Finance Officer

Advert

Finance Officer

Cardiff School of Engineering

The School of Engineering is looking to recruit an experienced and enthusiastic Finance Officer. This post will provide line management to members of the Engineering Finance Team and support the Finance Manager in ensuring delivery of an effective and efficient finance service for staff and students within the School. The Finance Officer will oversee all financial transactions and communications, ensure compliance with the University’s Financial Regulations and Procedures and provide advice and support to stakeholders as required.

This post is full time (35 hours per week) available immediately and fixed term until 31 July 2026. Applications for internal secondment would be welcome.

Salary: £27,644 – £30,805 per annum. We do not anticipate appointing this position above point Grade 4 point 18 salary £27,644 per annum.

For informal enquiries about the post please contact Yurong Dai at daiy10@cardiff.ac.uk

For further details about working at Cardiff School of Engineering please contact Karen Baldwin/Chiara Riolo /Bev Jones at Enginadmin@cardiff.ac.uk

Date advert posted: Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Closing date: Tuesday, 19 August 2025

The School of Engineering holds an Athena SWAN Bronze Award that recognises good employment practice and a commitment to develop the careers of women working in science. Cardiff University is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. For this vacancy we actively encourage women to apply. We will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share opportunities.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds. We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.

Job Description

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Duties

• To be a primary contact for financial queries from staff, students and suppliers, providing advice and support on all areas of School finance, ensuring optimum quality and efficiency and compliance with the University’s Financial Regulations and Procedures
• To be responsible for liaising directly with suppliers, external companies and colleagues in resolving discrepancies or problems with orders, invoices and payments, using initiative and an understanding of the University and funders’ Financial Regulations
• Act as a financial approver (£1K limit), authorising purchase requisitions, invoice payments, expense and travel requests and other expenditure
• Provide support with all aspects of post-award research administration, including preparing and analysing regular budget reports; reconciling salary charges and investigating any discrepancies; advising on funder regulations; preparing forecasts on projected spend in different scenarios; assisting with extensions, virements and closure of accounts
• Prepare costings in relation to staff recruitment and staff changes
• Provide support with casual worker, Jobshop and student demonstrator processes, including arranging Right to Work checks and engagement documents; processing timesheets; monitoring spend
• Provide support with procurement, including assisting colleagues in identifying appropriate suppliers or liaising with Procurement Services to set up new suppliers as required; advising on University and funder regulations and VAT treatments; raising and receipting purchase requisitions and catering orders or using a purchasing card for ad hoc purchases; preparing a monthly reconciliation for any purchasing card transactions; updating the School’s inventory / asset database with details of all relevant purchases
• Process journals to correct charges, recode salary payments and arrange interdepartmental transfers
• Raise Sales Invoices as required
• Liaise with couriers to arrange collections and deliveries
• Maintain auditable records on the use of our School pool vehicles, reconciling and recharging costs on a regular basis
• Process invoices for authorisation and regularly action reports on Invoices on Hold and Open Orders, liaising with key contacts to progress and resolve any issues
• Support the work of the team, contribute to team meetings, develop good practice and provide cover for other colleagues within the team
• Support and maintain office systems and processes, suggesting improvements and contributing to their continued development
• Establish working relationships with key contacts to help improve service levels, developing appropriate communication links with the University’s Schools/Directorates and outside bodies as required
• Gather and analyse data to inform decisions, establishing basic trends and patterns in data and creating reports as appropriate

General Duties

• Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties
• Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity
• Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

• Ability to communicate in writing clearly, concisely, and effectively to provide detailed advice and guidance on finance.
• Evidence of a good standard of numeracy and IT literacy.
• Experience of working in an administrative role or environment and ability to set up standard office systems and procedures, making improvements to these as appropriate.
• Specialist knowledge of financial processes and procedures.
• Ability to communicate specialist and complex information effectively and professionally to a range of customers with varying levels of understanding.
• Ability to advise and influence key stakeholders in your area of work.
• Ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service you provide accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered.
• Ability to use your initiative and creativity to solve problems, respond to queries and make recommendations, identifying and proposing practical solutions.
• Ability to work unsupervised to deadlines, planning, setting and monitoring your priorities and those of the team.
• NVQ 3/A-levels or equivalent experience.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in a similar role or environment, e.g. Higher Education.
• Ability to speak/understand Welsh or a willingness to learn.
• Experience of using computer packages and financial software packages, such as Oracle.

Additional Information

IMPORTANT: Evidencing Criteria

Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL of the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable criteria.

As part of the application process you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement. Please ensure when submitting this document / attaching it to your application profile you name it with the vacancy reference number, in this instance, 20309BR.

Salary Range Min.

27,644

Salary Range Max.

30,805

Job Category

Admin / Clerical

Grade

Grade 4 #J-18808-Ljbffr