ESG Reporting Accountant (fixed term)

At M&G, our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.
Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.
Through telling it like it is, owning it now and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.
We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and offer workplace adjustments to ensure you have the support you need to succeed in your role.

Role Summary:

We are looking for an ESG Reporting Accountant to join the Group Sustainability team for a 6 month period. It’s an exciting time to be involved in this fast-moving space, with companies coming under growing pressure to disclose more information on their sustainability efforts, and with regulations and disclosure frameworks evolving to allow for reporting in more standardised and comprehensive formats.

The ESG Reporting Accountant is responsible for leading on the delivery of the Group’s subsidiary sustainability reporting under TCFD, SDR and SFDR and plays a vital role in the delivery of the Group Sustainability Report in the Annual Report and Accounts. The role includes the end to end production of reports including managing the external audit relationship and ensuring complete, accurate and compliant reporting of external disclosures.

The role will incorporate a broad range of responsibilities including: supporting on the sustainability reporting change agenda; peer analysis; presentation of papers at governance forums; managing key controls and associated risks; and content drafting through collaboration with internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Working collaboratively with various subject matter experts to design ESG disclosures for inclusion in external reporting documents including the Group’s Annual Report and Accounts.
• End to end production of entity reports including planning, managing change, understanding peers, metrics analysis, content drafting and content verification.
• Coordinating responses to auditor queries in relation to ESG disclosures.
• Responsibility for the team’s Key Controls and risk management returns.
• Taking personal accountability for maintaining and enhancing controls you are responsible for to support improvement of the overall control environment.
• Keeping abreast of developments in the ESG disclosure space (peers and regulations) to ensure all disclosures are in line with latest requirements of various regulatory bodies and emerging best practice.
• Supporting the team planning including management of governance processes.
• Writing governance papers for submission to boards and committees.
• Supporting the project team where necessary in tasks associated with the implementation of new sustainability regulations.

Knowledge & Experience:

To ensure your success in this role you will be/have:

• Qualified Accountant with some experience or knowledge of sustainability reporting.
• Some understanding of key reporting regulations including TCFD, SDR and SFDR.
• Experienced in production and delivery of disclosures in a financial services organisation, or experience of auditing such disclosures.
• An understanding of controls.
• Experience of working with external auditors or knowledge of key audit concepts.
• Good analytical skills in relation to financial metrics or sustainability metrics.

It is desirable for the candidate to have:

• Sound understanding of sustainability reporting regulations including but not limited to ISSB/UK SRS, SFDR, SDR, TCFD, GHGP and PCAF including accounting for GHG emissions across the value chain.
• Some knowledge of industry trends, best practice and developments in sustainability and sustainability reporting.
• Good networks / links with external bodies and individuals in the same field.
• Experience of system implementation in an accounting or sustainability context.
• An understanding of greenwashing.

Additional Personal and Technical Skills:

• Proactive self-starter who takes ownership, and has a strong track record of driving delivery of results.
• Ability to communicate effectively and influence effectively with productive, successful relationships with demanding senior stakeholders.
• Able to apply logic and problem solving to complex accounting problems.
• Ability to understand complex data.
• Ability to assess, react quickly and decisively to problems, taking tough decisions where needed or escalating issues as appropriate.
• Ability to make decisions while managing ambiguity.
• Able to align actions with vision and purpose.

What we offer:

We’re dedicated to supporting your wellbeing and helping you thrive, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, and financially plan for the future. Our UK benefits include:

• A valuable pension scheme of up to 18% (13% made up of employer contributions and 5% employee contributions).
• Access to our Share Save and Share Incentive Plan, alongside financial wellbeing and support services to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.
• Enjoy 38 days annual leave (including bank holidays), with the opportunity to purchase up to five extra days. Our Time Off When You Need It policy gives you the flexibility - to balance work and personal commitments.
• Our market-leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - because supporting families is an important part of our inclusive culture.
• Health & Protection cover includes Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with additional family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

At M&G we strive to have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture, underpinned by our policies and employee-led networks that offer networking, support and development opportunities for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds – across gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and more – including neurodivergent individuals, career returners and those with military service experience.

M&G is proud to be Level 3: Disability Confident Leader under the UK Government Disability Confident employer scheme, and we welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you would like to participate in the initiative, you will have the opportunity to indicate this on your application.

We are committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process. All candidates have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments when applying. If you need any additional support at any stage, please contact us at: [email protected]