Finance Business Partner

Manchester Metropolitan University is looking for a Finance Business Partner to join the Business Planning and Reporting Business Partner team within the Finance Department. As a senior member of the team, you will primarily focus on supporting our Professional Services Directorates and the Head of Finance Business Partnering. Using your strong technical and financial modelling skills and sound understanding of the Directorates, you will provide advice and support to senior colleagues. You will also ensure that budgets are well constructed, managed and monitored and support senior managers in the production of plans to deliver improved performance, reduced risk and better value for money.

In this role, you will:

• Develop a deep knowledge of diverse business areas, their needs and priorities, making sure that the business understands the financial implications of decisions and available choices.
• Acting in an intelligent customer role to actively work with the business to understand cost drivers and performance priorities and interpret financial implications of decisions.
• Building, maintaining and influencing strong relationships with key stakeholders and budget holders, acting as the link with colleagues, ensuring that variances, forecasts and planning assumptions are reported and understood.
• Supporting the financial analysis of business areas to prepare for the business planning processes.
• Identifying sustainable cost savings targets and initiatives as part of the business planning cycle, along with understanding and articulating the impact of reforms and their ultimate effect on the business.
• Supporting on the construction of business cases through financial challenge and the identification of commercial implications of options considered.
• Building financial and commercial awareness of non-finance staff within the business.
• Support the Head of Professional Services Finance Business Partnering, attending meetings and forums as appropriate, providing practical and operational knowledge.

The ideal candidate will be:

• An excellent communicator, particularly when dealing with complex financial information and a non-financial audience.
• Able to influence the behaviour of senior managers to ensure they deliver the expected financial performance for their area of responsibility.
• Good at networking, both internally and externally, and building relationships at all levels of the organisation.
• Able to analyse large amounts of data and producing summaries which provide clear insights.
• Commercial in their approach to finance, balanced with a clear understanding of the non-financial objectives of the University.
• Able to work autonomously across a large and complex organisation.
• Hold a first degree or equivalent qualification and/or be an ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW or equivalent qualified accountant.

About the team:
Supporting the university in a series of increasingly dynamic, demanding and competitive environments, our work sees us involved in a growing number of partnerships and communities, across the city but also nationally and internationally. Our financial professionals play a key role in helping shape our strategic direction, making a key contribution to the long-term financial sustainability of a great global university. The work is intellectually challenging, exciting and hugely rewarding.

If you would like to join our people and share our ambition, we would love to hear from you!

To apply, please submit your CV and covering letter (detailing your suitability for the role) via our application portal.

For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Rebecca Bradley (Head of Professional Services Finance Business Partnering) at: r.bradley@mmu.ac.uk.

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