Financial controller | Edinburgh

Recruiter: Rutherford Cross

Location: Edinburgh

Salary: Competitive

Contract type: Permanent

Closing date: No set closing date

Interested in this role?

About the company

Heriot-Watt University is the eighth oldest higher education institution in the UK and originated as the School of Arts of Edinburgh (the world’s first mechanics institute) in 1821. In 1966 it became a university by Royal Charter. More than a third of Heriot-Watt’s 7,000 Edinburgh campus students are from outside the UK and this international focus is also demonstrated by the 10,000 students from 150 different countries worldwide studying on its international programmes.

The University boasts multiple campuses, with three in the UK (Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Orkney), one in Malaysia and one in Dubai. The University offers a highly distinctive range of degree programmes in the specialist areas of science, engineering, design, business and finance. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland's most international university, boasting the largest international student cohort.

The annual consolidated income of Heriot-Watt is £260.2m with an ambitious growth-focused strategy in place to grow revenues towards £300m over the coming years.

About the role

This role reports to the Global Financial Director and is responsible for providing strategic leadership to all aspects of the Edinburgh Finance Directorate. The role-holder will have direct management responsibility for 5 direct reports and overall responsibility for circa 20 employees. The role-holder will have significant influence on and provide thought leadership on the University’s financial control framework and processing activity. The role-holder will also provide financial leadership across the University and to the University Executive.

Key responsibilities include

• Providing leading-edge financial reporting and controlling processes to ensure University reporting meets all internal and external deadlines
• Ownership of overall control framework within the University and financial policies across the University, instil a rigorous balance sheet review process across the group to minimise risk and ensure credibility of the numbers within the financial ledgers
• Provide leadership on cash management, cash forecasting and across the general treasury function, in particular management of existing and new covenant lending arrangements
• Provide leadership for Treasury, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Financial reporting teams, developing team members
• Provide leadership on overall fraud management, ensuring fraud controls are appropriate for University – both now and in the future
• Lead, manage and develop the teams responsible for the above processes, ensuring colleagues are trained and supported in their day-to-day work and longer-term career development. Lead by example, demonstrating the university values and promoting a culture of customer service and efficiency
• Drive forward a continuous improvement culture in respect of the control environment, and spread best practice and across the Finance Team and University
• Completion and submission of Corporation tax, VAT and other relevant taxation forms
• Lead finance representation on key projects where appropriate
• Lead relationship with external auditors
• Deputise for Global Finance Director where appropriate and, as a member of the Finance Leadership team, contribute to the wider strategic development of the function and its services in support of University Strategy

About the individual

• Nationally recognised accountancy qualification e.g., CA, ACA, CPFA, CIMA, ACCA
• Holds industry recognised accountancy qualifications or equivalent practical experience in the workplace
• Experience of developing and implementing strategy
• Demonstrable experience of leading a team that includes multiple layers of management
• Demonstrable experience of managing resources, workloads and changing priorities for self and others
• Demonstrable experience of managing change
• Demonstrable ability to work within a fast-changing environment
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent influencing skills

To find out more on remuneration, the role or to see a full Position Profile, please contact their retained advisor, William Dodds at Rutherford Cross by emailing willdodds@rutherfordcross.com.