Temporary Finance Director in Preston

The Finance Director leads the school's financial management and controllership activities, ensuring accuracy, integrity, and strong alignment with strategic priorities. This includes budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, internal controls, compliance, cash flow oversight, and strategic decision support.

The role works closely with the School Leadership Team, Regional and Group Finance to provide high-quality financial insights, enable effective decision-making, and ensure long-term financial sustainability. Responsibilities include managing financial statements, statutory accounts, and audits in accordance with internal policies and regulatory requirements (IFRS, and Group standards).

A key focus is maintaining robust financial controls, safeguarding assets, driving operational efficiency, and ensuring reliable financial systems, budgeting, forecasting, and processes. The Finance Director also leads cost-optimization initiatives, vendor and contract management, tax compliance, and working-capital management.

• Lead the month-end close and ensure timely, accurate management accounts, financial statements, and performance reports for the School Leadership Team, Regional Finance, and Group Finance.
• Oversee statutory accounts in compliance with local GAAP, IFRS, and Group policies, ensuring full regulatory alignment.
• Manage all internal and external audit processes, including planning, documentation, communication with auditors, and follow-up on findings.
• Regularly assess and strengthen financial and compliance controls to enhance governance, reduce risk, and ensure the integrity of financial information.
• Prepare and review key financial reports (month end closing, capex, cash collection, KPIs, variance analyses) to support operational and strategic decision-making.
• Maintain high standards of documentation, data quality, and process discipline to ensure accuracy, auditability, and operational efficiency.

Financial accounts and business reports are accurate, produced within deadlines, and adequately highlight operational performance.

• Prepare and lead the school's budgeting, forecasting, and multi-year financial planning processes, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities, long-term sustainability, and proactive identification of risks and opportunities.
• Analyze financial performance against budget and forecast, identifying risks, opportunities, and required actions to support informed decision-making by the School Leadership Team and Regional Finance.
• Implement and maintain strong financial controls to safeguard assets, ensure data accuracy, and support compliance with internal policies, Group requirements, and local regulations.
• Oversee cash-flow planning and working-capital management, ensuring liquidity, efficient resource allocation, and operational continuity.
• Drive continuous improvement by enhancing financial processes, tools, and reporting capabilities, improving efficiency, reducing manual work, and strengthening internal controls.

Financial performance aligned to forecasts and all risks and opportunities understood, communicated and managed by the School Head of Finance with support from the Regional Team.

• Oversee procurement and contract management, ensuring transparency, cost-effectiveness, and compliance with Group and Regional policies. Lead negotiations, evaluate vendor performance, and work with Operations and Facilities to ensure purchasing decisions support operational efficiency and long-term financial sustainability.
• Implement strong procurement controls - including vendor due diligence, approval workflows, and periodic contract reviews - while identifying opportunities to streamline processes, consolidate suppliers, and drive cost optimization without compromising service quality.

Build strong partnerships with the School Leadership Team, Regional Finance, Group Finance, and budget holders, providing timely and accurate financial insights to support strategic and operational decisions.

Act as a trusted advisor to academic, operational, and administrative departments, clearly communicating financial implications, business cases, and cost considerations aligned with school priorities.

Liaise professionally with parents, staff, auditors, and external stakeholders on financial matters, ensuring transparency, responsiveness, and a high standard of service.

Coordinate required inputs for Group Tax, Legal, and Treasury teams, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and adherence to corporate expectations.

Lead, develop, and mentor the Finance team, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and strong service orientation across all financial processes.

Collaborate closely with Operations, Facilities, and other departments to integrate financial insights into operational decisions and optimize resource utilization across the school.

Maintain effective partnerships with Regional Finance, Group Finance, and the Group Real Estate team, ensuring alignment on strategic initiatives, capital projects, and long-term planning.

• Team's performance reviews
• Training feedback

Ensure full compliance with financial procedures, accounting standards, local regulations, and Group policies, maintaining high levels of governance, control, and accuracy across all financial processes.

Oversee payroll processing, ensuring timely payments, proper accounting treatment, adherence to regulatory requirements, and strong coordination with HR and operations.

Continuously evaluate and enhance financial processes, identifying opportunities to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, strengthen internal controls, and reduce manual activities through automation and system improvements.

Maintain accurate, reliable, and audit-ready financial systems and records, ensuring that policies, procedures, and controls remain updated in response to regulatory changes, audit findings, and evolving Group requirements.

Promote a culture of compliance, ownership, and operational discipline within the Finance team, ensuring consistent application of best practices across all financial activities. Best practice processes are shared and employed across the Finance Teams.

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in accounting, controllership, or financial leadership, preferably in an educational or service-based organization.
• Strong experience with statutory compliance in the country, including audits.
• Solid knowledge and practical experience with IFRS and local-to-IFRS adjustments.
• Experience in budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, consolidation, and cash-flow management.
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, or related field; Strong analytical skills and ability to translate complex financial data into clear insights for non-finance stakeholders.
• Proficiency with financial systems (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics/Navision) and strong Excel/financial modeling skills.
• Experience in procurement and contract management, including vendor evaluation and negotiation.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with academic, operational, and administrative teams.
• You are a team player who shares your knowledge to help colleagues and students learn and grow. Your decisions are made with the best interests of students, school communities, and the wider organisation in mind. You act with integrity using technology when you can, to generate data and insights that support your decisions.
• You are effective at working in changing environments and embracing change, which helps us to improve our schools. You challenge yourself and others to deliver outstanding commercial performance, which leads to growth and exceptional student experiences.

Every day, our teachers and support colleagues help our thousands of students achieve more than they ever imagined possible. A transformational education at one of our schools is focused on excellent academic outcomes, creativity, wellbeing, and international connectedness. Our people are empowered to make a difference in their fields of expertise. When you join our team, you'll become part of a global family of experts working for a fast-growing premium international brand.