Project Management Accountant - Cost Accounting (9 Month FTC)

Salary: £65,000 per annum

Hours: 37.5 per week

Reports to: Head of Finance

Location: Harlow, Essex. Easily commutable from London Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale Station. We offer a free minibus service to/from Harlow Town Train Station as well as free parking and EV charging on site.

Extra Information: Open to conversation on hybrid, flexible and compressed working arrangements. (Here you can mention minimum days in the office, travel requirements, flexible/blended working opportunities, training provided etc)

About the role:

· Our current finance agenda is centred on a major programme of work to build a first rate internal reporting environment, underpinned by a robust and transparent cost allocation methodology.

· This role will be key to this development programme, with responsibility for critical technical cost accounting elements, ensuring that complex programme and overhead costs are accurately allocated and analysed.

· Over the course of this fixed‑term contract, you will join the team on significant finance projects shaping Motability’s strategic reporting capability. These include delivering large‑scale cost accounting analysis for our major grant programmes, designing and embedding cost allocation frameworks, producing high‑quality insights that inform organisational investment decisions and planning.

· You will also play a full part in the team’s varied work covering technical accounting for our investment portfolio, business as usual and ad hoc management accounting tasks.

As our analytics and reporting infrastructure matures, you will play a key role in evaluating impact measures and supporting incremental investment decisions between individual charitable programmes, social investments and financial returns. The role requires strong technical expertise, advanced modelling capability and the confidence to work closely with senior leaders to influence decision‑making

What you will be doing:

Cost Accounting - Major Projects

Over the course of the contract period, the role will focus on significant and rewarding projects which will contribute to the strategic direction of the organisation:

• Deliver large‑scale cost accounting analysis across major grant programmes, providing deep insight into programme performance, cost drivers and value for money.
• Be the technical subject matter expert for cost accounting methodology, validating assumptions for strategic planning.

· Secondarily, technical support to some elements of our Investment Accounting.

Accounting and Performance Management:

· Be part of the development team for a suite of financial performance metrics in line with best practice. This will include cost allocation methodologies and balanced scorecard elements aligned to strategic reporting.

Financial Planning and Analysis

· Support the preparation of financial forecasts and scenario modelling.

· Engage with the Head of Finance and CFO to deliver a shared understanding of future expenditure, including scenario modelling and cost‑based forecasting, providing insight into future expenditure patterns and organisational flexibility.

· Providing high quality financial insights to support the preparation of business cases within the organisation for capital and revenue grant initiatives.

Financial Analysis

· Deliver high quality data analytics and reporting that drive evidence-based decision making to maximise impact and value for money.

· Provide insight into programme performance and cost efficiency to support any shift in operating model, so that Motability maintains clear sight of its impact and value for money.

· Support Motability in maintaining and improving an open and high performing culture focused on beneficiaries and the difference Motability can make for them.

Other:

· To be an active member of the Finance team with an ethos of continuous improvement contributing to the development of process efficiencies.

· This role works closely with senior management across the organisation to provide financial insights. The role includes other tasks as may arise from time to time that are appropriate to the role.

Your experience:

Requirements:
Must haves:

· Recognised CCAB Accountancy qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA).

· In depth understanding of and practical experience in cost accounting and overhead allocation in complex organisations, delivering high‑quality cost analysis at scale

· Some exposure to value for money and impact studies.

· Preparation of financial business cases in competing resource environments.

· Periodic reporting, budget and forecast preparation with variance analysis and commentary.

· Experience, or understanding, of Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Fabric, with the ability to build dashboards, manage certified datasets, and contribute to governed reporting environments.

· Sage 200 accounting package experience.

· Microsoft Excel – advanced level.

· Previous experience of influencing decision making at a senior level through technical expertise.

· A collaborative working style, contributing to a culture of active learning and continuous improvement.

Nice to haves:

· Experience of charity fund accounting, grant accounting and partnerships or joint ventures.

· Experience of Impact measures and reporting.

· Experience of one or more ERP / ERM systems.

Reporting lines and relationships

· Reports to: Senior Management Accountant - Programmes

Key relationships:

· Head of Finance

· CFO

· Investment Accounting Manager, Financial Controller and other members of Finance

· Other Motability directors and heads of departments.

Benefits:
Who are we?

We are building a future where all disabled people have the transport options to make the journeys they choose.

We fund, support, research and innovate so that all disabled people can make the journeys they choose. We oversee the Motability Scheme and provide grants to help people use it, providing access to transport to hundreds of thousands of people a year. We award grants to charities and organisations who provide different types of transport, or work towards making transport accessible. We also carry out ongoing research, in partnership with disabled people and key stakeholders in the industry, to inspire innovations that continue to champion accessible transport for all.

Why choose us?

We want working for the Motability Foundation to be the best career move you’ve ever made. When you join the Motability Foundation you will join a group of people who are supportive, innovative and motivated to improve the lives of our beneficiaries.

We value everyone’s unique qualities and celebrate having a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture where everyone feels safe to be their authentic selves. This is embedded into our values, Collaborative, Respectful and Evolving.

We bring our people together through our People Forum, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Forum, Social Squad and our Wellbeing Champions and our employee Spotlight Awards help us recognise the excellence and dedication of our staff.

We are proud to be recognised as Disability Confident Leader, have attained Platinum Level Award for Investors in People and are members of the Business Disability Forum.

A career with Motability Foundation can offer you so much more than earning potential, we pride ourselves in offering some fantastic benefits. Some of these include:

• 26 days annual leave, plus the option to buy/ sell up to five days.
• One wellbeing day for extra flexibility.
• Pension scheme - Up to 20%, including a 10% non-contributory contribution and matched contributions up to 5%.
• Life Assurance of four times your salary.
• Private healthcare through BUPA for you and your family, along with a Medicash Health Plan.
• Employee assistance programme: GP appointments, eye tests, flu vaccinations, sick pay and free gym and yoga sessions.
• Enhanced Parental Leave, including Adoption Pay.
• Free parking, EV charge points and a minibus service to/from the town centre and train station.
• Fresh fruit, breakfast snacks, and a Dress for Your Day dress code.
• Learning and development opportunities to help you grow.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, and we aim to be an employer of choice for candidates with disabilities.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we have committed to ensuring that disabled people and those with long term health conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential. We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing and when working with us, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.

To help us create an inclusive workplace we are committed to offering to interview every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the job. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances, we may need to limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates.