The Company

Capricorn Energy PLC is one of Europe’s leading independent upstream energy companies. Historically Capricorn Energy have discovered, developed, and produced oil and gas in multiple settings throughout the world as an operator and partner in all stages of the oil and gas lifecycle. Capricorn’s production, development and exploration activity is currently focused on Egypt, with further exploration activities in the UK North Sea, West Africa and Latin America. Today Capricorn’s focus is on growing their current gas and liquids production base through development and exploration.

Financial flexibility sits at the core of Capricorn’s strategic execution with an ongoing focus on retaining balance sheet strength, liquidity, and control over own destiny. This affords the business a differentiated freedom to both actively manage their portfolio and to pursue accretive growth opportunities at what they believe is an attractive point in the cycle.

The company revenue for 2020 was 394.7 million USD and 21,000 barrels of oil were produced per day on average.

The business adheres to high sustainability standards and corporate responsibility is at the heart of the company. Capricorn Energy remains committed to protecting the environment in the areas in which they operate and are committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Capricorn has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland supported by operational offices in London, Mexico, Egypt and Mauritania.

Background to the Opportunity

Capricorn Energy is seeking to recruit a Group Tax Manager to be based in Edinburgh after the internal promotion of Clare Mawdsley into the Director of Finance role. The position presents an excellent opportunity to lead the tax function at Capricorn and we are looking for a first class, qualified tax professional from an industry setting, with extensive experience of international tax.

The Payroll Manager and Senior Tax Advisor are direct reports to the Group Tax Manager.

The purpose of this role is to provide expert advice, guidance, and counsel across the Group so that an optimum tax strategy allows the company to maximise its value.

Critical to this role is the ability to influence and build strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Providing pragmatic advice on all new country entry opportunities as well as playing a key role in our M&A activities are strong features of this role.

Pivotal to this role is ensuring we remain compliant with the appropriate worldwide tax regimes and managing and mitigating the associated risks is vital.

The role is office based in Edinburgh 5-days per week. At the moment we are trialling a pattern where all staff are required to work three days in the office (set days of Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) and two days can be worked from home (Tuesdays and Fridays).

Principle Duties of the Role:

• Provide expert planning and structuring advice for all Group tax matters so that the company can maximise its value
• Provide critical tax-related input to all M&A and Divestment activities across the Group
• Deploy expert decision-making skills often when there is no obvious answer on complex tax-related or structural challenges
• Deploy deep technical assurance relating to tax compliance, reporting, and filing requirements for UK tax
• Provide support, challenge, and QA/QC overview to in-country assets on tax-related activities
• Explore and critically review Advisor advice on tax-related complex challenges and provide recommendations that fit the company’s risk appetite
• Proactively manage a functional risk framework to ensure visibility of significant risks and mitigating factors can be reported to the Board
• Provide advice to payroll function on PAYE, UK, and Expat employment taxes, including share schemes and long-term incentive plans
• Maintain deep industry and tax discipline knowledge so that the company can remain nimble and react swiftly to opportunities
• Support the Director of Finance and key stakeholders across the Group in providing sound advice and guidance on all tax-related matters
• Provide leadership and management support, guidance and training to Tax and Payroll team members to ensure competence levels meet ongoing expectations
• Proactively engage internal stakeholders to build strong relationships so that collaboration is achieved with ease
• Participate as an active member of the Company’s Pensions Committee
• Represent the company at Brindex Tax sub-committee meetings or similar in other territories

The Individual

Candidate Requirements:

• CTA or CA qualification (or similar)
• Extensive experience within the Oil & Gas industry and/or extensive international tax experience in emerging markets
• Managing and mitigating tax risks
• Subject matter expert on UK corporation tax and international tax regimes
• Strong working knowledge of PAYE/NIC and VAT requirements demonstrating an expert ability in dealing with both compliance and advisory issues
• Strong commercial nous
• Strong ability to work at pace
• Excellent relationship management skills with a high level of gravitas
• Strong communication skills, both reporting and presentations
• Sound people coaching skills
• Excellent planning and organisational skills
• Sound project / programme management experience
• Subject matter expert skills of accounting packages and use of Office 365 applications
• Strong working knowledge of IFRS and UK GAAP

To support our multi-country locations, conversational competence in French or Spanish would be advantageous, but is not essential. At Capricorn, our aim is to continually create and sustain a culture-rich nimble working environment where diversity and inclusion are hugely valued.

For more information and a confidential discussion regarding this opportunity please contact Amy Ferguson at [email protected]