UCAS is at the heart of connecting people to higher education.

UCAS is the world’s leading shared admissions service for higher education. We provide application services for UK universities and colleges as well as delivering a wide range of research, consultancy and advisory services to schools, colleges, careers services, professional bodies and employers.

We’re a successful and fast-growing organisation, which helps hundreds of thousands of people every year. We're committed to delivering a first-class service to all of our customers — they're at the heart of everything we do.

Our Finance and Corporate Services business unit is a fusion of multiple functions — financial planning and accounting, facilities and building management, procurement, corporate governance and performance, legal and compliance. The Finance Team also defines UCAS' financial strategy.

The Senior Finance Business Partner will provide a commercially focused finance business partnering service across UCAS. Acting as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, this role is critical to driving financial performance across the organisation, providing insight, challenge, and support to ensure the effective delivery of the UCAS strategy.
A key focus will be on evaluating strategic investments, supporting on business cases and ensuing robust benefits realization which deliver impact and maximise return on investment.

Key accountabilities:

• Business Partnering – Act as a finance lead for designated Chief Officers, ensuring that the impact of decisions is understood, performance is tracked, and outcomes are explored. The role is also required to influence decisions, shape strategy and the direction of the business to ensure the mission is delivered along with key operational, commercial, and financial targets.

• Strategic Investment Support – Lead the financial evaluation of strategic investment proposals, ensuring alignment with UCAS’ strategy, utilising robust financial appraisals, modelling and risk analysis.

• Benefits realisation – continually improve the financial framework to track and report on benefits realisation, monitoring performance against forecast and proactively identify areas of opportunity, underperformance, and risk.

For full job description, please see role profile attached.

• Qualified accountant or able to demonstrate an equivalent level of work experience with excellent knowledge and understanding of financial accounting principles and processes.

• Strong expertise in investment appraisal, business case development, and benefits realisation.

• Line management experience.

• Outgoing, persuasive, and a confident communicator with internal and external stakeholders at all levels

• Comfortable operating in the detail, but also with the ability to understand the big picture

• Ability to analyse and report at a strategic and operational level in a concise agile manner to suit the audience

• Confident and organised to lead projects in a structured way

• The workload is diverse and time pressured, so you will be a "right first time" type of person, comfortable keeping plates spinning whilst always delivering on time and to a high standard

• Curious and constantly striving for improvement; the ability to challenge the status quo and look for innovative and creative ways to solve problems and improve processes

• Proven experience of financial performance reporting and planning, with a clear view on how to present the information and make recommendations

• Experience of partnerships and acquisitions

• Highly proficient in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint

• Discrete and trustworthy.

Salary - up to £60,000

• 30 days annual leave (plus 3 concessionary days over Christmas and your bank holidays!)

• Flexibility – UCAS positively supports Hybrid working for its employees, meaning you can work between home and the office in a way that suits you and the business and also has a comprehensive Flexible Working Policy

• A generous pension scheme

• Hundreds of high street discounts and offers with Perkbox

• Internal training and development

• Subsidised gym and café

• Be rewarded for going above and beyond with our ex-gratia bonus scheme and Celebrating U, our quarterly employee recognition scheme
• Dedicated volunteer employee networks promoting wellbeing, awareness and inclusion