Senior Associate, R&D Tax

We’re Gravita: the accountants fuelling ambitious businesses. We’re a full service, tech-enabled firm, working with entrepreneurs and businesses to help them achieve their goals, and make an impact in the world.

We’re growing fast and are bringing like-minded advisors together to form a full-service tech-enabled accounting partner for thousands of SMEs. Our team use their incredible expertise alongside intuitive technology to help businesses and entrepreneurs plan better and grow faster.

Our mission is to become the UK’s leading tech-enabled accounting firm for SMEs. We have ambitious goals and our high-calibre team work hard to achieve them. We are one team with one agenda, working collaboratively in a respectful environment to deliver a great service to our clients. So if you join us, you’ll not only be working on exciting client challenges, you’ll also be helping us shape the future of accounting.

The Role

As a Senior Associate in our R&D Tax team, you will prepare high-quality R&D tax relief claims for a varied portfolio of clients, the majority of them in software and technology, taking each claim from the initial information request through to submission. You will work directly with clients' technical and finance teams, take day-to-day ownership of your own claims, and support managers on reviews, HMRC enquiries and the development of the wider team. The role suits someone who already knows R&D claims well and wants to build towards managing a portfolio of their own.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prepare and deliver R&D tax relief claims from initial assessment through to submission.

• Conduct technical discussions with clients to understand qualifying R&D activities and draft clear project narratives.

• Review and analyse eligible expenditure, ensuring claims are accurate, maximised and compliant with legislation.

• Produce supporting documentation, calculations and compliance requirements for claim submissions.

• Manage client relationships throughout the claim process, including information gathering, timelines and communications.

• Support HMRC enquiries and compliance checks by preparing responses and gathering supporting evidence.

• Review work completed by junior team members, providing feedback and supporting their development.

• Stay up to date with changes to R&D tax legislation, HMRC guidance and industry developments.

• Contribute to process improvements, knowledge sharing and wider business development activities.

• Adhere to firm risk management procedures, professional standards and compliance requirements.

Qualifications, Knowledge & Experience:

• Significant experience preparing UK R&D tax relief claims.

• Strong technical knowledge of current R&D tax legislation and HMRC requirements.

• An ability to manage claims and client relationships independently.

• Excellent communication, analytical and Excel skills.

• Experience with HMRC enquiries and corporation tax compliance is beneficial.

• Relevant professional qualifications (ATT, CTA, ACA or ACCA) or equivalent practical experience.

• STEM background or sector experience in technology, engineering, manufacturing or life sciences is desirable.

Your Career with Gravita

When you join Gravita, we’ll support you on your own growth journey. We want to be the place you learn, grow and unlock your true potential.

We’ll work with you to build a progression plan to outline how you’ll grow at our company and everything we’ll do to help you get there. We’re also passionate about learning and development, to help you focus on your future.

The Key Details

• Our standard working week is a 37.5-hour week on a hybrid basis

• Core working hours are 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday

• Flexible working and happy employees are at the top of our list here at Gravita and we have been working hard to support our teams through the fast-paced changes.

• Your development won’t be forgotten, our development support is extraordinary for a firm of our size.

• It's a busy, fast-paced environment here at Gravita. Feel free to check out our social media channels (Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Glassdoor).