Senior Finance Analyst

Senior Finance Analyst

£47,000 – £52,000 (+ Benefits)

Reports to: Finance Manager (Fundraising Finance-Marketing, Communities & Events)

Department: Chief Operating Office

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Closing date: 23 January 2024 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews

Interview date: From the week commencing 05 February 2024

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

We are looking for a qualified Senior Finance Analyst to join Cancer Research UK’s Fundraising Finance Team to deliver insightful reporting and financial planning for our Marketing & Supporter Engagement and Communities & Event Delivery business teams and products.

This role will own the financial reporting for a large and complex P&L with a combined cost of £62m+ which supports key income generating products that help fund our life-saving work such as Regular Giving, Legacy Giving, Events and Sports (including Race for Life and Facebook Challenges).

You will support the Fundraising Finance Manager, Heads of, and budget holders with budgeting, forecasting, and producing complex analysis to enable effective decision-making about costs that deliver the charity’s fundraising income. This will involve owning the financial planning for your P&L while playing a proactive, solutions-driven role in evolving and shaping more valuable cost analysis and insights to support business cases and commercial decisions. Therefore, this is an exciting (and fulfilling) opportunity for you to directly support and influence the financial performance and cause-driven impact of Cancer Research UK’s Marketing, Supporter Engagement, Communities, and Events.

As a Senior Finance Analyst, you will play an important role in coaching and supporting more junior members of the team and Management Accountants, while collaborating with the wider finance team to guide on financial planning for your business areas. If you are a qualified Finance Analyst looking for a supportive working environment where you’ll discover something new and develop every day while being surrounded by people who are as dedicated to beating cancer as you are, then we would love for you to join our team.

What will I be doing?

• Owning and delivering timely and insightful reporting for your specified business areas (Marketing & Supporter Engagement and Communities & Event Delivery). This involves understanding what is needed to inform decision making while identifying and clearly communicating the impact on the future.
• Supporting Heads of and budget holders with budgeting and forecasting. This will involve evolving and shaping insightful cost analysis to enable effective decision-making about costs that deliver fundraising income.
• Using your expertise and experience to provide high-quality analysis and decision support to initiatives, projects, and business cases from any area of Cancer Research UK as requested by the finance leadership.
• Analysing trends and performance, feeding findings into forecasts and long-term financial planning 
• Producing analysis that turns data into insight, helping decision makers to understand the impact of their initiatives and decisions on the Charity’s financial plan.  
• Coaching and supporting the management accountants on your team which involves allocating operational tasks.
• Collaborating with other members of your team and the wider finance team to guide on financial planning (forecasting, budgeting, and long-term planning) for your specific business areas.
• Developing and providing income/expenditure modelling to support all financial planning while communicating clearly to enable the organisation to own and take responsibility for their plans. 

What skills will I need?

To be considered for this role, you must have the right to work in the UK as we are not able to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

• Qualified accountant (ACCA/ CIMA/ ICAEW or equivalent) or qualified by experience (QBE).
• Significant experience of complex financial planning, modelling, and reporting within a large, complex organisation.
• Delivered cost and/ or income analysis and insights for a large P&L.
• Built strong stakeholder relationships at all levels with a demonstrated ability to clearly present and explain financial information while identifying the key themes to provide insight and tell ‘the story’.
• Highly numerate with an analytical and proactive approach to problem-solving a broad range of challenges.
• Advanced Excel skills having previously worked with financial modelling and with large, complicated data sets.
• Innovative and takes a step back and question what you and the wider team are doing to strive for continuous improvement in processes, approach, and outputs.

What will I gain?

Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don’t forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.

For the full job description and more information about working with us please contact [email protected]

Additional Information

For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

There’s a place for everyone at Cancer Research UK. Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves and reach their full potential. 

We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented, and believe that a diverse workforce will help us to beat cancer sooner. 

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you. We don’t expect everyone to meet all of the criteria listed.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen by emailing us at [email protected].

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.