Interim Deputy Financial Bursar

We’re thrilled to be working with Clare College, University of Cambridge in their search for an interim Deputy Financial Bursar.

This would suit anyone who’s available to start a contract sometime in July, and commit to the next 14-18 months, who has operated at Head of Finance/Finance Director level.

Other than getting to work on the beautiful campus, with incredible free lunches, cycle to work scheme and other great benefits – you’ll also get to work within the second oldest of the 31 Colleges in Cambridge – who’s alumni include Sir David Attenborough and Siegfried Sassoon. As working environments go, and organisations steeped in history – this would be hard to beat!

Competitive salary on offer, hybrid working. You must be able to travel to Cambridge weekly.

Department: Bursary

Responsible to: Bursar

Purpose of Job: The role of Deputy Financial Bursar is a senior leadership role, crucial to College life and involves wide ranging demands and challenges.

Reporting to the Bursar, this role leads on the development and maintenance of all necessary financial systems, reporting and processes to ensure the efficient and effective management of the College’s finances and compliance with statutory requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

• As a Head of Department, be an active and collaborative participant in the College’s leadership team and a positive role model within the College community.
• Lead and continuously improve the Bursary Department.
• Demonstrate an inclusive management style and build a collaborative team who deliver strong finance business partnering to the rest of College and excellent customer service to all stakeholders.
• Implement efficient ways of working that result in a high performing team, including identifying development or training needs, nurturing talent and managing any under performance
• To ensure Health and Safety requirements for the Bursary Department’s responsibilities are met at all times.
• Ensure team is working within and fully compliant with HR policies and procedures of the College

Team Leadership

• Be a proactive and positive member of the senior leadership team
• Inspire the team in Bursary to develop, grow and have fulfilling careers
• Drive high levels of productivity
• Organise, lead, and motive the team to develop professional service standards and ensure that staff are contributing to high quality service delivery

Financial Management

• Responsible for ensuring that the Bursary department provide an effective finance business partnering service to the Heads of Departments
• In conjunction with the Bursar, prepare the annual budget for the College and ensure that individual Heads of Departments have all necessary financial information for effective budget management on a monthly basis including investigation of any in-year variances.
• Responsible for the preparation of large project budgets and monitoring of large project spend, to ensure that accurate and timely information is presented to Heads of Departments to assist them in decision making.
• Responsible for managing the production of monthly management accounts in a timely and efficient manner.
• Responsible for the day-to-day management of the investment portfolio and liaising with College advisers, in support of the Bursar who carries overall responsibility.
• Monitor and manage the cash flow, especially for Old Court and major construction projects.
• Responsible for management of procurement and oversight of the iDocs system and for advising the Bursar of any significant procurement issues.
• Responsible for the management of the preparation of year-end accounting and taxation reports to ensure that the College complies with legal, charity and business requirements.
• Responsible for ongoing management of the tax affairs (direct and indirect) of the College.
• Responsible for administration of the USS College pension scheme (Fellows and employees), the development and maintenance of a good relationship with pension advisers and suppliers, and ensuring accurate pensions payments are maintained.
• Responsible for managing the College restricted Trust Funds, ensuring expenditure is properly incurred, and accurate records are maintained for donations.
• Responsible for overseeing insurance policies, their approval, cover-claim management and timely renewals.
• To maintain an awareness of developments in the field of public financial accounting to ensure the continued provision of a high-quality professional service.
• Responsible for the development and implementation of an annual audit plan to ensure that the College complies with financial and statutory regulations and standards.
• To present audit reports to the Finance Committee and Audit Committee to identify areas requiring attention and to ensure implementation of any actions agreed.
• To maintain a working relationship with external auditors to ensure that they have all the information they might require.
• To apply rigorous, cost control to the budget, set innovative pricing strategies and adopting an approach of continuous improvement of service and costs