Senior Finance Analyst - Finance Office - 107017 - Grade 8 in Birmingham

Position Details

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £47,389 to £56,535 with potential progression once in post to £63,606

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 17 February 2026

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector‑leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.

With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide‐range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state‑of‑the‑art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Background

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence.

Department overview

The FP&A team sits within the Financial Services department which also includes the Business Partnering and Corporate Accounting teams. The team are responsible for running a reliable and responsive Financial Planning and Analysis function that provides the CFO, Deputy Director of Finance, the Senior Management Team across the university with incisive, value‑add financial support and analysis which facilitates effective decision making.

Role Summary

Reporting to the Head of FP&A, this is a new senior role that has been created to provide a change in focus across the Financial Services team. The role will ensure finance data is consistent and accurate for reporting, both internally and regulatory reporting. They will support cross team business process improvement and seek to develop data‑led, automated and efficient processes. The role holder will be responsible for the provision of timely and accurate relevant data and reporting. This will involve provision of the data for monthly reports, budgets and forecasts, regulatory reports and management of the budget and forecasting models and university chart of accounts. They will need to be innovative and driven to develop, document and embed new standard ways of working. They will have a knowledge of SQL, PowerBi and finance and planning process and systems. They will have a strong focus on process improvement.

Main duties

• Produce complex and technical financial data in a standard format for the monthly reporting pack to senior stakeholders, to strict deadlines, to allow the FP&A Manager to add commentary and insight.
• Provide technical financial systems and data advice and guidance to colleagues within Finance and across the University.
• Work closely with the Analyst in the finance projects team to ensure new reports are developed in conjunction with the business need, stakeholder requirements are appropriately sought and the reports can be ran operationally in the most efficient manner.
• Responsible for the data for the quarterly Finance report, which is used to communicate results to the University Executive Board and other university committees.
• Provide technical advice and support PowerBi reporting across the department.
• Manage the department process monitoring and improvements.
• Support PowerBi reporting across the department.
• Work with key stakeholders across the University, Business Partnering, Corporate Accounting teams to understand their financial reporting requirements and work with the Analyst in the Finance projects team to develop and implement solutions.
• Responsible for developing and implementing changes that would impact financial processes and management across the University.
• Manage the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) reporting tool ensuring the data is correct and aligns with the rules and principles.
• Manage the tools and data for the university staff forecasting and budgeting.
• Prepare and provide data for the institutional regulatory returns such the Office for Students (OFS), Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Office for National Statistics (ONS), Charity Commission and other regulatory bodies, to allow the FP&A team to add commentary and insight.
• Use sector and university data to produce benchmarking reports.
• Develop and improve the month end processes to improve efficiency and increase automation.
• Ensure the integrity of the financial data supplied by the Finance team to other areas of the university and to external stakeholders ensuring compliance with the Higher Education Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for producing financial management information.
• Develop innovative reporting and finance tools to enhance the efficient provision of management information.
• Actively engage and collaborate with, as well as support the other members of the Financial services team.
• Working closely with the other members of the FP&A team to ensure all financial forecasting requirements are met, improving and developing budgeting and forecasting processes.
• Actively supporting the production of data for the year end external audit.
• Continuous development of self and team through coaching and training, both formal and informal, to develop and embed a strong financial controls environment.
• Actively engaging with the wider Finance function to support the Finance Strategy and feed into the design of the future university financial reporting requirements.
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification plus substantial work experience in a financial analysis role. A higher degree may also be held. Where no equivalent qualification is held a proven track record of extensive and substantial work experience in a series of progressively more demanding and relevant roles will be required.
• Proven technical specialist knowledge and understanding in a relevant technical area (specialists will require advanced technical expertise) including Structured Query Language (SQL), importing and exporting data from finance systems and databases etc. Accountancy qualification is desirable.
• Significant experience of developing and improving financial reporting and processes.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
• Highly developed technical IT skills, including use of a range of IT systems and the MS Office suite. You should be extremely confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages.
• High level of self‑motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure.
• In depth knowledge of financial legislation and regulation including Higher Education Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP).
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy.
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Informal enquiries to Lindsey Ingle, email: l.a.ingle@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here.

Use of AI in applications

We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.