in project margins and provide narrative and recommendations to improve financial outcomes.
• Lead or support the automation of project margin reporting using tools such as Power BI, Excel, and Power Query.
• Develop clear and insightful dashboards and reporting outputs to support operational and leadership-level decision-making.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of project control processes, with a focus on simplification, consistency, and transparency.
• Become a key user of the internal project management tool used to calculate and present margin performance.
• Provide ad-hoc support to project teams and leadership in relation to margin analysis, performance tracking, and reporting.

Requirements:
• Experience in project financials, ideally within a technology, engineering, or consultancy environment.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret financial data and communicate insights clearly to non-finance stakeholders.
• Experience supporting or driving process improvement and standardization initiatives.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel; working knowledge of Power BI and Power Query is highly desirable.
• Comfortable working with financial data related to project revenues, costs, and margins.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with technical teams and collaborate across functions.
• Part-qualified or studying towards a financial qualification (e.g., ACA, CIMA, ACCA) is a plus but not essential.

This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

Benefits:
Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience.
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society.
• Strong, inspiring and thought-provoking leadership.
• A supportive and collaborative environment.

As well as this, we offer:

• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme.
• Social – Breakfast Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month as well as commitment to charitable causes.
• Time off 25 days a year.
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution.
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary.
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included).
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included).