Finance Administrator

Overview

Role: Finance Administrator (Projects)

Location: Derby, UK - Hybrid Office 2 days a week / 3 days at home

Salary: £25,000-£30,000 pa

Role ID: 2023-1971

Ricardo is a global strategic, technical and environmental consultancy and specialist niche manufacturer of high-performance products. We also provide independent assurance services in the rail sector.  With a century of delivering excellence and innovation, Ricardo employs over 3,000 professional engineers, consultants and scientists world-wide.

Our activities cover a range of market sectors including passenger car, commercial vehicle, rail, defence, motorsport, motorcycle, off-highway, marine, clean energy and power generation.  Within that group, Ricardo Rail is a 600-person multi-disciplinary railway consultancy providing assurance and specialist engineering services to help clients navigate the industry's operational, commercial and regulatory demands across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia and North America.  The UK business employs c80 consultants in offices in London, Preston, York, Bristol and Derby.

Guided by our corporate values of respect, integrity, innovation and passion, we enable our customers to achieve sustainable growth and commercial success. Our shared goal is to provide class-leading quality and technical excellence; care and integrity drive our long-term relationships with clients and colleagues.

We are now looking to strengthen our Project Support department to support the delivery of existing and new projects. This is a varied and multi-tasking role, with the need to work as part of a project support team and be a key stakeholder with the Project Managers.

As a Finance Administrator (Projects) your main responsibilities would be:

• Set up new projects and variation orders in accordance with Ricardo processes and authorisation levels.
• Assist Finance with any queries on opening of projects.
• Completed projects closed in the Project Management System, following Ricardo processes to incorporate MSD and SAP correctly.
• Support the Project Managers in the production and maintenance of project plans, budgets and maintenance of estimates to complete, providing the right level of challenge and support.
• Proactively review a designated portfolio of projects to assess what key actions may be needed for or by the Project Manager
• Support the project review process.
• Provide a first level of response to all enquires and complaints, forwarding to other subject experts where applicable, to ensure a high level of customer service.
• Identify, suggest, and assist managers with implementing change and developments to the administration processes and procedures to meet future business demands and improve current efficiency.
• Enter timesheets in the system on behalf of time-bookers without system access / weekly chasing of those who have not entered time prior to the deadlines.
• Transfer of time between projects in the Project Management System.
• Assist with all aspects of the Project Management System, correcting errors as and when needed.
• Carry out general housekeeping duties in the Project Management System to ensure system is up to date.
• Check and authorise all expense claims.
• Manage the supplier invoice process for projects and overheads
• Support Project Managers with timely invoicing.
• Ad hoc project administration / Finance activities.

We'd love to hear from you if you have the following competencies and experience:

• Enthusiastic approach to work and ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels.
• General financial understanding (essential), ideally within a project environment (desired).
• High level of numeracy with the ability to interrogate, interpret and summarise data from a range of data sources e.g. Excel
• SAP & Changepoint (Project Management System) experience advantageous but not essential.
• Microsoft Excel experience.
• Strong teamwork ethic, but equally be able to work on own.
• Be used to working in a fast paced, environment and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to create & maintain sound working relationships with locally & remotely based colleagues.
• Adaptable and able to learn new systems.
• Strong organisational skills, to be able to work on multiple tasks and to tight deadlines.

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.

You will work with teams of talented, dedicated, and supportive individuals. Alongside having a fantastic opportunity to develop your career with us through our broad range of projects, mentoring opportunities and a personalised approach to your learning and development. We are always keen to hear from people who have driven, ambition and a flair for innovative thinking.

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 ensure a culture of inclusivity, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

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.

Next Steps

If our application process does not align with your requirements, please email recruit.ee@ricardo.com and we will make necessary arrangements to meet your needs.

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.