Job Description

Your role plays a key role in understanding the company’s capabilities, portfolio, market and industry trends, and optimizes investment opportunities and strategic advice on cost drivers within the organization. You will envision new ways of working to enable and execute the financial and wider business plans, and build Finance distinctive capabilities that create market value. You will be the face of finance for your division and act as a conduit between the business and our Finance Centre’s of Expertise, ensuring relevant technical advice is proactively obtained to resolve any issues.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Assures a strategic thinking beyond managing the numbers, envisioning new ways of working to enable execution of the financial and wider business plans.
• Contributes to an effective resource allocation connected with the best investment opportunities, financial performance in the context of long cycles and macro-trends, anticipating risk and reducing uncertainty.
• Provides critical inputs to the business planning and expenditure forecasting processes; innovates to enhance the business impact of target setting, planning and budgeting.
• Sets and defines the framework for organizational goals and objectives and leads organization-wide strategy, planning, design and implementation work.
• Working effectively across the function and broader organization, leading cross functional teams to accomplish objectives, while maintaining ultimate accountability for managing and risk and ensuring business control.
• Reviewing and approving investment proposals for the Business Segment.
• Identify and implement reporting improvements.
• Work collaboratively to deliver key reporting, planning and forecasting processes providing accurate and timely future facing data on which to base decisions.
• Reinforcing Pearson values and creating a collaborative culture by recognizing colleagues; driving change and transformation by removing barriers.

Benefits

• Work from home / hybrid office working options.
• A starting holiday of 25 days plus public holidays and you’ll earn 1 additional day’s holiday per year you work with us.
• Generous pension scheme where we match and double what you contribute.
• Maternity, paternity, and family care leave as well as flexible work policies.
• Stock/share purchase options.
• Healthcare and dental plans, and an employee wellbeing assistance programme for you and your family to help balance work, family and personal life.
• Cycle to work program, gym membership concessions in selected office locations, along with retail and leisure discounts.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

We welcome applicants with a Finance/Accountancy qualification and significant experience gained in a commercial finance role. You will be comfortable in prioritizing, balancing, organizing and allocating time, actions and resources to generate significant results and achieve critical goals, even in fast-moving or uncertain situations. You will demonstrate excellent communication skills, along with strong analytical, problem solving and digital analysis skills. Key to success in this role is partnering with/influencing senior leaders along with networking with key stakeholders across functions/geographies to support ideas and create foundation for influence.

Building internal and external stakeholder relationships is key, as you’ll be expected to negotiate with government bodies and other organizations. This role requires a strategic and curious mindset, and the capability to develop and lead high performance diverse teams to accomplish objectives. Knowledge of multiple business models is an advantage.