E&E Finance Business Partner at British Council

The Role

• This role partners with the English & Exams (E&E) business to provide financial insight, planning, budgeting, forecasting, and performance analysis.
• Working closely with operational teams, it supports informed decision-making, risk management, and commercial performance, acting as a collaborative finance partner to maximise business impact.

Accountabilities
Business Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as a trusted finance partner to Finance Directors and Market Leads, providing decision support, financial insights, and profitability analysis to drive commercial performance and strategic outcomes.
• Enable stakeholders to understand financial performance by identifying cost drivers, KPIs, risks, and opportunities while building strong relationships across finance, programme delivery, and corporate services.
• Manage multiple stakeholder and product support requests, effectively prioritising work based on risk, business impact, urgency, and competing demands.

Operational Decision Support

• Develop financial analysis and business cases for Teaching Centres, delivery models, market expansion, property changes, and investment opportunities to support strategic decision-making.
• Produce cost-benefit, ROI, and payback analyses, alongside operational and commercial models, to optimise pricing, utilisation, and delivery channels.
• Conduct scenario and financial modelling to assess regulatory, tax, and organisational changes, supporting multi-year planning through revenue, margin, and cost forecasts.

Financial Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Support annual planning, forecasting, reforecasting, and scenario modelling by consolidating inputs across business units and regions, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and alignment with approved assumptions and strategy.
• Provide clear financial guidance to non-finance stakeholders, explaining variances, managing budget and forecast queries, and supporting expenditure tracking and financial processes.

Financial Monitoring, Reporting & Analysis

• Prepare and deliver accurate management reporting, KPI dashboards, variance analysis, and performance insights, highlighting trends, key drivers, and emerging issues across Exams and Teaching.
• Produce ad hoc analysis and reporting to support business decisions, performance reviews, and leadership requirements, while ensuring data accuracy through close collaboration with the CoE and reporting teams.

Role specific knowledge and experience
Essential:

• Intermediate experience in financial management, FP&A, or management accounting.
• Strong financial modelling, forecasting and analytics skills.
• Strong data literacy (Power BI, dashboard creation).
• Experience providing financial support to operational teams with positive feedback.
• Strong communication skills, including story telling supported with data, and the ability to effectively explain financials to non‑finance colleagues.
• Experience handling multiple deadlines and working with a portfolio of activities.

Desirable:

• Experience in Exams, Teaching, or broader education / commercial service environments.
• Experience with SAP or similar ERP platforms.
• Experience with Anaplan or similar EPM platforms.

Role specific skills:

• Business Partnering: able to build trust and communicate financial information clearly to non‑finance teams.
• Financial Acumen: solid understanding of budgeting, forecasting and financial performance drivers.
• Analytical Skills: able to prepare meaningful internal variance analysis and identify early warning indicators.
• Multi‑tasking and prioritisation: able to manage multiple demands and deadlines.
• Collaboration: strong relationship‑building skills across dispersed teams.
• EPM System Expertise (preferably Anaplan): confident in both planning and reporting functions.

Language Requirements:

• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.