The posting
Our Story
Hello there. We’re Zopa.
We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!
We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.
If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife
We are looking for a Senior Technical Accountant to join our growing Finance function, reporting to the Head of Technical Accounting. You’ll provide technical accounting support for ongoing business activities, new products and other initiatives, and play a key part in the Technical Accounting team’s work, from accounting policy assessments to horizon scanning, audit engagement and the annual report. Strong stakeholder management is key to this role.
The demands on the Finance team are high as Zopa grows at pace, so you’ll need to build effective and influential relationships within Finance and the wider business. Our team are self-starting problem solvers who are agile and thrive on bringing past experiences and networks to a diverse range of challenges. You’ll be part of an impressive Zopa team, who are super collaborative and happy to roll their sleeves up and get involved in whatever needs doing to achieve their goals.
A day in the life
- Carry out technical accounting assessments for new transactions, products, significant contracts and other business initiatives, and draft clear accounting papers and memos.
- Play a key part in the Technical Accounting team’s ownership of the annual report and accounts, drafting parts of the report and coordinating other sections written by teams across Finance and the wider business, and helping to bring them together into the final report.
- Manage stakeholders effectively and work well with other Zopa teams, including Product, Legal, Treasury and Risk, building strong, influential relationships and giving clear, practical technical accounting advice.
- Support the development, implementation and upkeep of accounting policies and the accounting manual and give practical guidance on how policies should be applied across the business.
- Help put new accounting treatments into practice: make sure finance systems and processes are set up to support new activities, embed them into business-as-usual (BAU) processes and hand them over to the BAU teams.
- Support the technical accounting for balance sheet activity, including SPPI testing and hedge accounting assessments and documentation under IAS 39 and IFRS 9.
- Support the timely and accurate delivery of month-end reporting where needed.
- Work directly with the external auditors on accounting policy and technical accounting matters, answering queries and providing evidence and papers.
- Carry out horizon scanning of new and proposed legislation, regulation and accounting standards that affect financial and corporate reporting, prepare impact assessments, and highlight high-impact or high-risk changes.
- Help shape and deliver our work to automate the production of the annual report, an area where this role will be fundamental.
- Look for ways to use AI and automation to improve technical accounting, policy and reporting processes, and put them into practice.
- Keep up to date with developments in financial and corporate reporting.
About you:
- Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or equivalent) with relevant post-qualification experience.
- Experience of working in the financial services sector (ideally banking or consumer finance), or trained at a top six accountancy firm with financial services experience in a technical accounting role.
- Solid working knowledge of IFRS and how it applies to financial services products and transactions.
- Clear written communication, with experience of drafting technical accounting papers or memos and explaining complex accounting to non-accountants.
- A questioning mindset, and the ability to drive change to systems and processes to improve efficiency.
- A team player and problem solver. You’ll show great initiative to listen, analyse, research, investigate and provide solutions to problems relating to financial accounting and reporting.
- Comfortable managing several pieces of work at once in a fast-moving environment, and building trusted relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
- Curious about AI and how you can use it in your everyday work.
- Motivated, energetic and passionate about excellence and innovation.
Bonus points for
- Technical knowledge of IFRS 9 (expected credit losses, EIR), hedge accounting (IFRS 9 and IAS 39), IFRS 2 (share-based payments), and IAS 38 (intangible assets).
- Experience of operational accounting.
#LI-LK1
At Zopa we value flexible ways of working.
We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our London office 2-3 days a week.
You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year!* But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one.
*Subject to having the right to work in the country of choice
Diversity Statement
Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.
Our approach to AI in interviews
At Zopa, AI isn't something we're testing out — it's part of how we work every day. As a proud partner of Jobs 2030, we're committed to building AI fluency across our workforce, and we expect Zopians to use AI as part of how they do their jobs.
Because of that, we want to be transparent about how we think about AI use during our hiring process.
Behavioural and competency-based interviews: please don't use AI. These conversations are designed to understand you — your experiences, your judgment, and how you've approached real situations. An AI-generated answer can't tell us that. What it can do is get in the way of us finding out whether we're the right fit for each other.
Technical interviews: it depends on the role. Some technical stages actively welcome AI use, others don't. Your Talent Partner will let you know what's expected at each stage. Where AI is part of the assessment, we'll be interested not just in the outcome, but in how you used it – the tools you chose, your reasoning, and the decisions you made along the way.
