Interim Project Accountant | Award-Winning Food Manufacturer | Northern Ireland / Hybrid
The Client
Harmonic is partnering with an award-winning, family-owned food manufacturer supplying major UK and Irish supermarkets, coffee chains and international airlines. Turnover has doubled in five years to almost £40m, and a newly appointed senior leadership team is now putting the structure in place to take the business towards £100m. Finance sits at the centre of that move from family-run SME to corporate.
The Role
This is a hands-on interim of at least six months, reporting into the Head of Finance and working closely with the CFO and wider C-suite. You will own a portfolio of improvement projects across finance and the wider business: digitising the finance function, completing the move to live reporting, tightening internal controls and stress-testing the balance sheet, with as much as possible delivered before the March 2027 year-end. It suits a self-starter who can take a project and run with it. Once the groundwork is done, there is scope to extend into a planned ERP implementation.
Key Responsibilities
- Digitise and streamline the purchase ledger, sales ledger and credit control processes, and automate weekly reporting.
- Complete the move from monthly management accounts to live reporting, building a set of dashboards for the C-suite and senior management team from production and sales order data.
- Use AI tools to automate processes and draw commercial insight from operational and financial data.
- Review internal controls across finance and the wider business: test compliance, identify weaknesses and implement improvements.
- Challenge the balance sheet: verify the fixed asset register, clean up the debtors book, correct balances where needed and put procedures in place to keep them right.
- Streamline and strengthen the annual budgeting process.
- Help formalise finance policies and procedures as the business takes on a more corporate structure.
Essential Experience
- Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA).
- A track record of delivering finance improvement or transformation projects independently, with minimal direction.
- Experience digitising finance processes and automating reporting, including building management dashboards.
- Strong grounding in internal controls and balance sheet review.
- Confident working across functions and with senior leadership.
Desirable Experience
- Manufacturing or food production experience.
- Practical use of AI tools for automation and data analysis.
- ERP selection or implementation experience.
- Finance support on capital projects, such as site extensions or new warehousing.
Day rate: £400-500 per day (Outside IR35)
Contract: 6 months, with potential to extend into an ERP implementation
Location: Northern Ireland, hybrid, within an hour of Belfast and Dublin; open to remote for the right candidate
Start Date: ASAP
For more information, get in touch with Ewan Fenley ().
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At Harmonic, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. We actively welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and assure you that every candidate will be thoughtfully considered for the roles we represent, without regard to race, religion, gender expression, disability, or sexual orientation.