finance manager London, England
Job description
Programme Finance Lead
Salary: c.£75,000
Bonus: discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays - in our office, Monday and Friday - your choice)
Employment Type: We plan for this role to be full-time, but we’re open to discussing flexible working arrangements
About ARIA
ARIA funds breakthrough R&D for society. With an unprecedented level of independence and operational freedom, we are rethinking how to best support scientists and engineers whose work can change the world. We are growing our team to develop bold new approaches that can scale – from programmes to systems, processes and everything in between. If that sounds fun, come and build ARIA with us.
Learn more about how we work here.
Role Summary
You will be one of our first Programme Finance Leads working closely with Programme Directors with and the wider ARIA team to help shape and deliver programmes. This is an exciting appointment in the newly formed Advanced Research + Invention Agency, an R&D funding agency designed to make bold bets that complement and amplify the UK’s world-class research ecosystem. Our mandate: create new capabilities that can benefit the UK and advance human progress.
Joining us as Programme Finance Lead, you will be supporting ARIA’s Programme Directors who will be running ground-breaking programmes. You will report directly to the Director of Corporate and Programme Finance and take responsibility for financial management of a number of ARIA Programmes. You will be responsible for accurate and regular reporting and re-forecasting of the programmes. Working as an integral part of a small team, and with significant exposure to ARIA’s Executives, you will help ARIA deliver professional excellence within its finance operations.
What you’ll do
The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:
- Build trusted and responsive strategic support to Programme Directors
- Work alongside Programme Directors in capturing unstructured and uncertain requirements as they design, plan and implement the full delivery of the programmes
- Managing and allocating programme funds
- Working with the Director of Corporate & Programme Finance on the on-going re-forecasting for programmes
- Coaching a Programme Finance Manager on best practice and methods of working with the Programme Directors
- Provide comprehensive insight on all programme information and analysis to the management team, Programme Directors and the Board
- Ensure that ARIA’s Programme Directors have visibility into reliable and transparent financial data on all consolidated Programme spend
- Provide strategic direction on accurate programme re-forecasting models
- Build robust and efficient processes from scratch
- Manage the relationship with external grant and contract recipients, ensuring that all invoice, reporting and audit requirements have been met
Who you are
- Highly numerate with a high level of attention to detail
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Experience of working on multiple programmes or projects, or supporting different business units
- Knowledge of project accounting
- Experience of building financial plans with scenario planning
- Ability to manage own workload and priorities
- Adaptable mindset and comfortable with working in a fast-changing environment
- Comfortable with taking the lead in developing new processes
Desirable
- Experience of operating within a small/start-up private environment
- Central government or public sector experience
- Comfortable using a range of Google operating systems Google
- Comfortable with working in new scenarios
Qualifications
- Fully qualified (ACCA/CIMA or equivalent)
Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry! If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to the field, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar. Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.
