Financial Accountant

Would you like to work with the UK’s only national emergency service that has a variety of contracts and commercial arrangements with the associated complex accounting treatments for our helicopter and aviation services?

Do you want to be a subject matter expert providing technical accounting advice/guidance and apply your professional judgement to future business strategies in line with International Financial Reporting Standards and the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), in support of our business and operational colleagues?

Are you experienced in external financial reporting processes including the production of Annual Report and Accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and being the main point of liaison with our External Auditors?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking a Financial Accountant to join the Corporate Services, Finance and Analysis area. The MCA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, providing multiple statutory functions as flag, port and coastal State and delivering international obligations for search and rescue, environmental protection and responding to major maritime incidents. The Finance function is a key enabler for the Agency to ensure we can deliver against this remit, managing an annual budget of c. £500m.

As part of the Directorate of Finance and Analysis within Corporate Services, the Financial Accounting team is responsible for preparing external financial reporting for the Agency and ensuring robust processes are in place to give assurance on the quality of the numbers.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Department for Transport Careers

As the Financial Accountant you will report to the Head of Financial Accounting and will be responsible for the external financial reporting processes for the Agency including the production of the Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) and Department for Transport consolidation packs, working with finance colleagues and auditors to agree accounting treatments as necessary.

You will play a key role in balance sheet accounting and contributes towards the yearly budgeting cycle but also has a key input into the medium-term financial planning and any Spending Reviews.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Ensuring Finance processes are compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements and the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM).
• Producing financial statements, notes and narrative in line with IFRS and FReM requirements, and present to stakeholders.
• Supporting continuous improvement and transform financial systems and data, to meet stakeholder needs.
• Producing quarterly consolidation packs for submission to DfT colleagues, ensuring returns are consist with internal reporting.
• Working closely with diverse stakeholders, across the audit period, ensuring progression of annual reports and accounts in agreed timescales.
• Supporting stakeholders with technical accounting advice and guidance and support business managers in complex situations, contributing to future business strategies.
• Ensuring Non-Current Assets are correctly recognised, componentised and reported, and interpretation of impact to financial reserves and government accounting.
• Ensuring any technical accounting adjustments are accurately assessed with supporting information to underpin management decisions
• Ensuring the Agency’s leasing arrangements are correctly accounted for in line with IFRS16 Leases requirement

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

A qualified and active member of a CCAB professional accountancy body (ACCA, CIPFA, ICAEW, ICAS, CIMA or equivalent); or Part qualified and currently studying at the final/professional level of a CCAB professional accountancy qualification (e.g. ACCA Strategic Professional, CIMA Strategic Level or equivalent).

You will be required to provide evidence that you hold any essential qualifications/licenses at some point during the recruitment process. If you cannot provide evidence, your application will be withdrawn.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (1000-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:
• Relevant experience in a financial accounting or financial control role
• Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills
• Highly proficient with Excel and able to deal with large datasets, including creating financial models, with a strong ability to analyse the outputs, using this analysis to inform decision making and advise management if required.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead Success Profile element, Experience - Relevant experience in a financial accounting or financial control role. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Should we receive a high volume of quality applications, we may invite a shortlist of the highest scoring candidates to interview. This means that some applications that meet the required standard could be placed ‘on hold’ after the sift and invited to interview if the vacant position(s) remain unfilled. You will be notified if your application is being put ‘on hold’ once the sift has been completed. Following interviews, any applicants remaining on hold will be notified by the panel of the next steps regarding their application.

Please note: the sift will be completed on a rolling basis whilst the campaign is still live, so you may receive your sift scores before the advert closing date.

The sift will take place week commencing 14/09/26

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Experience
• Technical – (Government Finance Function - The Career Framework)

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess your Experience and Communicating and Influencing. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place week commencing 21/09/26

This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.