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About the Role
The focus of this role is to support and assist the Senior Finance Business Partner to lead a team of Finance colleagues, in a Finance Business Partnering Hub. The role will require you to successfully build relationships and partnerships with senior management and stakeholders across the University on a cross-section of financial, business, accounting activities and projects; leading the input and contribution into institutional projects and initiatives will be key to our ongoing success.
The aim is to drive impact and understanding of financial reporting on business performance and analysis, enabling a link to financial data to inform business strategies, while preparing and supporting business cases and financial analysis as needed. Provide advice, professional opinion and assisting with decision making will help ensure financial sustainability is maintained.
Key Responsibilities
- Preparation, continuous review, agreement and challenge of unit / faculty level budgets and forecasts, considering unit and cross university impact.
- Challenge and approval of resourcing decisions based on unit / faculty needs.
- Advice and modelling of complex proposals (e.g. curriculum, strategic business cases / programmes, major external projects etc.)
- Recommend and review the financial control and reporting frameworks in contracts considering delivery, mitigation, and risk, both financial & non-financial.
- Lead detailed financial planning / budget setting for business units ensuring any potential differences to the Income and Expenditure Model (IEM) are understood and agreed before publication.
- Lead zero based budgeting for high volume / complex non-staffing budgets.
- Establish level of risk and uncertainty in financial forecast and quantify potential financial impact.
- Establish early significant position changes for budget / forecasts on an ongoing basis in order to flag and influence financial decisions.
- Authoring (by exception for complex projects), reviewing and approving claims to funder.
- Involvement and approval of significant / material contracts, bids and tenders.
- Consider implications of external drivers and challenges and implement change as required.
- Support corporation tax analysis as required.
- Line Management and development of a small team of Finance colleagues.
About You
Essential:
- Extensive accounting experience and qualified in CCAB/CIMA
- Strong understanding of accounting principles and financial reporting and legislation
- Excellent analytical skills along with the ability to create and present detailed reports and deliver powerpoint presentations
- Ability to work and communicate effectively with all levels of management
- Adept at financial modelling and forecasting
- Proficient in Microsoft Office suite, especially with Excel
Desirable:
- Knowledge of the Higher Education sector would be beneficial
Support with your application
If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.
What's in it for you?
At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).
Flexible working
We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.
This role is available with a contractual location of either Milton Keynes, Belfast, Edinburgh or Cardiff. It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you will be required to work on-site 1-2 days per week with travel to other OU office locations quarterly and in response to business needs. Travel expenses will be paid for all location except the chosen contractual location.
Next steps in the Recruitment process
Interviews are anticipated to take place mid-November.
Early closing date notification
We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.
How to apply
To apply for this role please submit the following as separate documents:
- CV
- Supporting statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.
You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.
