Finance Systems Team Lead

The main responsibilities of the post will be:

• Lead, manage and develop four Finance Systems Analysts (subject-matter experts) and an Administrator, setting clear objectives, priorities, service standards and accountabilities.

• Own day-to-day service delivery across all finance systems, ensuring effective administration, maintenance and monitoring, with consistent first-line support across applications and appropriate second-line specialist support.

• Lead helpdesk and service-management activities, including triage, prioritisation, incident and problem management, escalations, root-cause analysis, performance reporting and operational user communications.

• Own operational control and audit readiness across the application estate, including financial data integrity, access governance, configuration and change controls, control reporting, evidence, remediation and responses to internal and external audits.

• Maintain an operational finance systems operational improvement backlog and risk register within the strategic direction set by the Head of Finance Systems, reflecting user needs, risks and available capacity and anticipating any incoming projects backlogs or release updates.

• Manage day-to-day service relationships with software vendors, application support partners and other key suppliers, acting as the principal operational contact.

The Finance Systems Team Lead is a 1-year fixed-term contract.

Minimum 2 days a week in the office (Church House)

Operational Responsibilities

• Establish and run a consistent operating rhythm for the service, including team planning, daily prioritisation, weekly service reviews, monthly reporting and regular stakeholder communications.

• Make day-to-day prioritisation decisions and escalate decisions requiring strategic, commercial or material risk acceptance.

• Protect critical finance cycles by agreeing service calendars, support coverage and readiness plans for period end, year end, payment runs, statutory reporting and other high-risk activities.

• Partner with Technology colleagues to maintain secure, resilient and supportable environments, with clear ownership of integrations, monitoring, recovery arrangements and technical dependencies.

• Coordinate necessary releases, upgrades, patches and environment refreshes with SMEs & wider technology colleagues within the agreed change-management framework, ensuring appropriate planning, risk assessment, testing, approvals, communications, implementation and post-implementation review.

• Ensure system procedures, configuration records, support knowledge, data flows, control documentation and user guidance are standardised, consistent, complete, current and accessible, with sufficient knowledge transfer and cover to support service continuity.

• Manage operational licence and subscription administration across the application estate, including allocation, usage monitoring, compliance reporting and timely escalation of renewal or cost issues to the Head of Finance Systems.

• Attend regular operational supplier and platform service reviews, tracking performance, risks, incidents and agreed corrective actions, and escalating strategic, performance or commercial matters to the Head of Finance Systems.

• Use service performance data, user feedback and trend analysis to identify recurring issues, control weaknesses and improvement opportunities; work with subject-matter experts to develop and deliver agreed actions within the operational improvement backlog.

• Represent the finance systems service in BAU operational forums.

• On occasion, provide operational cover for the Head of Finance Systems on agreed matters.

• Receive and embed new or changed capabilities into business as usual following completion of project operational-readiness activities, ensuring agreed support arrangements, documentation, controls, training, knowledge transfer and early-life support are implemented and sustained.

Staff management

• Lead and continuously develop a resilient, customer-focused finance systems team through clear objectives, regular one-to-ones, performance and development reviews, coaching, cross-training, succession planning and documented cover arrangements.

• Manage demand and capacity across incidents, recurring activities, training and improvements; make transparent trade-offs and escalate resource constraints with options and impacts.

• Create an inclusive, collaborative culture in which team members share knowledge, challenge constructively, take ownership and continuously improve how the service operates.

Essential

• Good level of literacy & numeracy (e.g. GCSE)

• Strong understanding of accounting principles.

• Strong IT and systems skills particularly Microsoft.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the judgement to translate between finance, technology and operational audiences and to provide concise reporting to senior stakeholders.

• Proactive, self-motivated and enthusiastic.

• Strong service-management, planning and prioritisation skills, with a logical, pragmatic approach to incidents, problems, risk, demand and team capacity.

• Able to remain calm, make timely operational decisions within delegated authority, manage competing priorities and escalate material risks with clear options.

• Strong interpersonal, influencing and collaborative leadership skills, including the confidence to challenge constructively while remaining aligned with agreed strategy and ways of working.

Knowledge/Experience

• Experience of working with multiple applications in a complex organisational structure.

• Experience of systems administration and maintenance across legacy and modern technologies.

• Substantial experience of leading, motivating and developing a finance-systems application support team, including objective setting, coaching, workload and performance management.

• Experience of managing third-party support providers, using service levels, performance measures, incident trends, root-cause analysis and constructive challenge to improve delivery.

• Experience of governing and delivering system improvements, releases or projects from requirements and options appraisal through testing, change control, implementation, adoption and transition to support.

• Strong understanding of financial systems controls, access governance, audit evidence, data integrity, segregation of duties and controlled change.

• Experience of working across business-as-usual operations and transformation programmes, managing dependencies and ensuring new capabilities are operationally supportable.

• Willingness to work outside core hours occasionally to coordinate or support planned upgrades, patching, testing and other essential system activities.

• Part Qualified Accountant/Qualified by Experience.

• IT/Systems related qualifications/certifications (ITIL, Salesforce, Kyriba)

• Middleware experience