Shared Services Manager

Internal job title: Shared Services Manager (Head of Financial Transactions & Processes)

Advertised Salary: £55,000 - £60,000 + benefits

Location: Remote, with the successful applicant required to be in the Leeds office with the team one day per week (Thursday). 

Looking for a new Finance opportunity that offers professional development, flexible working, creative autonomy, and prioritises well being?

The Canal & River Trust is one of the UK’s largest charities, we maintain 2,000 miles of historic canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs, along with museums, archives and the country’s third largest collection of protected historic buildings – preserving them for future generations. Our 1000+ employees care for living waterways that transform places and enrich lives, delivering greater wellbeing to millions of people.

(https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/how-we-make-a-difference).

We have an exciting vacancy within our Finance team for a Shared Services Manager, who will help shape the Trust' financial team as part of an on-going development project. This is a key role to the Trust as we look to continuously improve within the function, through technical knowledge and charismatic leadership. 

This role reports to the Group Financial Controller and is responsible for managing service delivery across O2C and P2P, leading a number of the shared service finance teams at the Trust including Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Cash & Billing.

This role is crucial for ensuring accuracy, compliance, and efficiency in all financial transactions, driving process improvements of end-to-end processes, and supporting financial planning and decision making within the Trust. Your area of influence will include: 

• Sales ledger of up to £40m.
• Purchase ledger of up to £15m.
• Extensive cash management responsibilities.

• Provide leadership for the Shared Service Finance teams, with four direct reports, being responsible for 18 colleagues including indirect reports. 

See our annual report here:  https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/annual-report-and-accounts

Location

The role will be based working from home, with the allocation of a nearby Hub for collaborative working in Leeds, Newark or Burnley. The successful applicant is required to be in the Leeds office with the team one day per week (Thursday).

The regularity & flexibility of travel will be discussed further at interview stage.

See our canal network here: (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network). 

We are looking for a highly effective leader with great people skills.  Through your engaging leadership style, you will develop and grow your team to educate and inspire others across the Trust and ensure delivery.

Your key accountabilities include:

• Leadership : Direct and manage the Shared Services finance team, including Accounts Payable, Credit Control, Legal debt recovery and Cash and Billing
• Process Improvement : Learning and applying lean techniques to continuously improve processes within the Trust.
• Transaction Oversight : Oversee the accurate, timely and efficient processing of the financial transactions.
• Systems Improvement : Proactively identifying areas for improvement and lead the implementation of those improvements
• Risk Management : Assisting with the design and operation of underlying financial internal controls to ensure the integrity of financial information.
• Support : Providing advice and support to other members of the Finance community and Trust staff.
• Reporting : Designing, reporting and monitoring KPIs of the Transactional teams to motivate and optimise performance
• Collaboration : Managing and maintaining professional internal and external relationships, including the finance and operational teams.
• Compliance : Responsibility for ensuring GDPR requirements are upheld for the teams.

About you

Technical:

• Extensive experience in finance operations or shared service management.
• A strong understanding of process and of what ’good’ process is, with the ability to enhance or create financial systems that are efficient, effective and reliable – making use of automation where appropriate.
• A sound understanding of the principles of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Cash & Billing (or similar).
• CCAB qualified accountant (ACA, CIMA or ACCA equivalent), desirable. 
• Experience in working in a continuous improvement environment, using lean techniques to improve processes, desirable.
• Proficiency in SAP FI module and Microsoft Business Intelligence, desirable.
• Experience in leading change implementation, desirable.

General:

• Proven ability managing teams and delivering high performance.
• A control-oriented mindset.
• A strong problem solver.
• Ability to constructively challenge long held beliefs.
• Confidence and ability to use initiative to develop solutions.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• the confidence and drive to take a visible lead on process and control improvements, not being afraid to innovate and break with previous convention.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to foster strong working relationships and team culture.
• An exceptional communicator, both verbally and in written form, being able to explain complex financial information to people across the organisation.
• Excellent Microsoft Excel skills (including lookups and pivot tables). 

To Apply:  click on the "Apply for this job" button and follow the process - complete the application form & upload current CV.

If you have any questions about the role please contact CRT.recruitment@canalrivertrust.org.uk

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient suitable applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

In addition to your salary of £55,000 - £60,000, you will benefit from a competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, great holiday entitlement and numerous other employee benefits, including several salary sacrifice benefits, all of which can be found here (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/work-for-us/our-benefits). These include: 

• 25 days paid holiday, plus paid Bank Holidays, increasing to 27 days plus Bank Holidays after 3 years
• Home working status with ‘hub’ facilities available if a need to work outside of home – flexibility. Monday to Friday working, no weekend working. 
• Annual £200 personal learning & growth award to spend on any learning related activity – hobbies; aspirations etc. 
• Free access to specialist counselling on a range of issues – health; financial; lifestyle; well-being; domestic & neighbourly matters. 
• Access to a range of employee benefits including – store discounts; boating holiday discounts; holiday purchase scheme. 
• 2 days paid volunteering leave, volunteering for local community project work.

At the Trust we care passionately for our waterways, and as importantly, for those who look after and use them. We strongly believe that a diverse workforce brings with it a diversity of ideas, thinking and ways of working which enhances what we do as a Trust. We are striving to represent the diverse communities that we are a part of and welcome applicants from across all sectors of the community.

All candidates will be treated on the basis of their merits, skills and abilities and solely by being assessed against the requirements for the job.

When you join the Canal & River Trust you become a member of an engaged team working to preserve our heritage for future generations. Come and share your passion and knowledge with a team that makes a difference to millions of people every day.

Find out more about us on our website: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us