AMS PSR

On behalf of The Insolvency Service, we are looking for a Cost Accountant (Inside IR35) for a 6 month contract based in the office 3 days per week (60% of the time) in any of their national offices.

The Cost Accountant will play a key role in designing and embedding a Unit Cost Framework to support robust, evidence‑based costing across the Agency. Operating within the discovery phase of delivery, the role focuses on building a practical and defensible cost allocation model aligned to Managing Public Money, to inform future funding requirements, fee setting, and assessment of organisational change.

This is a hands‑on role requiring strong cost accounting expertise, sound professional judgement, and the ability to work effectively with imperfect data in a complex operational environment.

As a Cost Accountant, your main responsibilities will be:

• Define and support the development of clear operational output and outcome units, including understanding variations in complexity.
• Map end‑to‑end activities required to deliver each unit, covering:
  • Direct operational delivery
  • Indirect operational activities
  • Operational support functions
  • Corporate support functions
  • Overheads and enabling costs (e.g. property, IT, leadership, governance).
• Identify and map roles to activities, distinguishing between direct and indirect contributors to delivery.
• Build a comprehensive cost base across services, support functions and corporate areas, identifying directly attributable and shared costs.
• Review and assess alignment of existing cost centre structures with defined operational units and recommend improvements.
• Design and apply appropriate cost allocation methodologies, using direct assignment, cost drivers or proxy approaches where required.
• Fully document allocation assumptions, data sources, refresh cycles, limitations and future improvement pathways.
• Assess available data and systems, identifying gaps, constraints and practical options to improve cost accuracy and transparency.
• Analyse cost behaviour, distinguishing fixed, variable and stepped costs, and identifying structural versus scalable cost elements.
• Communicate complex costing concepts clearly and concisely to non‑finance stakeholders.
• Work collaboratively across operational, corporate and technical teams to ensure the framework is practical, robust and fit for purpose.

Essential:

• Proven experience in cost accounting, cost modelling or cost allocation within a complex organisation
• Demonstrable ability to design and build cost models or frameworks from first principles
• Strong understanding of direct, indirect and overhead cost attribution
• Experience working with imperfect or incomplete data, applying sound professional judgement
• Ability to assess cost behaviour (fixed, variable, stepped) and identify cost drivers
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to structure and document assumptions clearly
• Confident communicator able to explain complex costing concepts in plain English to non‑finance audiences

Desirable:

• Experience of activity‑based costing or unit cost frameworks
• Experience within the public sector or large operational environments
• Familiarity with Managing Public Money principles
• Professionally qualified accountant (e.g. CCAB / ACCA / CIMA / ACA) or equivalent experience

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, The Insolvency Service guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply.

.Armed Forces Covenant / commitment

The Insolvency Service guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".