Assistant Financial Accountant

Grade UE06 £34,610 - £39,906 Per Annum

Finance Department / Financial Information, Reporting & Strategy Team (FIRST)

Full Time: 35hrs per week

Open Ended: Permanent Contract

The Opportunity

FIRST are looking for an Assistant Financial Accountant to work within busy financial accounting team.

The successful candidate must have previous experience with a similar role in a management or financial accounting team, actively participating in month-end and year-end processes.

The postholder will be supporting financial accountants in period close processes and will be responsible for set of balance sheet reconciliations, including bank reconciliations and reconciliations for salary control accounts.

The postholder will be actively supporting the preparation and audit of statutory financial report.

In this role, you will play a key part in supporting the financial integrity of the University by:

• preparing detailed balance sheet reconciliations, highlighting and resolving any issues identified with relevant business areas;
• preparing and processing month-end journals supporting several areas of financial accounting, such as investments, endowments, fixed assets, research, intercompany etc; and
  supporting financial accountants in year-end procedures and preparing year end working paper and assisting in preparation of the annual financial statements for the university and the subsidiaries

Your skills and attributes for success:

• have finalised their HNC/HND level/equivalent and have relevant work experience
• have previous experience with a role in management or financial accounting team, actively participating in month-end and year-end processes;
• have experience with complex balance sheet reconciliations, incl. experience with complex bank reconciliations with a large number of transactions.
• have excellent communication and relationship-building skills to effectively partner with other teams and promote cross-team collaboration.
• have high level of numeracy with good attention to detail and the ability to present financial information clearly.

Click to view a copy of the full job description.

Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:

• CV

• Cover letter

FIRST is a supportive and encouraging team, providing an environment for those wishing to expand and further develop their knowledge and experience in financial accounting and statutory reporting. We have a longstanding commitment to training and staff development. We would welcome applicants from existing University colleagues.

As a valued member of our team, you can expect:

• A competitive salary
• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits.

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab ).

The University is unable to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. International applicants will therefore be unable to apply for and secure a Skilled Worker visa. They will only be able to take up this role if they can demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is Monday 8th December 2025.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.

Interviews dates to be confirmed.