Role: Commercial Project Accountant - 12 month FTC Location: Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex - Hybrid Role ID: 2025-2669 Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world. The Role The Project Accountant will play a crucial role in supporting the financial aspects and strategic decision making of large programmes. This position requires a detailed orientated professional, with a strong analytical mindset, excellent communication skills, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally. The ideal candidate will have a solid understanding of financial principles, experience in project accounting, financial modelling, and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Key Responsibilities Perform key month-end project accounting and reconciliation tasks. Prepare accurate and timely financial reports on project performance, including forecasts, budgets, and actual results. Conduct variance analysis, highlighting key risks and opportunities to project stakeholders and senior management. Support the development of financial models for project cost and working capital management, and performance tracking. Budgeting, Forecasting & Cost Control Assist in the preparation of project budgets, ensuring alignment with business objectives. Regularly update and maintain rolling forecasts for large projects, adjusting for changing variables and project scope. Monitor and control project costs, identifying cost-saving opportunities and efficiencies. Financial Governance & Compliance Ensure all project financials comply with relevant accounting standards and internal controls. Key Competencies and Experience: Qualified accountant – ACCA, ACA, CIMA, or equivalent, with 10 years PQE. Proven experience as a project accountant, ideally in a commercial or business-focused role. Strong proficiency in financial modelling, data analysis, sensitivity analysis, and reporting, including the creation of charts and tables. Sound understanding of balance sheets, profit & loss statements, and cash flow statements. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other financial analysis tools. Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate complex financial data. Effective communication and collaboration skills, with experience working across cross-functional teams. Strong interpersonal skills, including verbal, written, and formal presentation abilities. Ability to translate complex financial data into clear, concise insights for key stakeholders. Flexible approach, with the ability to manage multiple projects and workstreams. Highly organised, with a structured working style and the ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines. Strong commercial and operational awareness, with the gravitas to engage effectively at all levels. Desirable Competencies and Experience: Experience within a manufacturing or engineering organisation. Previous experience working in a plc environment. Strong technical finance knowledge, including IFRS, combined with operational and commercial expertise. Working here You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable. Work life balance We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential. Benefits We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer. Next steps Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date. Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruitricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process. LI-JT1