About the Company:
Our client is a global education group bringing together a growing network of more than 20 schools across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The group operates physical schools offering education from kindergarten through to secondary education, combining international schools with local institutions while preserving their individual identities.
They are building a global platform focused on supporting its schools, strengthening operational capabilities and driving sustainable growth. With its headquarters in Madrid, the group is expanding its central finance function to support its growing international portfolio and is looking for a Management Accountant to join its FP&A team.
About the Role
The Management Accountant will support the preparation and consolidation of monthly management accounts, analyse financial performance against budgets and forecasts, and ensure accurate, consistent reporting across the group's international school portfolio.
OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY AND BUSINESS SUPPORT
• Support the central finance function through the group management accounts cycle, working as part of a small team being built from scratch.
• Report to the Head of FP&A, playing a central role in the preparation and review of the group’s monthly management accounts as the function continues to be built out.
• Build strong working relationships with school finance leads across the portfolio as a key contributor across the management reporting cycle, alongside significant exposure to the Madrid head office team.
• Help establish robust, well-documented management accounts processes, controls, and ways of working that can scale as the group grows, ensuring continuity and consistency as the team and portfolio expand.
PREPARATION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS
• Prepare the consolidated monthly management accounts, including P&L, balance sheet, cash-flow and supporting schedules, drawing together submissions from across the school portfolio into a single group view.
• Apply agreed group conventions consistently, including FX rates, consolidation adjustments, and presentation formats, ensuring outputs are comparable across schools and over time.
• Prepare variance analysis comparing actuals to budget, forecast and prior periods, with clear commentary on the key drivers of movements for review by the Head of FP&A.
• Maintain clear, well-documented working files and supporting schedules for each reporting cycle, so that the basis for every figure in the management accounts is transparent and can be traced and understood.
MONTH-END REVIEWS
• Carry out structured month-end reviews of school-level submissions, checking arithmetic accuracy, internal consistency, and alignment with group reporting conventions before consolidation.
• Identify and follow up on anomalies, unusual movements, or inconsistencies in school submissions, working with school finance leads to resolve queries ahead of the reporting deadline.
• Support the Head of FP&A in reviewing the consolidated management accounts prior to distribution, flagging any areas requiring further explanation or correction.
• Help embed a consistent month-end review checklist and timetable across the portfolio, contributing to its ongoing refinement, controls, and documentation as the function develops.
DATA, SYSTEMS, AND INTEGRITY
• Own the integrity of management accounts outputs, including consolidation, reporting, and supporting files, ensuring formulas, links, and consolidation logic are accurate and free of errors.
• Take ownership and maintain clear, well-organised documentation of management accounts processes, templates, data conventions, and reporting logic, so that methodologies are transparent and repeatable across the team.
• Implement and maintain quality control checks across the management accounts and reporting outputs to ensure accuracy and consistency before submission to senior stakeholders.
BUSINESS PARTNERING
• Act as the first point of contact for schools on any management accounts queries, providing timely and clear responses or escalating to the Head of FP&A where required.
• Work closely with the Financial Accountant and wider accounting team, who are responsible for the underlying statutory accounts that feed into the management accounts, ensuring a clear handover, shared understanding of account structures, and timely resolution of queries between the two functions.
• Support the Head of FP&A in preparing materials for the CFO and other senior stakeholders, ensuring outputs are accurate, well-documented, and clearly presented.
Requirements
CANDIDATE PROFILE
• Qualified accountant or finalist (ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent) with experience in a management accounting or financial reporting role, ideally in a multi-entity or international environment.
• Sound understanding of management accounting principles, including P&L, balance sheet and cash-flow preparation, variance analysis, and consolidation.
• Competent Excel skills, with experience working with templates and processes across multiple teams or entities.
• Conscientious, accurate, and comfortable taking ownership of deliverables under reporting deadlines, with a strong instinct for documentation and process.
• Confident communicator, able to work effectively with colleagues across finance functions and school finance leads.
• Full professional fluency in English is essential; additional languages relevant to the portfolio are an advantage.
• Experience in the K-12 or international schools sector is an advantage but not a prerequisite.