About the Service
Haringey is a place of great opportunity with enormous potential for growth. The Finance Directorate supports the Council's vision through the provision of a professional and high-quality financial service enabling the Council to use its resources in a sustainable way to prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable. We are an ambitious and dynamic team committed to making Haringey a better place to live and work in.

About the role
The Principal Accountant role is an exciting opportunity to play critical role supporting corporate reporting across the council. As opposed to working with a service delivery area you will be reporting to board and cabinet level on agreed objectives and outputs, preparing savings target updates and expenditure and funding reporting for all areas. The role will require you to work with senior stakeholders across the organisation to ensure that you have the collected the information required on a timely basis with view to collating data and commentary in a comprehensive way. You will also support other areas such as calculating corporate over heads, have input to the housing benefit claim system and other ad hoc projects. 

You will also undertake complex and technical accounting tasks and ensure that there is an effective framework for financial reporting, forecasting, control and management within the Council for both revenue and capital budgets.

We operate from a great location opposite Wood Green tube with a wealth of shops and eateries close by and staff enjoy flexible working hours amongst other benefits.

About You
We are looking to recruit a highly motivated, dynamic and engaging individual. You are likely to be a fully qualified accountant (CCAB or CIMA) or be at the final stage of your qualification. You will possess a good understanding of delivering value-for-money services within a local authority setting, or, have a keen interest in getting this experience. Candidates with no local government experience will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the range of services provided by a local authority and the challenges faced. The successful candidate will have very strong IT skills including using excel (including, pivot tables and vlookups) and will be able to evidence having the ability to produce reports of a high quality. You will also be able to plan your workload and to meet deadlines.

This post will also involve close interaction with a range of internal stakeholders, including elected members, and you will be responsible for consolidating financial and written data and compiling corporate budget reports. It is therefore important that you possess excellent communication and presentation skills.