Finance Business Partner

Salary: £70,000

Bonus: Discretionary

Location: Kings Cross, London (Tues - Thurs (3 days) - in our office, Mon + Fri - your choice)
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-time

About ARIA

ARIA is a new kind of R&D funding agency. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible. From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.
We are growing our team to develop bold new approaches that can scale – from programmes to systems, processes and everything in between. If that sounds fun, come and build ARIA with us.

Learn more about how we work here.

Role Summary

You will be one of our first Finance Business Partners working closely with the Programme Directors and the wider ARIA team to help shape and deliver programmes.

This role will report directly to the Director of Corporate and Programme Finance, and aid ARIA’s Programme Directors in the financial management of a number of ARIA Programmes. You will ensure accurate and regular reporting and re-forecasting of the programmes. Working as an integral part of a small team, and with significant exposure to ARIA’s Executives, you will help ARIA deliver professional excellence within its finance operations.

What you’ll do

The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:

Build trusted and effective strategic support to Programme Directors
Work alongside Programme Directors and their teams in capturing unstructured and uncertain requirements as they design, plan and implement the full delivery of the programmes
Working with the Programme Finance Team for managing and allocating programme funds
Manage the relationship with external grant and contract recipients, ensuring that all invoice, reporting and audit requirements have been met
Provide comprehensive insight on all programme information and analysis to the management team and Programme Directors
Ensure that ARIA’s Programme Directors have visibility into reliable and transparent financial data on all Programme spend
Execute accurate programme re-forecasting models

Who you are

A successful candidate will bring many of the following skills/experience to the role:

Highly numerate with a high level of attention to detail
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Experience of working with multiple programmes or different business units
Worked on project accounting
High level of budgeting/forecasting experience
Ability to manage own workload and priorities
Adaptable mindset and comfortable with working in a fast changing environment
Operated within a small/start-up environment

Desirable

Experience of building financial plans with scenario planning
Worked in central government or public sector
Comfortable with working in new scenarios
Has used a diverse range of systems associated with start-ups and scale-ups, including Google suite and data visualisation systems such as Tableau or Power BI

Qualifications

Fully qualified (ACCA/CIMA or equivalent)

Application

Please upload a recent CV along with a cover letter below

Benefits

27 days annual leave, with the option to buy/sell additional days

Discretionary, non-contractual annual bonus

Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home

Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities

Enhanced family leave arrangements

A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme

Life Assurance

2 days of paid volunteer days

5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension

Cycle to Work scheme

An excellent office location in Kings X, London

Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry! If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to the field, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar. Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.

If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests are intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.

ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. You can read our policy here. Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle. You can read about those here.