Finance Assurance Consultant

at  AECOM

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Job Description
The role of a Finance Assurance Consultant will be taking responsibility for end-to-end service delivery, often with respect to large and complex infrastructure commissions covering both private and public sector clients. Your role will be to ensure that client objectives are met through the delivery of a value-added commercial assurance service.
You’ll play a vital role in delivering Cost & Commercial Assurance commissions for our clients. This involves taking the responsibility for timely delivery, through to the effective reporting and presentation of results. The role will require the successful individual to be confident in liaising with and presenting to both clients and contractors.
An attention to detail is essential, but with an ability to position commercial context around the detail that enables our clients to make wider, impactful business decisions is just as important.
The Commercial Assurance Team is located across the UK and you will be based out of one of our regional offices to suite you such as London, Basingstoke, Belfast, Bristol, Manchester, Norwich, Cambridge, Leeds, Plymouth, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. You will provide Commercial Assurance Services across a wide range of sectors.
As a Senior Consultant, you will need to be flexible and able to adapt to different client requirements at short notice including working remotely, and happy to travel both throughout the UK and abroad in the pursuit of successful delivery. Travel may at times be frequent and could require time away from your base location.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Evaluation of cost data and structures and assessing them against contractual / commercial principles.
• Analysis of cost data to identify patterns, themes, trends and risks.
• Appraisals of cost capture and commercial management processes.
• Detailed cost verification, payroll audits, and data sampling.
• Identification of process improvement opportunities for cost controls and commercial governance.
• Interfacing and engagement with project staff including finance staff to complete cost verification, substantiation together with obtaining key documentation/data.
• Management of stakeholders and their expectations through regular communications.
• Supporting the production of close-out reports.
• Presentation of outputs and recommendations to clients and their supply chain.
• Lead engagements when travelling to different sites/locations nationally and internationally.
• Mentoring junior staff and upskilling both internal and external stakeholders in the arena of cost and commercial assurance.

Your knowledge, experience and skills need to include:

• Demonstrable experience of delivering service excellence to clients.
• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written.
• Experience in delivering cost and commercial assurance / audit activities
• Competent in the interpretation of a wide range of contracts, with experience in the application of the principles of a schedule of cost components.
• Comfortable and experienced in analysing high volumes of data that are primarily excel driven, ideally with experience of different cost systems
• The ability to extract, interrogate and assess large data sets to problem solve and produce outputs that can be used in the decision-making process.
• Strong report writing and presentation skills
• Ability to work autonomously and in fast-paced environment, and able to adapt and meet challenges as they develop during the delivery stage
• Strong interpersonal skills will be required to communicate with a variety of stakeholders with varying levels of seniority and engagement.
• Achieve the highest standards of professional competence and to demonstrate this ability in all dealings with clients and professional contacts, reinforcing the profile of the company.
• Drive performance standards and technical excellence through expert communication and effective use of the performance management process and AECOM technical practice networks.
• Maintain and develop good relationships with clients, take every opportunity to uphold and increase the profile of the firm as a provider of professional, premium quality services to the construction industry.
• Actively support the internal team and manage more junior staff on technically complex projects.
• Be aware of and develop marketing opportunities and where appropriate bring to the attention of Directors and the Business Development Department, in order that they may assist in following up potential leads enabling the development of new business.

Qualifications

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Good working knowledge of NEC3 and NEC4 suite of contracts, particularly the Professional Services Contract (PSC) and Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC)
• Experience in delivering cost and commercial assurance/ audit activities.
• Experience of working with different cost/ finance systems, including SAP, and analysing and reporting the findings of large volumes of data.
• The ability to extract, interrogate and assess large data sets to problem solve and produce outputs that can be used in the decision-making process.
• Strong report writing and presentation skills.
• Experience of working within a client organisation, either directly or through a colocation/secondment arrangement.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• A degree qualification in a relevant discipline.
• Professional memberships are an advantage but are not essential.
• Ability to obtain relevant security clearance is desired.
  Additional Information

• Evaluation of cost data and structures and assessing them against contractual / commercial principles.
• Analysis of cost data to identify patterns, themes, trends and risks.
• Appraisals of cost capture and commercial management processes.
• Detailed cost verification, payroll audits, and data sampling.
• Identification of process improvement opportunities for cost controls and commercial governance.
• Interfacing and engagement with project staff including finance staff to complete cost verification, substantiation together with obtaining key documentation/data.
• Management of stakeholders and their expectations through regular communications.
• Supporting the production of close-out reports.
• Presentation of outputs and recommendations to clients and their supply chain.
• Lead engagements when travelling to different sites/locations nationally and internationally.
• Mentoring junior staff and upskilling both internal and external stakeholders in the arena of cost and commercial assurance