Financial Controller

Job Description

abrdn Investments Ireland Limited (Aberdeen Ireland) is part of Aberdeen Group plc, one of the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments groups. Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities.

We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders and society.

We are repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand and are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent. As a global business, Aberdeen consists of three divisions: Investments, Adviser, and interactive investor (ii). Each division is dedicated to meeting and adapting to our clients' evolving needs.

In European markets, our dedicated and highly experienced investment team manages our European products, including emerging market income and debt, smaller companies, European credit, ETFs, real estate and sustainable investing propositions.

We have offices in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Our breadth of experience gives us close proximity to the companies we invest in and the markets we operate in.

About the Department

The Finance function, led by the Chief Financial Officer, is a strategically aligned, commercially focused team structured across specialist group functions and embedded business-unit support. It includes leadership for financial control and operations, external and regulatory reporting, performance management and planning, capital and treasury, tax, and investor relations, all working closely with senior leadership, the Board, and external stakeholders. Dedicated Business CFOs sit within each business unit, partnering directly with CEOs to drive commercial performance, while a Finance COO Office underpins the function with strong governance, operational excellence, and delivery of strategic change.

About the Role

This is a key role within the UK & EMEA financial reporting and control team, which will report directly to the Head of Finance EMEA.  As a Financial Controller, the role holder is responsible for the financial management of Aberdeen’s Ireland entities, leveraging the output of the wider Finance team (principally, Finance Operations), while providing control, oversight and challenge.

The role offers significant variety and development opportunities across financial control, reporting, budgeting and commercial insight, together with exposure to and stakeholder management at a senior level (including entity Boards).

The incumbent of this role will oversee the day-to-day finances of abrdn Investments Ireland Limited, providing leadership and direction with responsibility for setting and implementing the Aberdeen group policies and guidelines and ensuring that operations are organised in a controlled and efficient manner.

Key Responsibilities

• Preparation and review of commentary on legal entity financials, delivering insights to internal and external stakeholders and sign-off on monthly legal entity financials
• Contribute to the month end process for the EMEA group by producing analysis and MI on the Irish business.
• Where appropriate, preparation of Ireland entity board packs.
• Conduct a rigorous review and challenge of monthly legal entity P&L and balance sheet packs, proactively ensuring that all IFRS trial balances are not only valid, accurate, and complete but also adhere to the highest standards of financial integrity.
• Take ownership of the attestation process by guaranteeing that every balance sheet account has been formally attested by the responsible parties and personally perform thorough attestations on all balances affected by technical and local GAAP adjustments to safeguard compliance and accountability.
• Responsible for delivery of the annual statutory accounts for the Irish regulated subsidiary entity.
• Build relationships with the auditors and ensure improvements to the audit process are implemented.
• Implement accounting systems and processes that are relevant for the local market and consistent with those used by Aberdeen head office.
• Responsible for preparation of prudential regulatory reporting for Ireland and liaison with the regulator where required.
• Work closely with the Tax team to ensure accurate reporting of tax balances and returns. Ensure tax obligations are met and tax risks identified and addressed in respect of the Irish business and branch network.
• Liaise with finance colleagues to ensure transfer pricing entries in Ireland and across the branch network have been processed in line with policy.
• Support tax team to implement any changes / improvements to transfer pricing policy.
• Identify implications for Ireland / branch network of changes to transfer pricing policy and identify / escalate areas of risk
• Lead the legal entity planning process working together with the Performance and Planning team, providing challenge where appropriate.
• Feed into group forecasts with key items for consideration and ensure significant variances highlighted on a timely basis.  Influence corrective action from management where appropriate.

About the Candidate

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Qualified Accountant (ACA/ACCA), with audit background desirable.
• Minimum 2 years post qualified experience in a similar financial control or commercial finance role, ideally within investment management or a financial services environment.
• Knowledge and understanding of accounting principles, practices and processes, including financial reporting standards (IFRS or GAAP).
• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills including proficiency in PowerPoint.
• Operates with intellectual curiosity and strategic insight. Builds credibility with senior stakeholders and communicates with clarity and conviction to influence outcomes and gain support for ideas.
• Proficiency in financial systems and ERPs (e.g. Oracle).
• Intermediate/advanced Excel skills, with the ability to handle large datasets and complex models.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported. 
When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 27 days' annual leave, a 14% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare, free access to the interactive investor platform, and a range of flexible benefits. You can read more about our benefits here. 

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.