Job Description
At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group.
Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.
We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.
Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:
1. interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
2. Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
3. Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.
About the role:
The Account Ownership (AO) Lead sits within Group Finance Control and is responsible for overseeing the monthly balance sheet substantiation process across all legal entities. This role plays a critical part in embedding a robust control culture, ensuring governance and oversight, and leading the development and implementation of Oracle ARCS. The AO Lead will manage the end-to-end AO framework, including production, quality assurance, stakeholder engagement, and continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities:
4. Lead the monthly Account Ownership cycle, ensuring timely and accurate reconciliation and substantiation of all balance sheet accounts.
5. Coordinate with preparers, reviewers, and approvers across FinOps, Legal Entity Control, and Group Finance.
6. Ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulatory expectations.
7. Own and manage the AO governance framework, including escalation protocols, ownership disputes, and exception handling.
8. Chair or support governance forums, presenting MI and risk insights to senior stakeholders.
9. Ensure alignment with audit requirements and support external/internal audit engagements.
10. Design and deliver high-quality Management Information (MI) on AO performance, P&L at risk, substantiation status, and control metrics.
11. Track and report on recurring issues, remediation plans, and process adherence.
12. Act as the business lead for the Oracle ARCS rollout, partnering with Finance Transformation and Technology teams.
13. Define and refine workflows, user roles, evidence standards, and reconciliation templates within ARCS.
14. Drive user adoption, training, and change management across global teams.
15. Identify and implement process enhancements, automation opportunities, and control improvements.
16. Maintain and evolve the AO process guide, training materials, and best practice documentation.
17. Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, and proactive issue resolution.
About the candidate:
18. Strong understanding of financial control, balance sheet substantiation, and reconciliation processes.
19. Experience in governance, risk management, and audit engagement.
20. Familiarity with Oracle ARCS or similar reconciliation tools.
21. Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
22. Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data and drive insights.
23. Proven track record of leading process improvement and transformation initiatives.
24. Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or equivalent experience.
25. Experience in financial services or a regulated industry preferred
We are a Disability Confident Committed employer and are happy to provide adjustments to the recruitment process to support candidates.
Our benefits
There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.
When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits
Our business
Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do .
An inclusive way of working:
Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.
At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business., where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do.