Deputy Director of Finance

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Detail information about job Deputy Director of Finance. Terms and conditions vacancy

Deputy Director of Finance

£Competitive

South Kensington, London

The Royal College of Art is the world’s leading university of art and design, placing at Number One in the 2017, 2016 and 2015 QS World University Rankings. Specialising in teaching and research, the RCA offers the degrees of MA, MPhil, MRes and PhD across the disciplines of applied art, fine art, design, communications and humanities.

Reporting to the Director of Finance, the Deputy Director of Finance will lead and manage the Finance Department (currently 14 posts) in support of the strategic and financial objectives of the College through the operation of a first class Finance Department. The Deputy Director of Finance will drive the continuous improvement, efficiency and enhanced student experience of the College’s Finance function.

The post will be change related, broad and overarching in nature, but the primary responsibilities of this role are to:

• Provide financial leadership to the Deans, Department Directors and other staff across the College.
• Provide appropriate financial information for decision making purposes.
• Manage the day-to-day running of the Finance Department, ensuring all accounting processes are carried out in a secure, accurate and timely manner.
• Establish and maintain processes, policies and procedures to ensure proper financial control, communicating finance policies to staff across the College.
• Comply with HEFCE and other regulatory requirements.
• Deliver a Value for Money (VFM) service by making full use of IT and web-based technologies.

The role requires liaison internally with College staff at all levels, but most notably at Dean, and Director of Department level, and externally with the College’s external & internal auditors, bankers, insurance providers and other professional advisors (e.g. for tax). He/she will attend the College’s Resources and Audit Committees.

Person specification:

• You will be an exceptional, fully qualified accountant (ACMA, CIPFA, ACCA, ACA) with significant post-qualification experience, ideally at financial controller, head of FP&A or similar level.
• Strategic capability, able to understand the wider business context and to add value to strategic decisions.
• Used to leading and managing a team including experienced and qualified accountants. Demonstrable ability to manage people and to bring the best out in them.
• Strong analytical and decision support skills, with the ability to be able to identify and interpret trends and improve financial forecast data.
• Good written and oral communication skills, able to communicate complex financial matters to non-finance staff and to build trust based relationships with senior managers throughout the organisation. Enthusiastic, self-confident approach.
• Strong finance system skills, including the knowledge and understanding of implementing step-change financial systems and process improvements.

Key timings:

• Closing date 18 September please send your CV and a brief cover letter to [email protected]
• 1st interview 29 September 
• 2nd interview 6 October 

For more information, please contact the RCA’s recruitment partners Allen Lane, Michael Quest on 0203 031 9638 or email [email protected]