2026 Finance Placement Watford

Hilton

  • Watford, Hertfordshire
  • £26,000 per year
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 2 days ago
We are thrilled to share that we are looking for seven students to join our Finance department on a 12-month placement at our EMEA Headquarters, Watford.From day one, you will be fully integrated into Team Hilton. Our placements offer vast exposure and opportunities, including networking with senior executives, involvement in regional conferences and for some, international travel.Based in our EMEA headquarters, Watford, you will be part of a cohort of 50 Interns and take part in regular connect meetings and feedback sessions designed to support your development. You will benefit from a subsidised restaurant, a games area and a free in-house gym.The OpportunitiesWe have seven placements available across seven different areas of the Finance team. If successful you will be offered a 12-month placement in one of our Finance sub-teamsHilton Finance Centre of Excellence:The Hilton Finance centre of excellence has two placement opportunities available, one in our Order-to-Cash (OTC) and another in our Record-To-Report (RTR) team. These placements provide exposure to a wide range of corporate finance activities, including journal postings, balance sheet reconciliations, VAT and revenue analysis, audit support, and financial reporting.Interns will work closely with experienced professionals across various finance functions within the centre of excellence, contributing to the monthly close process, supporting compliance and control activities, and engaging in continuous improvement initiatives. You’ll gain insight into Hilton’s financial systems and processes, develop your analytical and organisational skills, and build a strong foundation for a career in finance. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a collaborative, fast-paced team within one of the world’s most recognized hospitality brands, where innovation and excellence are at the heart of everything we do.Finance Operations Placement:The EMEA Finance Operations team is responsible for budgeting & forecasting for 600+ hotels across Europe, Middle East & Africa, management reporting for the Executive team, and ensuring hotels are compliant with Hilton accounting policies and in line with US Sarbanes Oxley requirements, supporting finance for new hotel openings, providing commercial finance support to the business and managing the forecasts and budgets for corporate cost centres.As an intern, you will support the team with regular reporting activities as well as ad hoc requests, presentations, newsletters, communications, etc. You should have a keen interest in the hospitality industry, particularly in understanding financial performance improvement and driving business process efficiency, strong communication skills, attention to detail, adaptability and a strong work ethic are very important as well as a desire to be a high-level Microsoft Excel user.Finance Global Brands & Commercial Services (GBCS) Placement:The GBCS Finance team supports Hilton’s Brand and Commercial engine - driving brand loyalty, top-line revenue and market share. This is a Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) arm of finance that is primarily responsible for the budgeting and forecasting of corporate expenditure across Brands, Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management and Technology functions.The team works with a wide range of stakeholders across multiple regions with varying reporting needs, so there are excellent opportunities to develop both analytical and business partnering skills. As an intern, you will support all aspects of our monthly deliverables and will have a unique opportunity to learn about our commercial operations, whilst getting to know the teams driving these initiatives.Consolidations & Reporting Placement:The Consolidation team is primarily responsible for consolidation, intercompany and review processes relating to the monthly reporting of results. We help ensure information is complete, accurate and in compliance with USGAAP, SOX and Group Audit requirements. Our focus is primarily on the international estate (including Europe, MEA, Asia Pacific, and Latin America); however, we are also responsible for several Global processes, which provide the department with a full overview of Group activities in certain areas.As an intern, you will work with a range of stakeholders and different reporting requirements across multiple countries, therefore there is plenty of scope to develop technical accounting skills and knowledge. The role will support the team in the preparation and review of monthly analytical schedules, account roll forwards, lead schedules, account reconciliations, variance analysis and monthly Balance Sheet and P&L journals.Statutory Reporting Placement:The UK Statutory Reporting and Accounting team is responsible for all aspects of statutory accounting across the international estate, including preparation of all UK statutory accounts for audit, and compliance overview of all other statutory requirements. Hilton has approximately 60 companies registered in the UK that report the results of UK leased hotels and all the international managed and franchised hotels. The team is responsible for producing backing schedules for all the individual UK legal entities, preparing the statutory accounts documents and facilitating the audits of the entities in order that the September filing deadline at Companies House can be met.As an intern, you will support the team in the preparation and audit of statutory accounts in accordance with FRS 101. This may comprise preparing workings to support the statutory accounts, preparing and making changes to the documents and checking that the documents do agree to the underlying records for that entity. This role provides the unusual opportunity to see the whole profit and loss account and balance sheet of a small group of hotels rather than one section of the balance sheet on a global basis. As a team there are multiple deadlines to be met, and you will be required to organise multiple tasks that enable the team to meet those deadlines.Why choose us?
Embarking on our year in industry programme is a transformative journey, encompassing a structured framework of learning and development activities. Here's what you can look forward to:
  • Learning and Development: Interns have access to Hilton University to enhance their skills and contribute meaningfully to ongoing projects.
  • Networking: Our interns can connect with professionals across the business, paving the way for valuable relationships.
  • Feedback and Growth: Regular evaluations and feedback sessions will ensure our interns receive guidance and an opportunity to continually improve.
  • Cross-Exposure: Opportunity to gain insight into another function.
  • Hilton Perks: Including our Go Hilton TM Travel Program, which provides you with access to heavily reduced hotel room rates for you, your family & friends.
  • Salary & Benefits: £26,000 Gross PA & private healthcare.
  • Location: EMEA Regional Headquarters, Watford. Our placements are office based with flexibility offered across some teams.
What are we looking for?
  • A strong sense of alignment to our culture and values.
  • A current Bachelor’s or Master’s student studying a degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Economics, or other equivalent - with a required 12-month year in industry placement.
  • Availability to start 13th of July 2026, full-time, for a 12-month placement.
  • Eligibility to work in the UK. If you are a non-UK national, without EU Settled or Pre-Settled Status then you will need to be studying at a UK university to be eligible to undertake a placement here.
  • Fluency in English (speaking, reading, and writing).
  • You should be able to demonstrate a genuine interest in Finance.
  • Able to demonstrate a high level of numerical and analytical capability.
What is it like working for Hilton?Hilton is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing hospitality companies, with 24 distinct brands and over 8,000 locations. We have recently been ranked by our employees as #1 World's Best Hospitality Workplace awarded by Great Place to Work & Fortune.We value and celebrate our team members diversities and individualism and foster a culture of belonging across our organisation. Joining Hilton will give you the opportunity to contribute to our rich culture and give back to the community. Our Team Member Resource Groups in UK focus on Abilities, Generations, Pride, Women’s and Ethnic representation. You can find details on our Culture page.We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We will ensure that qualified individuals with protected disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions of the role. Please contact us to request accommodation.Selection ProcessPlease apply now, applications close on Sunday 2nd November 2025. We receive a high volume of applications, so thank you for your patience while we carefully review each one to give it the attention it deserves.If successful in your application, you may be invited to complete a digital one-way video interview, an online assessment, and an in-person assessment centre on Thursday 27th November 2025. This process will allow us to learn more about you and whether this placement might be a great fit! So please do look out for our email updates and we encourage you to complete each next step as soon as possible. The EMEA Graduate Recruitment Team will then contact you and inform you of your outcome.Good luck, we are looking forward to meeting you!

Hilton