Senior Financial Controller

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

British Council Pay band 8-E

Location: Egypt

Department: Finance

Contract type: 2 Years fixed term extendable renewable

Closing Date: 11th September 2024 at 23:59 UK time

Interview Dates: TBC

This role is open for applications from employees who are currently located and have the right to work in Egypt. The successful candidate will remain in their current location/entity.

You must have the legal right to work in Egypt at the time of application as there is no relocation or sponsorship support.

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

About The Role

This role will be responsible for local statutory reporting, tax review/filing, and will be responsible for ensuring the local financial statements and all local accounting and tax compliance requirements are completed correctly and in a timely manner, and numbers are reported accurately to the local authorities and its auditors.

This role will be responsible for managing the Egypt LLC’s tax rulings. Ensuring that teams are aware of the rulings in place. Overseeing the management of any activities that will impact on our ability to continue to apply these rulings to ensure compliance. Monitoring all renewal dates for rulings to ensure that there is no gap in coverage. Working with our advisors to submit renewals as required.

The role will be responsible for reviewing and managing tax and financial risks in relation to the Egypt operations and for monitoring developments in the regulatory environment. The post holder will provide recommendations to business leads to minimise risk exposure and will work proactively to ensure risks are identified early to enable solutions to be sought in a timely manner and to ensure opportunities are identified.

This role will be responsible for liaising with our external tax advisors, government officials as necessary and British Council Group experts, including the tax, group accounting and treasury teams as well as other experts as required.

This role supports the financial accounting activities for the British Council and works closely with the Managed Service Provider (MSP) to ensure the financial accounts are completed correctly and in a timely manner, and numbers are reported accurately to the UK Group and its auditors. The role delivers retained financial processes supporting P2P (purchase to pay), O2C (order to cash), R2R (record to report) and CLM (cash and liquidity management) ensuring consistent, accurate and robust financial accounting in line with accounting practices and corporate policies.

The role contributes to group statutory reporting, tax review/filing, cashflow reporting and audit processes.

The postholder will support improved communication across operational areas and with the MSP and will work closely with Group Controllership to support on-going continuous improvement and effective management of the MSP. The successful candidate must be comfortable challenging senior stakeholders to ensure consistent, accurate and robust financial results whilst complying with financial accounting processes and in line with accounting practices and corporate policies at a group and local level.

This role provides financial accounting professional advice and provides specialist retained financial and tax services.

This in-country role includes statutory and tax reporting responsibilities given the operating complexity is high and local stat/tax filing is retained in-country.

The postholder will need to understand all relevant local external accounting standards and statutory regulations, including tax-related requirements, foreign exchange policies for the unit/area/country/project they are responsible for.

The post holder will be a pro-active self-starter with the ability to think strategically while keeping an eye on the detail. They will be a skilful and flexible finance professional with good communications skills and understanding of commercial finance. The person will be in constant contact with business leads and members of the financial community across the network.

Senior Stakeholders That The Role Interacts With Regularly Include

• The Egypt LLC Managing Director and Board of Directors
• The Global Tax Team
• Local Business Leads
• Senior Finance Leaders and their global teams
• Managed Service Provider
• Finance colleagues, Group, COE, Operations and Finance Business Partners
• Strategic Business Unit partners and local delivery teams
• Global Process Owners
• Internal and External Financial Control and Compliance and Audit Leads
• Group Treasury and banking vendors
• Group Tax and local tax authorities.
  
  

What We Require Of The Successful Candidate

Please see below a summary of the knowledge and skills required for this role however for the detailed role profile, providing a more in depth understanding of all the role entails, please send an email to [email protected]

Language Requirements

• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.
  
  

Minimum Education And Qualifications

• Higher Education in Finance
• Qualified accountant with at least 5 years experience in a finance management role. Which includes local tax and statutory preparation and filing experience
  
  

Role Specific Knowledge And Experience

• Experience and knowledge of financial control processes and Professional Accounting Standards (including relevant local requirements where applicable) for Commercial and/or Charitable organisations.
• Knowledge of local laws and experience managing corporate taxation, tax compliances, VAT management and statutory reporting
• Good influencing and negotiating experience.
• ERP experience.
• Shared Services Operations (Desirable)
• Experience of working in international and multi-cultural organisations (Desirable)
• Leadership of change projects/initiatives (Desirable)
• SAP experience (Desirable)
  
  

Role Specific Skills

• Good Financial Reporting, Accounting, Closing and Compliance skills.
• Excellent IT skills and proficient in Excel.
• Effective communication and influencing skills, able to relay complex financial information in an easy- to-understand way.
• Highly organised and deadline oriented.
• Building relationships at all levels of the organisation.
• Flexibility, independence, and initiative to perform successfully in a rapidly changing environment.
  
  

Main Accountabilities

Leadership and Management

• Role model British Council values and EDI in day-to-day interactions with colleagues at all levels. Ensure high levels of professionalism are demonstrated by everyone and that client and customer needs are reflected in ways of working. Champion financial accounting and local tax compliance, providing a good standard of financial insight and financial discipline. Promote learning from our experience across the unit and wider organisation.
  
  

Financial Management

• Work closely with the MSP to ensure the financial accounts are completed correctly and in a timely manner, and numbers are reported accurately.
• Provide retained in-country specific activities/processes, local, complex statutory/tax reporting, managing retained banking responsibilities, liaising with local authorities, and management of escalations. Provide financial accounting support for cashflow reporting and audit processes.
• Manage the provision of information to internal / external auditors. Implement and report on the progress of audit recommendations. Identify and challenge issues and bring resolution in relation to financial accounting matters.
  
  

Relationship and Stakeholder Management

• Provide stakeholder engagement and business partnering for retained financial processes, including statutory reporting and tax compliance, building strong working relationships with key stakeholders and the MSP to ensure that activities comply with professional accounting standards, technical accounting issues and other external reporting requirements in British Council.
  
  

Sector/subject expertise

• Provide guidance and advice on local tax and statutory compliance and reporting requirements. Liaise with other specialist finance functions such as Tax, Treasury, Finance Policy, and Global Process Owners as needed. Pro-actively identify unusual or complex transactions and recommend appropriate professional accounting and/ or tax treatments. Produce periodic reports relating to financial accounting.
  
  

Service Improvement

• Implement new or updated tax, accounting and reporting requirements in line with professional accounting standards and local regulations; communicate change effectively with internal stakeholders, ensure appropriate training and compliance monitoring.
  
  

Additional Job Requirements

Proof of Identity requirements/right to work in country

Candidates are expected to have researched whether they have the right to live and work in the country in which the role is based. Given that our offices have different legal status depending on the work we do in those countries, we recommend that you contact HR in country for additional information on the likelihood of securing a visa. Only at its discretion will the British Council provide support so please check first whether visa support is offered.

Background Checks

Initial and continuing employment with the British Council is subject to an annual background check. The job undertaken defines the nature of check(s) and assessment applied.

For detailed Role Profile and any questions please reach out to [email protected]

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you have any problems with your application please email [email protected]

Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.