Head of Finance

DFN Project SEARCH is looking for an experienced charity finance professional to take on the newly-created Head of Finance role. As a well-established and successful UK charity, we are operating in a period of continued growth and require a Head of Finance who combines reliable financial insight, robust control and strong governance with hands-on delivery. This role will work closely with the Finance Director and wider executive team while remaining directly involved in month-end, reporting, controls, cash flow and systems improvement. This role has a requirement to travel to London an average of twice monthly as well as other UK travel to support away days and programme visits.

Key responsibilities include:

• End-to-end ownership of the finance function, ensuring accurate, efficient and compliant day-to-day operations.
• Working closely with the Finance Director to deliver management reporting, annual budgeting, statutory accounts and audit support.
• Strengthening cash flow forecasting, treasury oversight, credit control and financial planning to support organisational growth.
• Principal owner of the charity’s financial controls, policies, procedures and systems, further developing the use of Xero for real-time insight.
• Supporting the charity’s funding model through strong oversight of restricted funds, grant reporting, contract support and funder compliance.
• Build financial understanding across the organisation by supporting budget holders and translating financial information for non-finance colleagues.
• Clear reporting relationship with the Finance Director and line management responsibility for the Finance Administrator.

Essential criteria

The successful candidate should be a fully qualified accountant who is comfortable leading and doing in a small charity environment. They should be technically strong, confident with hands-on financial operations, and able to work credibly with the Finance Director, executive colleagues, trustees, external advisors and non-finance budget holders.

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or equivalent).
• Proven experience in a finance management role with end-to-end responsibility for a finance function.
• Strong working knowledge of Charity SORP and charity accounting requirements.
• Experience preparing management accounts, statutory accounts and board-level financial reports.
• Strong cash flow management, balance sheet reconciliation and month-end close capability.
• Experience of restricted funds management, grant reporting and supporting budgets for funding applications or tenders.
• Confident using accounting systems, ideally Xero, and advanced Excel.
• Ability to explain financial information clearly to non-specialist audiences and partner effectively with budget holders.
• Strong leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to line manage and develop a small finance team.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing Financial Instructions in a charity setting.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of leading change and process optimisation.
• Experience in a remote or distributed organisation.
• Experience of working with complex stakeholder groups across education, public sector, social impact or donor settings.
• Experience of payroll oversight, VAT returns and finance systems/process improvement would be highly valuable.

Remuneration and Offer Considerations

Over and above the salary range offered, we also offer:

• Flexible working arrangements considered including jobsharing and part-time (minimum of 4 days per week) work as well as a condensed hours working pattern of 10 working days over 9.
• Annual leave buy-back.
• Remote role with travel as required.
• Wellbeing benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme and NHS top-up support.