Senior Staff Accountant

Department: Enablement
Location : London, Sea Containers
Reporting to: Manager of the Staff Costs Team
Contact type : 12 month FTC 
Full Time: 35 hours per week

About Ogilvy 

Our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. To create big ideas that make a significant contribution to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe in today’s world this is the best way for our clients to achieve sustainable growth. We achieve this by breaking down the barriers that restrict talent and ideas. 

Which is why our teams work fluidly across 5 capabilities: Advertising, Consulting, Experience, PR & Influencer, and Health. This allows us to not only operate but innovate at the intersection of capabilities and talent. We believe impact and magic lies at this intersection. Ogilvy scales this by seamlessly connecting and accessing the deep cultural expertise of 132 offices in 83 countries. 

The result is multifaceted ideas for our clients that drive impact and are born from the intersection of platform x culture x technology. We call this Borderless Creativity. 

We aim to deliver the greatest platform for growth for our clients and to be their very best creative partner, driving growth for their business, our business and our people.

 

About the Role 

We are seeking a Senior Staff Accountant to join our Financial Reporting Team, specifically within the Staff Costs Team. This critical role reports directly to the Manager of the Staff Costs Team, acting as a key support in ensuring stable and reliable financial reporting.

You will be responsible for the comprehensive staff cost reporting and forecasting for Ogilvy UK. This includes providing crucial insights into staff cost calculations and their impact on client profitability, serving as a vital link between finance and our commercial teams. You will also contribute to driving process improvements and maintaining strong financial controls.

 

What You’ll Do 

• Staff Cost Management: Oversee the staff costs P&L for Ogilvy UK, including actuals and detailed monthly forecasts.
• Reporting & Compliance: Prepare timely staff cost information and headcounts for WPP reporting, ensuring accuracy, compliance with guidelines, and reconciliation with Workday data. This includes pre-commit payroll reviews for multiple entities and quarterly CSR summaries.
• Financial Analysis & Forecasting: Develop detailed staff cost forecasts, collaborating with Talent Acquisition on open positions, and proactively identifying areas for cost efficiency.
• Balance Sheet & Allocations: Manage balance sheet reconciliations and ensure accurate inter-company recharges based on timesheet data.
• Stakeholder Communication: Provide accurate, timely, and reliable financial information to budget holders, department heads, and commercial teams to support strategic decision-making.
• Team Leadership & Support: Act as a key resource for the staff costs team, providing cover for the Manager, driving best practices, and assisting with process improvements and system implementations (e.g., new ERP).
  
  
  

What You'll Need 

• Professional Qualification: An experienced part-qualified or qualified accountant.
• Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of Profit & Loss accounts, Balance Sheets, and journal postings.
• Staff Cost Expertise: Proven experience in reporting employee headcounts and associated costs, recognizing their impact on profitability.
• Data Proficiency: Excellent Excel and data manipulation skills are essential. Experience with PowerQuery/Power BI is highly desirable.
• Analytical & Proactive: Strong attention to detail, commercial awareness, and a proactive approach to identifying and implementing process and cost improvements.
• Organisational Skills: Highly organised, capable of managing multiple tasks and meeting tight deadlines.

 

Benefits 

• 25 days annual leave + 1 volunteer day 
• Bupa Healthcare from day one 
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am – 4pm
• A 1.5:1 Matching Pension Structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests and development budgets and Wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year 
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life Assurance

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. For us, diversity, equity and inclusion is integrated into everything that we do. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ethnic, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions, but we encourage everyone to feel free to express their true selves in an environment we are consistently striving to make as inclusive as possible.

We aim to facilitate an accessible and positive application experience for all candidates. If you require any adjustments from us to support you through the process or expect to require any adjustments to working conditions to be able to best perform in the role, please let us know. We are happy to consider all reasonable adjustments.

If you live with a disability and you would like to take advantage of our offer of a guaranteed interview under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you fill out our voluntary Equal Opportunities Questionnaire when applying.