Role Profile: Experienced Accountant (Audit & Technical Accounting)
Location: Belfast, UK (CME Belfast)
Position Level: Senior / Experienced Associate (Newly Qualified)
Department: Corporate Accounting / Finance
About the Role
CME Group is looking for a sharp, newly qualified Accountant to join our high-performing global finance team. This role is a perfect launchpad for a professional transitioning out of practice (Big 4 or Mid-Tier) who wants to apply their rigorous audit background to a dynamic corporate environment.
You will serve as a key technical resource, leading financial statement preparation and managing statutory audits across our UK, EMEA, and APAC entities. Your expertise will ensure our reporting stands up to robust external audit scrutiny while supporting compliance across multiple international jurisdictions.
Key Responsibilities
- International Financial Reporting: Prepare and review statutory financial statements for global entities across the UK, EMEA, and APAC regions, ensuring strict compliance with IFRS and FRS 101.
- Global Audit Coordination: Act as the primary point of contact for external auditors across these international jurisdictions. Anticipate auditor requirements, prepare institutional-grade working papers, and resolve queries efficiently.
- Technical Accounting Guidance: Research, interpret, and document accounting treatment for complex transactions (e.g., revenue recognition, financial instruments, intercompany arrangements) under local and international standards.
- Cross-Border Alignment: Support the alignment of local entity financials with parent-company reporting requirements, helping bridge differences between local standards and US reporting principles.
- Risk & Controls: Critique and improve internal controls, documentation, and month-end close processes to minimise accounting risk across your assigned regions.
About You: Skills & Qualifications
Essential Criteria
- Professional Qualification: Newly qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA or equivalent).
- Audit Foundation: Strong background in external audit, with a proven track record of auditing corporate entities, managing audit files, and navigating risk assessments.
- Technical Accounting Fluency: Strong, hands-on understanding of IFRS and FRS 101 frameworks.
- Global Mindset: Ability to adapt to varying regulatory environments across the UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.
- Analytical Rigour: Advanced Excel skills and the ability to dissect complex data sets to draw clear, auditable technical conclusions.
Desirable Criteria
- US GAAP Knowledge: Practical exposure to or basic working knowledge of US GAAP is highly desirable.
- Financial Services Industry: Experience auditing or working within global financial services, fintech, or fast-paced international corporate environments.
What We Offer
- Global Exposure: Manage portfolios covering diverse international markets with cross-border team collaboration.
- Career Progression: Clear pathways into senior financial management, global accounting policy, or specialised corporate finance roles.
- Competitive Benefits: Standard CME competitive salary, performance bonuses, comprehensive health insurance, and flexible/hybrid working arrangements.
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CME Group: Where Futures are Made
CME Group is the world’s leading derivatives marketplace. But who we are goes deeper than that. Here, you can impact markets worldwide. Transform industries. And build a career by shaping tomorrow. We invest in your success and you own it – all while working alongside a team of leading experts who inspire you in ways big and small. Problem solvers, difference makers, trailblazers. Those are our people. And we’re looking for more.
At CME Group, we embrace our employees' unique experiences and skills to ensure that everyone’s perspectives are acknowledged and valued. As an equal-opportunity employer, we consider all potential employees without regard to any protected characteristic.
Important Notice: Recruitment fraud is on the rise, with scammers using misleading promises of job offers and interviews to solicit money and personal information from job seekers. CME Group adheres to established procedures designed to maintain trust, confidence and security throughout our recruitment process. Learn more here.
Skills Required
- Newly qualified accountant (ACA or ACCA or equivalent)
- Strong background in external audit with experience managing audit files and risk assessments
- Hands-on understanding of IFRS and FRS 101 frameworks
- Ability to prepare and review statutory financial statements for UK, EMEA, and APAC entities
- Advanced Excel skills and ability to analyse complex data sets
- Ability to research, interpret, and document accounting treatment for complex transactions (revenue, financial instruments, intercompany)
- Practical exposure to or basic working knowledge of US GAAP
- Experience in financial services, fintech, or global corporate environments (audit or corporate accounting)
CME Group Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about CME Group and has not been reviewed or approved by CME Group.
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Retirement Support — U.S. offerings include both a 401(k) and a company-funded cash-balance pension, strengthening long-term financial security. This dual-track structure is highlighted as a notable differentiator among private employers.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO and holiday schedules are described as generous, with ample time off and carryover commonly highlighted. This breadth of leave meaningfully enhances perceived total rewards.
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Flexible Benefits — A flexible, hybrid work model applies to many roles, increasing day-to-day usability of the package. Flexibility is framed as a standard feature rather than an exception.
CME Group Insights
What We Do
As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing provider in the world, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.
