Head of Finance

Responsibilities

• Lead end‑to‑end delivery of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing and Cash operations, ensuring accuracy, compliance and strong performance against SLAs and KPIs.
• Improve working capital through effective cash forecasting, aged debt management and enhanced cash conversion.
• Oversee period‑end activities including reconciliations, cut‑off support and audit readiness.
• Provide strategic finance partnering, delivering insight, forecasting, budgeting and scenario planning aligned to client objectives.
• Produce high‑quality MI and analysis to support decision‑making and drive margin, cost and cash improvements.
• Support commercial activity including pricing, bid modelling, value cases and change control assessments.
• Strengthen financial controls, master data governance and risk management across all finance processes.
• Drive continuous improvement through standardisation, lean methods and automation.
• Lead and develop finance teams, ensuring the right skills, capacity and a high‑performance culture.
• Manage third‑party partners and collaborate with client stakeholders across operations, commercial, technology and audit.
• About You
• You'll bring deep expertise in finance operations and strategic finance, with the credibility to influence senior stakeholders and the drive to deliver measurable improvement.
• You will also have:
• Strong capability in planning, forecasting, performance management and scenario analysis.
• A proven track record of improving finance processes through standardisation, lean and automation.
• Excellent controls and governance experience, with a strong risk and audit mindset.
• Outstanding stakeholder management and the ability to translate complex financial information for non‑finance leaders.
• Commercial awareness across pricing, contract performance and working capital levers.
• Confidence with ERP systems and reporting tools (SAP or equivalent desirable).
• Professional finance qualifications (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) or equivalent senior shared services experience.
• A collaborative, data‑led, continuous‑improvement mindset.
• About Capita Education:
• Capita works in partnership with schools, academy trusts and local authorities to provide specialist expertise, ensuring every child and young person receives a good education, is in a safe and healthy environment and is given expert guidance to realise their full potential.
• At Capita we provide traditional back-office support services such as HR to schools and multi academy trusts. We also have a specialised education and skills support organisation, Entrust.
• Entrust is a joint venture company between Staffordshire County Council and Capita and has supported educational establishments across England to improve outcomes since 2013.
• As an education and skills support services organisation, we're all about excellence in education, creating better outcomes and making things easier for our customers. It's central to everything we do.
• What's in it for you?
• A competitive basic salary (Up to £75,000)
• 23 days' holiday (rising to 27) with the opportunity to buy extra leave
• The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office, volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice
• Auto-enrolment to our company pension, life assurance, a cycle2work scheme, 15 weeks' fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, paternity pay of two weeks...and plenty more
• Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle - from discounts on retail and socialising, to health & wellbeing, travel and technology
• Access to our Employee Network Groups, which represent every strand of diversity and allow colleagues to connect and learn from each other on an open, inclusive platform
• Unlock Your Potential with Capita
• At Capita, your career can take you wherever your ambition leads. You'll become part of a diverse network of talented, forward-thinking professionals working acro

Benefits

Additional Information

We're looking for a dynamic Head of Finance to lead the delivery of end‑to‑end finance operations and strategic finance insight for our clients. This role sits at the heart of our Finance Services capability-driving accuracy, compliance and efficiency across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing, Cash & Working Capital and period‑end support. Job title: Head of Finance Job Description: We're looking for a dynamic Head of Finance to lead the delivery of end‑to‑end finance operations and strategic finance insight for our clients. This role sits at the heart of our Finance Services capability-driving accuracy, compliance and efficiency across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing, Cash & Working Capital and period‑end support. You'll shape and deliver a service that blends transactional excellence with forward‑looking financial insight. This is a high‑impact leadership role for someone who thrives on improving financial performance, building trusted client relationships and driving transformation through data, standardisation and automation.

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