System Accountant - 12-month fixed-term contract

The Howard de Walden Estate•London, CA

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Howard de Walden Estate (HdWE) is embarking on a business-wide modernisation programme, to revitalise ways of working, data, systems and processes. Project Elevate has been initiated to replace the current Property Management and Accounting system (MRI Platform X), in place for nearly three decades. The programme will deliver a unified, scalable and supportable SaaS platform covering finance, property management, procurement, project accounting and reporting. It is a strategically important initiative that will fundamentally change how the organisation operates and how colleagues interact with core systems. Project Elevate is a multi‑year transformation programme to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management as the organisation’s core ERP platform, integrated with existing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and M-Files Document Management applications. The project will also incorporate specialist Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solutions, including Yavica’s FlexProperty and SignUp’s ExFlow products. This role is specifically concerned with Phase One of Project Elevate, which is expected to last around 12 months starting April 2026, with a target go‑live of April 2027. The purpose of this role is to act as a finance systems subject matter expert for Project Elevate, bringing practical experience of ERP implementation and finance best practice to shape requirements and solution design. The postholder will bridge finance and technology stakeholders, providing assurance that core finance processes (AP, AR, GL and related controls) are designed and implemented in a controlled, workable and auditable manner, supporting strong period‑end outcomes and reliable reporting. The role will also act as a key bridge to the technical project delivery team. The role is not a technical systems configuration role; it exists to help the business successfully adopt the new platform through process standardisation, data improvement and user readiness. A key requirement of this role is to champion the programme principle of “adopt, not adapt” — adopting standard solution capability and best practice wherever possible to protect ease of use, upgrade pathways and long‑term sustainability. Customisation should be treated as the exception and only pursued where absolutely necessary, as a critical business differentiator.

Requirements

Qualified accountant (by professional qualification and/or equivalent experience) with a strong grounding in core finance processes including AP, AR and GL.
Prior involvement in ERP implementations or major finance systems change programmes, with hands-on contribution to scoping, requirements, design and testing.
Strong understanding of finance controls, data integrity and the practical realities of period-end processes (reconciliations, journals, controls and reporting timetables).
Ability to translate finance requirements into structured requirements, process definitions and testable acceptance criteria.
Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills; comfortable working with data extracts and reconciliations to validate correctness.
Clear communication skills and confidence working with both finance and technical colleagues; able to explain ‘what good looks like’ and guide decision-making.
Strong assurance mindset with attention to detail and a commitment to control and auditability.
Pragmatic, delivery-focused and able to simplify and standardise processes (‘adopt, not adapt’) while maintaining compliance.
Comfortable working in an environment with mixed change maturity levels.
Collaborative and able to influence stakeholders toward standardised, sustainable ways of working.
Curious and proactive, with interest in learning and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance (or similar ERP finance modules) and familiarity with finance module configuration concepts.
Experience using Excel (advanced), Power Query and/or Power BI to build finance reports, reconciliations or dashboards.
Experience preparing financial information/reporting on an accruals and a cash basis.
Experience with the Making Tax Digital requirements for VAT.
Experience supporting UAT after data migration and data-focused regression testing.
Experience contributing to automation and continuous improvement initiatives within finance operations.
Interest in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, autonomous agents, and automation.

Responsibilities

Lead business input for future‑state finance process design across Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), and General Ledger (GL), ensuring alignment to standard ERP capability and finance best practice.
Support the definition of period‑end processes and supporting controls (e.g., accruals, journals, reconciliations and close activities) so they can be executed efficiently and consistently.
Apply a ‘controls‑by‑design’ mindset: help define approvals, segregation of duties, audit trails and evidence requirements as part of process design, not as an afterthought.
Support definition of finance reporting requirements (statutory, management and operational reporting) and the supporting data structures needed to produce accurate, explainable outputs.
Participate in requirements workshops and fit/gap discussions, translating finance requirements into clear, testable user stories and acceptance criteria.
Contribute to design decisions on Chart of Accounts and financial dimensions, ensuring they support reporting needs and avoid hard‑coding recoverability or other legacy constraints.
Provide assurance over finance configuration decisions, ensuring the design supports operational practicality and scalable ways of working.
Champion simplification and standardisation to avoid recreating legacy complexity, supporting the programme’s ‘adopt, not adapt’ approach.
Support definition of finance data migration requirements (master data and opening balances), including mapping, transformation rules and reconciliation approach.
Validate migrated balances and key finance datasets, ensuring continuity, traceability and auditability from the legacy system to the new platform.
Support cutover planning, including readiness checks for critical finance activities (e.g., invoice processing, cash/bank, open items and GL balances).
Support planning and execution of SIT and UAT for finance scenarios, including creation/review of test scripts, realistic test scenarios, and sign‑off criteria.
Coordinate finance-side validation during data-focused UAT / regression testing following data migration, ensuring migrated data supports real operational processes.
Join defect triage and support defect management, helping prioritise issues and validate fixes from a finance perspective.
Support training and user enablement for finance colleagues and contribute to hypercare, post go‑
Identify opportunities to streamline and automate finance processes through system capability (reducing reliance on spreadsheets and manual workarounds).
Support the creation of clear procedures, controls documentation and ‘how-to’ guidance to embed consistent ways of working.
Act as a key point of contact for finance stakeholders during implementation, ensuring issues are captured, understood and resolved in collaboration with delivery partners.

Benefits

25 days holiday per year, plus statutory holidays and 3 discretionary days to cover the Christmas office closure.
Private medical insurance with Bupa.
Defined contribution pension scheme with 12.5% employer contributions.
Life assurance at 7x salary.
Group income protection scheme.
Interest free season ticket loan.
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and wellbeing app “Help@hand”.
Cycle to work scheme.
Onsite gym with 7 weekly classes and 2 Wattbikes.
Regular staff socials and an annual company away day.
Free fruit and breakfast cereals.
Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave policies (12-month qualifying period).
Hybrid working arrangements -minimum of 155 days in the office per year with minimum of 2 days (not fixed) per week in the office.