Diamond is the UK’s synchrotron, which is a world leading, state of the art facility that attracts users from all over the world and employs over 40 nationalities. It is a very powerful machine that uses electrons to generate synchrotron light in the form of x-rays, ultraviolet and infrared beams.  Most of the experiments carried out at Diamond use x-rays that are many billion times brighter than the sun. Diamond is a very vibrant and diverse organisation where the scientific researchers study a wide range of biological, chemical and material samples at the atomic and molecular level.

There are two new roles which give the right candidates an opportunity to work very closely with highly skilled Diamond staff to understand and then interpret the business of Diamond from a financial perspective and ensure that the organisation maximises the resources that it has.

The aim of the role is to contribute, at both the strategic and operational level, to the financial planning of the Division to underpin the Vision, Strategy and Delivery Plans of Diamond. Working closely with Budget holders and other Finance staff, this role will continuously improve the financial management capabilities of Diamond ensuring that the financial tools, analysis and reporting are developed to facilitate informed and optimal decisions at all levels.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop a full understanding of the business area to be able to effectively analyse and interpret the numbers and understand the implications of them; providing options and suggestions to budget holders as to how to manage unpredicted issues/activities that have to be solved for from a financial perspective. This will be essential as resources become tighter and the financial management reports produced must enable senior leaders to manage financial risks, in both the short-term and long-term decision making processes, e.g. capital investment decisions, management of resource funding and short term liabilities.

Strategic Financial Planning

• To interpret Diamond’s Vision, Strategy and Delivery Plans from a financial perspective and contribute to the overall long term planning tool/model of Diamond taking responsibility to keep the financial plans live and relevant for the Division as a whole while ensuring that they are aligned with and underpin the appropriate plan;

Financial Management

• To enable the overall financial management of the Division this position will provide clear direction and guidance to Directors, all budget holders and the staff who support them operationally;
• Responsible for the compilation of budgets, forecasts and internal financial management reporting, providing insights, analysis and interpretation of the financial results to enable full utilisation of the resources available and provide the financial component for decision making; both short and long term;
• This role will be required to challenge and influence budget holders and senior management through informed analysis and interpretation to ensure that budgets are realistic, underpin what is to be delivered and that budgets within the Division are prioritised and tensioned so that the final approved budget (or Forecast) accurately reflects the priorities and needs of the Division and assumptions made are clear;
• This role, working with other members of Finance, will develop consistent financial processes; ensuring an appropriate level of detail so that senior management has a good understanding of all their budget responsibilities from a financial perspective at a given level in the organisation and by major category of spend and income.

Other

• Ensure compliance with financial approval processes and deadlines;
• Ensure compliance with all fiduciary responsibilities;
• Working with the Head of Finance and other members of Finance work to coordinate, support and report on relevant matters, ensuring optimised efficiency, consistency of approach, and sharing of best practices.

• CCAB Qualification; preferably CIMA;
• Leadership skills;
• Analytical skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Influencing both financial and non-financial people;
• Proactive with a can do attitude;
• Ability to articulate succinctly to non-finance people;
• Ability to build successful relationships;
• Ability to influence stakeholders at all levels;
• Attention to detail;
• Track record of taking the initiative and delivery;
• Significant financial management experience -covering budgeting, forecasting and “value added” reporting;
• Financial planning and analysis;
• Broad knowledge of  management accounting concepts and general accounting procedures;
• Thorough understanding of Finance systems;
• Proficient use of Microsoft Office.

• Use of Financial Management tools e.g. Cognos/Hyperion.