Finance Specialist - Finance Office - 105534 - Grade 7

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 46,000

Job description

Position Details

Finance Office

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,130 to £45,413 with potential progression once in post to £48,149

Grade: 7

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to December 2025

Closing date: 3rd April 2025

This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.

Are you considering a career at the University of Birmingham?

Our Recruitment Team is hosting one-to-one conversations to help you understand the application process, provide updates on existing applications, and answer general questions about working at the University. Our next appointments are available on Friday 28th March; click here to book. Further dates and opportunities to connect with us in person will be advertised on future job listings.

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 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.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham.

Background

The Finance department at the University of Birmingham provides a range of services and advice to all areas of the University to ensure that the finances – present and future – support the University’s delivery of the Birmingham 2030 Strategic Framework.

The Finance Specialist Team is responsible for optimising reporting development, delivery and training across Finance and the wider service users across the University; ensuring that we fully utilise our system capabilities across our various platforms. We aim to drive innovation and improve digital capability within Finance through developing efficient and effective processes and innovative solutions to deliver business requirements.

Role Summary

We are seeking a qualified accountant to join our team as a Finance Specialist, focusing on the ongoing development and maintenance of our financial reporting, models, and templates. This role helps ensure the smooth operation of the team’s BAU activities, while contributing to structured development on projects in close collaboration with the Finance Project Manager.

The Finance Specialist will be responsible for running, maintaining, and enhancing our suite of financial reports and templates, ensuring they remain fit for purpose and aligned with evolving business needs. They will also contribute to new development initiatives, working within a structured framework where tasks are assigned, reviewed at key stages, and iteratively refined to maintain high standards and consistency.

The role will work closely with the Finance Project Manager, who will oversee project timelines and priorities, while also collaborating with the Senior Finance Analyst, who will provide technical guidance on solution design, architecture, and best practices.

This role is a good opportunity for a finance professional with strong technical skills who thrives in a dynamic environment, adapting to change and tackling inefficiencies head-on. The ideal candidate will have a keen eye for spotting improvements and the drive to implement practical and sustainable solutions, ensuring our financial reporting and modelling remain effective and fit for purpose.

Main Duties

• Maintain and enhance financial reports, dashboards, and models to support BAU activities, ensuring they remain accurate, efficient, and relevant to evolving business needs.
• Take ownership of existing financial templates and ensure they continue to meet stakeholder needs, making improvements where necessary.
• Contribute to development projects by completing assigned tasks, refining outputs through structured feedback, and ensuring consistency with project goals.
• Work closely with the Finance Project Manager to ensure deliverables align with project goals and are completed in a structured and iterative manner.
• Collaborate with the Senior Finance Analyst on the design and architecture of reporting and modelling solutions, ensuring consistency and adherence to best practice.
• Develop and maintain clear documentation for all reports, models, and processes to ensure sustainability and knowledge transfer within the team.
• Provide technical support and troubleshooting for Finance users, resolving issues related to the team’s reporting.
• Continuously seek opportunities to refine reporting and modelling techniques, incorporating automation and efficiency improvements where possible.
• Work alongside stakeholders across Finance and other departments to understand reporting requirements and ensure outputs align with business needs.
• Support training initiatives by developing guides and materials, and helping deliver direct training where needed, to help users interact effectively with finance reports and templates.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Relevant technical qualification (e.g. CIMA or ACCA) plus relevant practical experience, or significant relevant experience demonstrated through increasingly more demanding roles evidencing the experience necessary for this role.
• In-depth up-to-date specialist understanding and experience of finance and accounting principles.
• Strong technical expertise in financial reporting, modelling and data analysis - demonstrating a strong proficiency of working with data (e.g. Excel, Power Query, Power Pivot etc).
• Familiarity with reporting tools such as Power BI or other financial reporting software is an advantage.
• Strong problem-solving skills with an ability to think analytically and propose efficient solutions.
• A proactive approach to continuous improvement and a keen interest in optimising financial processes.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to produce and analyse information and data.
• Highly proficient IT skills, including MS Office and working with software. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, relationship building and influencing skills with the ability to deal confidently with a range of internal and external stakeholders/contacts.
• Excellent organisational and multi-tasking skills with a methodical approach to work and the ability to prioritise workloads in order to meet deadlines.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day-to-day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Dimensions

Roles at this level will require a broad understanding and practical experience of an administrative or professional field which will be used to plan the running and development of services and/or lead shorter term projects or contribute to larger projects. You will work with information which needs interpretation and analysis; you will use your judgement to identify the best solution to differing problems and issues, offering recommendations for managing more complex situations. You will need to liaise and/or co-ordinate activities across a number of different sections within the department or possibly with wider department or external bodies as appropriate.

Planning and Organising

• Plan the running and development of service(s), overseeing resources and inputting into resource planning as appropriate;
• Develop, agree and implement standards for delivery for own area;
• Plan relevant training and development of stakeholders in respect of report and enhancement roll-out;
• Provide professional advice, guidance and support to others within and outside their immediate work area;
• Oversee resources and make recommendations about future resource requirements.

Problem Solving and decision making

• Review, develop and propose solutions for problems with (for example) staff, budgets, services and/or systems;
• Deal effectively with unexpected issues, such as changing priorities;
• Deal with sensitive people matters/issues;
• Provide specialist advice and recommendations to support decision-making of others.

Internal and External relationships

• Understand their own and closely-related working areas and how they contribute to the success of the University;
• Has an understanding of how the University operates; actively seeks to share this knowledge with others;
• Developing empathy with the academic endeavour;
• Influence decision makers and win support for proposals;
• Develop excellent working relationships within and outside of own area and potentially with external stakeholders;
• Co-ordinate activities across a number of areas.

Informal enquiries to Ilyas Ehrari, email: [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviours here.

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.