VP, Accounting & Tax

Department: Finance

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: London, Greater London, London, UK, Remote

What you’ll be doing

• Own the preparation of IFRS-compliant statutory financial statements — for all Digital Science entities, including liaison with external auditors through to sign-off.
• Set and maintain group accounting policies — ensuring consistent application across entities and alignment with Holtzbrinck group reporting requirements.
• Own the groups legal entity consolidation process and systems — including intercompany eliminations, FX translation, and consolidated reporting in NetSuite, ensuring accurate, timely consolidated results across all entities and driving continuous improvement of the consolidation process as the entity structure evolves.
• Own the month-end and year-end close calendar — across the Accounting, Tax & Corporate Reporting team, ensuring a timely, well-controlled close.
• Review key reconciliations and judgemental accounting positions — including significant journal entries, ahead of finalisation.
• Own overall accountability for tax compliance and transfer pricing — working closely with the Tax & Intercompany Accountant and external advisors.
• Act as primary point of contact with Holtzbrinck group tax — on group-level tax and transfer pricing matters.
• Own external tax advisor and local compliance accountant relationships — across jurisdictions, including contract negotiation, scope-setting, and fee oversight, ensuring cost-effective, high-quality support for local statutory and tax compliance requirements.
• Oversee revenue recognition policy and its application under IFRS 15 — in partnership with the Revenue Accountant.
• Own judgement calls on complex or new technical accounting matters — ensuring positions are well documented and defensible.
• Own the internal control environment — across Accounting, Tax & Corporate Reporting, identifying and remediating control gaps.
• Act as the primary Finance owner for the annual external audit — and for internal and tax authority audits, from planning through to completion.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Accounting, Tax & Corporate Reporting team. 
• Plan resourcing and workload across the team — to meet reporting deadlines across all entities.
• Act as a credible stand-in for the CFO — on accounting, tax, and audit matters when required, including representing Finance in senior internal and external meetings.
• Build commercial, cross-functional, and board-level communication experience — needed to progress toward CFO-level responsibility over time.

• Statutory financial statements delivered accurately and on time, with clean audit sign-off and no material weaknesses.
• Month-end and year-end close completed to calendar, with reconciliations and judgemental accounting positions reviewed and approved before finalisation.
• Tax and transfer pricing compliance maintained across all jurisdictions, with no material adverse findings from tax authorities.
• External tax advisor and local compliance accountant relationships managed within agreed fee and service levels.
• Accounting, Tax & Corporate Reporting team resourced, developed, and consistently meeting reporting deadlines across all entities.

What you’ll bring to the role

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with significant post-qualification experience in statutory reporting, tax, and technical accounting.
• Proven track record owning the external audit relationship and delivering clean, timely statutory accounts across multiple entities.
• Strong working knowledge of IFRS, including revenue recognition (IFRS 15) and consolidation.
• Experience managing tax compliance and transfer pricing in a multi-entity, multi-jurisdiction environment.
• Experience owning and negotiating contracts and commercial terms with external tax advisory and accounting firms, including fee and scope management.
• People leadership experience, with a track record of developing accounting teams.

• Experience reporting into a parent group structure (e.g. group consolidation, group tax, or group treasury reporting).
• Experience in SaaS, technology, or subscription-based businesses.
• Exposure to board-level or senior stakeholder reporting.

• Technically rigorous, with sound judgement on complex accounting and tax positions.
• Carries the gravitas and judgement to be trusted as a credible stand-in for the CFO when required.
• Calm under pressure, particularly around audit and reporting deadlines.
• Develops talent and builds a strong, capable accounting team, while applying an AI-first mindset to improve processes and outcomes.
• Collaborates proactively across Finance and Digital Science, taking ownership and accountability for outcomes.

Living our Values