Head of Finance and Planning Systems

This new full-time post is available from January 2026 on a permanent basis and offers the opportunity for hybrid working – some time on campus and some from home.

The university is developing a new ten-year strategy where digital ways of working will be central to delivering our vision and goals. The digital transformation will impact profoundly on our workplace design, the skills we develop, the way our students learn, and the way we work and collaborate, and we want to ensure that this transformation has our staff and students at its heart. We are investing in digital technology and skills development to strengthen our education, research, and partnerships, and to meet the needs of our community.

IT Services & Digital is central to all of this, and we are looking for people to join us who want to be part of this major transformation and part of changing the way we work and the way our students learn.

The role
The Head of Finance and Planning Systems role plays a central role in the execution of the IT Services and Digital strategy. It sits within the Business Technology Services (BTS) directorate in IT Services and has responsibility for the Finance and Planning Systems team, reporting to the Assistant Director of BTS.

BTS sits at the heart of IT Services and bridges the gap between IT and the business on matters relating to the provision and automation of critical business services. This currently includes Finance, HR, Planning and CRM systems and there are plans in place to broaden this remit to include key Estates and Education systems.

In addition to line management of a team of skilled Systems professionals, the role has responsibility for working with key stakeholders across the Finance and Professional Services divisions to deliver best-in-class Finance and Planning Systems, to support the 2030 strategy.

The role-holder ensures there is a prioritised roadmap of activity that enables the continuous improvement of our systems and guarantees safe and compliant day-to-day running of the platforms.

About you
You will be successful in this role if you have:

• Experience of large-scale Finance/ERP implementations in a large organisation.
• Experience of leading teams, setting performance standards and targets, creating communities, and motivating others.
• A strong finance background, with a recognised finance qualification.
• Excellent leadership and stakeholder management skills with experience of managing relationships with senior managers in challenging environments.
• Demonstrable experience of having supported, developed and optimised business systems, with experience of change management, the software development lifecycle and project management methodologies.
• Experience working in Higher Education. This would be highly advantageous as would experience of products including Technology One and Anaplan.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification (available on the university's website, accessed by the 'Apply' button) for full details of this role.

We will be reviewing applications as they come in, so please don’t hesitate in applying, as we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications.

Further information

For further information, please contact Adrian Sutton (a.b.sutton@exeter.ac.uk).

This role may be subject to additional background screening.

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