Regional Finance Officer

As Regional Finance Officer, your role is an integral part of the schools in the region, responsible for ensuring high standards of financial integrity. Depending upon which school you are supporting, you will manage the daily and monthly financial processes in the school, ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Academies Financial Handbook. 

This is a regional position to support Ark Primary academies across London.   This regional role will involve travel within West London where we have schools based in Ealing, Westminster, Hammersmith Brent and Wandsworth.  You will be based over 2-3 schools where you will spend c.80% of your time with the remainder of time supporting regional working at our central office near White City. Your home school may vary on an annual basis.  You will work closely with (and report to) the Finance Director (London Primaries) and Regional Finance Managers and will also work with the relevant Principal and Operations leads at the school(s) you are supporting. You will be expected to be part of the school community.

The Regional Finance Officer will report into Finance Director (London Primaries). This role will be based in West London (home school to be agreed with time splits across other schools in the region) on a fixed term basis working full time.

Interviews will be held on Thursday 11^th April in person.

Key Responsibilities:

• Working closely with the Finance Director and Finance Managers for London Primaries and Operations Leads to ensure the continuing financial stability of the school
• Placing orders, receiving goods, and maintaining a professional relationship with suppliers
• Ensuring accurate and timely processing of purchase invoices and other documents using Concur and PS Financials accounting software, reconciling supplier statements, and preparing payment runs for authorisation
• Reconciling schools bank accounts, credit card statements and financial ledgers
• Assisting the Finance Manager with the preparation of month end and year end accounts
• Support the Finance Director for London Primaries in driving forward change and initiatives which promote regularity, propriety, value for money and best standards

Key Requirements:

• Right to work in the UK
• Experience of running effective administrative and financial systems, ideally within a school environment
• High level of proficiency with Microsoft Office, especially excel.  PSF financials and Concur desirable
• Experience using financial databases and confidence and interest in learning new technologies
• Strong organisational and time-management skills and the ability to delegate appropriately
• Ability to skilfully manage and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and other stakeholders
• Ability to manage own time to enable multi-school regional working
• Helpful, approachable and positive nature
• High standards and a keen eye for detail

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising with each year of service up to 30 days after 3-years’ service. This entitlement is pro rata for part time employees. This entitlement excludes bank holidays
• Full office closure between Christmas and New Year
  
• As an Ark employee, you will have the opportunity to be part of the TPT (The Pension Trust) scheme, our workplace pension scheme where we make an 11% contribution; you are not required to contribute towards this scheme unless you choose to. Depending on your role you may also be entitled to LGPS which is a defined benefit scheme where you contribute a percentage based on how much you earn (as do we) in exchange for a guaranteed amount in your pension pot every year
• Access to high-quality professional learning throughout your career, offering both face-to-face sessions and a bespoke online learning platform
• Access to Ark Rewards scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers, interest-free loans available for season tickets or a bike, gym discounts offering up to 40% off your local gym and free eye tests

Ark is an education charity that exists to make sure that all children, regardless of their background, have access to a great education and real choices in life. Our network of 39 schools reaches traditionally underserved communities in Birmingham, Hastings, London and Portsmouth. We educate 30,000 pupils and have nearly 3,000 teaching staff across our network. We also incubate and scale innovative ventures, which we roll out beyond our network of schools for the benefit of teachers, pupils and the education system as a whole. Current Ventures include Ark Curriculum Plus, which equips teachers with the subject expertise needed to ensure students succeed, and Ark Start, a growing chain of nurseries offering affordable, high-quality early years education.

Recently, Ark moved to new offices at EdCity – a unique not-for-profit development in West London, in partnership with Hammersmith & Fulham council. EdCity is designed to bring mission-aligned organisations together to focus on improving the lives of children, especially through education. It offers leased offices, a range of venues for training and events, and an innovation hub for the education sector to connect, collaborate and learn together.