Job Description

Senior Finance Officer

Reports to: Finance Manager, Ark Start

Location: West London (White City) with occasional travel to nursery sites

Contract: Permanent

Pattern: Full Time (37.5hrs per week)

Closing date: 15/04/2024 at 10am

Interviews: w/c 15/04/2024 and 22/04/2024

Salary: £33,000 to £38,000 (depending on qualification and experience)

About the role:

Ark Start is seeking a Senior Finance Officer to oversee daily financial and administrative operations across our nurseries. We currently have two nurseries in South London, expanding by a further three nurseries by September 2024.

As the Senior Finance Officer, you will be responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective finance administration of our nurseries including maintaining the nursery booking and invoicing system, managing procurement and month end processes, and supporting with nursery operations and parent queries.

We are looking for a passionate, hard-working, and well organised individual who wants to be part of this exciting new venture.

Key Responsibilities:

• Raise monthly sales invoices to parents and manage any queries
• Set-up, manage and process claims through the various childcare grant schemes
• Reconcile Local Authority funding received to booking patterns and additional claims
• Raise all purchase orders and take the lead on ensuring the procurement process for nurseries is followed
• Manage preferred supplier list and maintain nursery procurement catalogue
• Post month end adjustments (including monthly commitments and other accruals/ prepayments)
• Update nursery forecasts for the current year monthly
• Complete monthly bank and balance sheet reconciliations
• Run draft nursery management accounts for review with the Operations Director

Key Requirements:

• 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and Maths
• Part-Qualified or working towards professional accountancy qualification
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent organisation and planning skills
• Good knowledge and experience of working with spreadsheets and large amounts of data
• Good knowledge and experience of finance systems, including sales and purchase ledgers and bank reconciliations
• Good understanding of the requirements of a procurement process
• Ability to work flexibly, independently and as part of a team
• Resilient and excited about working in a dynamic start-up

View the full job description and person specification here

About Us

Ark is an international charity, transforming lives through education. We exist to give every young person, regardless of their background, a great education and real choices in life. In the UK, we’re a network of 39 schools, educating around 30,000 pupils in areas where we can make the biggest difference and we’re recognised as one of the highest achieving academy groups in the country. We want to change the lives of children everywhere, not just in our own schools. So, we create and incubate Ventures designed not only to help pupils in Ark schools, but also to improve education systems.

The dedicated Ark Start team work together to ensure that every child has a joyful, engaging, and secure nursery experience and leaves us ready to start school happily and confidently. We are driven by our values in everything we do: Aim High, Be Brave, Be Kind and Keep Learning.

Ark Start is at an exciting time in its evolution. We have two nurseries in South London and aim to expand our reach over the coming years. As we expand, we are looking for a Senior Finance Officer to join our founding team.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising with each year of service up to 30 days after 3-years’ service. This entitlement is pro rata for part time employees. This entitlement excludes bank holidays
• Full office closure between Christmas and New Year
• Hybrid working, with currently a minimum of three days a week in our state-of-the-art office in West London working alongside colleagues
• Regular social events, monthly free breakfast, and daily fruit
• A flexible approach to working with understanding and consideration for work life balance and personal commitments
• As an Ark employee, you will have the opportunity to be part of the TPT (The Pension Trust) scheme, our workplace pension scheme where we make an 11% contribution; you are not required to contribute towards this scheme unless you choose to
• Access to high-quality professional learning throughout your career, offering both face-to-face sessions and a bespoke online learning platform
• Access to Ark Rewards scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers, interest-free loans available for season tickets or a bike, gym discounts offering up to 40% off your local gym and free eye tests

Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people in its academies. In order to meet this responsibility, its academies follow a rigorous selection process to discourage and screen out unsuitable applicants.  

Ark requires all employees to undertake an enhanced DBS check. You are required, before appointment, to disclose any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. Non-disclosure may lead to termination of employment. However, disclosure of a criminal background will not necessarily debar you from employment – this will depend upon the nature of the offence(s) and when they occurred. To read more about Ark’s safer recruitment process, please click this link. 

We aim to build a diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone – staff and students – can do their best work and achieve their full potential. We want to reflect and represent diverse perspectives across our organisation because we know that doing so will make us stronger and more effective. To know more about Ark’s diversity and inclusion commitments, please click on this link.

How to Apply

Job Categories: Equal Opportunities. Job Types: Full-Time. Salaries: 20,000 - 40,000.

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