Faculty Finance Manager (Faculty of Social Science and Faculty of Science)

Overview

The University’s vision is to be one of the best universities in the world, renowned for the excellence, impact, and distinctiveness both of its research and its research-led learning and teaching.

The Department of Finance provides a wide range of financial support across the whole University.

You will be part of a Financial Management team within the Department of Finance, aligned to the Faculties of Social Science and Science.

The role is varied with a focus on the provision of high-quality business partnering and is an opportunity to develop leadership skills and experience across both teams and a variety of functions, You will need to work across existing boundaries and develop strong collaborations with staff across the University at all levels.

Together with the Head of Finance, you will provide management and leadership to the Finance Teams for the Faculty of Social Science and the Faculty of Science and have experience of managing and developing the skills of a diverse team, possess strong technical skills and have experience of financial management in a complex organisation. You will have outstanding interpersonal skills and will demonstrate an aptitude to collaborative working and supporting positive change. You will be an engaged team player, delivering results through both challenge and support of colleagues at all levels.

You will engage proactively with staff across the Faculty and wider University at all levels and possess excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills. You will be comfortable with uncertainty, adept at managing tight deadlines and handling multiple priorities while delivering excellent results and providing a high level of support and development of staff.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Provision of expert financial support, guidance, and management information across all activity areas including core School operations, research and other external funding streams.
• Support the Head of Finance to ensure that the Faculty Finance team are delivering a comprehensive and robust financial management support service to meet the needs of the faculty, its constituent Schools and external stakeholders.

• Ensuring financial management information is prepared, interpreted and utilised as appropriate within School’s visions corporately, to monitor performance and to influence change.

• Support and enable Finance staff to work to the highest professional standards and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and professional development

• Improve efficiencies of existing working practices, working with colleagues across the University as appropriate

• Managing and supporting specific projects and initiatives within the Faculty to facilitate business process improvements and the delivery of excellent customer service

• Contribute and lead collaborative working groups or initiatives as required, taking an active role in the implementation of any changes

• Plan and review workload allocations across the team, ensuring all objectives and deadlines are achieved and that productivity is optimised

• Lead colleagues in the continual challenge to activities and processes, and identification and delivery of improvement in order to maximise effectiveness

• Advise on the financial implications of strategic and operational decisions to ensure that the Faculty Schools maintain a strong financial position, challenging decisions where appropriate to improve financial performance

• Review financial documents, including contracts, agreements, and policy documents to ensure full understanding of financial consequences.
• Act as a coach and mentor to less experienced staff both within and outside the team. 

• Foster and support constructive communication and relationships with colleagues at all levels within the Finance Department and across Schools.   
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post

Person Specification

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution is valuable, and we encourage you to apply. Please ensure that you reference the application criteria in the application statement when you apply.

Criteria

Essential or desirable

Stage(s) assessed at

Professional accounting qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or equivalent experience

Desirable

Application

Proven experience in delivery high standards of financial management, financial planning, monitoring, analysis and reporting.

Essential

Ability to operate effectively, comfortably and across boundaries in a complex, challenging and changing environment.

Essential

Ability to facilitate and encourage development and change, delivering enhancements and improvements to meet organisational needs, proactively driving forward any changes.

Essential

Experience in preparation of timely, transparent, and effective financial information with high attention to detail and levels of accuracy.

Essential

Excellent IT skills, particularly with Microsoft Office, Google applications, accounting and other business systems.

Essential

Strong leadership skills in managing and developing the skills of a diverse team and the ability to motivate high performance in others.

Essential

Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to express complicated financial information meaningfully to a non-finance audience.

Essential

Experience of working with external funding streams, with the ability to efficiently assess contractual requirements & manage any associated risk.

Desirable

Experience supporting a business partnering approach to service delivery.

Desirable

Further Information

Grade

8

Salary

£48,822 - £58,225 per annum

Work arrangement

Full time

Line manager

To be confirmed

Direct reports

To be confirmed

Our website

https://sheffield.ac.uk/finance

For informal enquiries about this job contact Joanne Ward at j.e.ward@sheffield.ac.uk

Next steps in the recruitment process

It is anticipated that the selection process will take week commencing 19th January 2026.  This will consist of a presentation and interview. We plan to let candidates know if they have progressed to the selection stage on the week commencing12th January 2026. If you need any support, equipment or adjustments to enable you to participate in any element of the recruitment process you can contact Joanne Ward at j.e.ward@sheffield.ac.uk

Our vision and strategic plan

We are the University of Sheffield. This is our vision: sheffield.ac.uk/vision (opens in new window).

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.

A basic DBS check will be needed for this role. More details on the checks can be found on the Government website: gov.uk/criminal-record-checks-apply-role (opens in a new window).

Possession of a criminal record is not an automatic bar to employment at the University of Sheffield. We recognise the value of steady employment in the rehabilitation process and examine each case in its own right. More information can be found on our Information for candidates page:- sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/candidates (opens in a new window).