Process Excellence Manager at British Council

Role Purpose

• The Process Excellence Manager plays a pivotal role in driving continuous improvement, standardisation, and process excellence across global FP&A processes.
• This position ensures end-to-end planning processes are efficient, consistent, and aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives.
• You will lead process improvement initiatives across multiple workstreams, collaborating with Business Decision Support (BDS), Group, FP&A Product Development team, and CoE delivery teams to gather requirements, address challenges, and deliver effective solutions.
• By managing change control, facilitating workshops, and maintaining clear communication on progress and benefits, you will help embed sustainable improvements and support FP&A transformation goals.
• You will also manage a Senior Analyst, providing guidance and support to ensure high-quality delivery of analysis, documentation, and improvement activities.

Role Accountabilities
Continuous improvement, standardisation, and process optimisation:

• Contribute to the ongoing standardisation and optimisation of FP&A workflows across regions, business units, and CoE teams. Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and opportunities for process enhancement, escalating key insights to the Global Process Owner to support prioritisation.
• Support the development of improvement recommendations and action plans aligned with organisational objectives and best practice frameworks, and assist in evaluating opportunities based on business impact, feasibility, and transformation priorities.
• Work closely with BDS, Group FP&A, and regional teams to understand requirements and challenges and support solution design.
• Collaborate with FP&A Product Development and CoE functional teams to deliver effective process and workflow solutions, ensuring clear communication of changes, dependencies, and expected benefits.

Change implementation and stakeholder communication:

• Contribute to the development and tracking of change implementation plans, including timelines, milestones, and resource requirements.
• Manage change control activities for assigned processes and workflows, supporting the successful embedding of new and updated practices into BAU.
• Coordinate with FP&A stakeholders and CoE teams to facilitate smooth adoption of changes and minimise disruption to operational cycles.
• Prepare regular updates, reports, and dashboards to communicate progress, highlight risks, and demonstrate the benefits and impact of process changes.

Monitor performance and drive accountability:

• Assist in defining and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure process efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance.
• Support the Global Process Owner through periodic reviews of FP&A process performance, identifying opportunities for refinement and corrective action.
• Provide data-driven insights and analysis to inform leadership decisions and support ongoing continuous improvement cycles.
• Promote adherence to process standards across regions and contribute to maintaining consistent documentation, governance, and accountability structures.

Collaboration and knowledge management:

• Manage and develop one Senior Analyst, providing day-to-day guidance, coaching, and support.
• Facilitate workshops, working sessions, and cross-functional discussions to gather input, validate requirements, and ensure alignment with transformation goals.
• Support knowledge sharing, training, and documentation initiatives to strengthen understanding, consistency, and adoption of FP&A processes across the organisation.

Knowledge & Experience
Education:
Essential:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

Desirable:

• Relevant qualifications within finance (ACCA / CIMA)
• Formal training or certification in process excellence, such as Lean Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, BPM certification, or operational excellence qualification

Experience:
Essential:

• Demonstrated expertise (5+ years) in end-to-end process optimisation
• Hands-on experience establishing and managing process standards, including creation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), control frameworks, RACI models, and global process documentation
• Strong understanding of financial concepts (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, driver-based forecasting)
• Proficiency in Excel and data visualization tools (for example Power BI, Tableau)
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Desirable:

• Experience working with SAP products, especially SAP ECC
• Background in finance (FP&A) or finance consulting experience
• Familiarity with other EPM tools (Anaplan, Oracle, OneStream, IBM TM1, SAP BPC).
• Familiarity in process mapping tools

Important Information:

• Right to Work Requirements: You must have the legal right to work in the location in which the role is based
• Languages: The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.