Head of Finance

Job title:

Job Description:

We’re looking for a dynamic Head of Finance to lead the delivery of end‑to‑end finance operations and strategic finance insight for our clients. This role sits at the heart of our Finance Services capability—driving accuracy, compliance and efficiency across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing, Cash & Working Capital and period‑end support.
 

You’ll shape and deliver a service that blends transactional excellence with forward‑looking financial insight.
 

This is a high‑impact leadership role for someone who thrives on improving financial performance, building trusted client relationships and driving transformation through data, standardisation and automation.

Responsibilities

• Lead end‑to‑end delivery of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing and Cash operations, ensuring accuracy, compliance and strong performance against SLAs and KPIs.

• Improve working capital through effective cash forecasting, aged debt management and enhanced cash conversion.

• Oversee period‑end activities including reconciliations, cut‑off support and audit readiness.

• Provide strategic finance partnering, delivering insight, forecasting, budgeting and scenario planning aligned to client objectives.

• Produce high‑quality MI and analysis to support decision‑making and drive margin, cost and cash improvements.

• Support commercial activity including pricing, bid modelling, value cases and change control assessments.

• Strengthen financial controls, master data governance and risk management across all finance processes.

• Drive continuous improvement through standardisation, lean methods and automation.

• Lead and develop finance teams, ensuring the right skills, capacity and a high‑performance culture.

• Manage third‑party partners and collaborate with client stakeholders across operations, commercial, technology and audit.

About You
 

You’ll bring deep expertise in finance operations and strategic finance, with the credibility to influence senior stakeholders and the drive to deliver measurable improvement.
 

You will also have:

• Strong capability in planning, forecasting, performance management and scenario analysis.

• A proven track record of improving finance processes through standardisation, lean and automation.

• Excellent controls and governance experience, with a strong risk and audit mindset.

• Outstanding stakeholder management and the ability to translate complex financial information for non‑finance leaders.

• Commercial awareness across pricing, contract performance and working capital levers.

• Confidence with ERP systems and reporting tools (SAP or equivalent desirable).

• Professional finance qualifications (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) or equivalent senior shared services experience.

• A collaborative, data‑led, continuous‑improvement mindset.

About Capita Education:

Capita works in partnership with schools, academy trusts and local authorities to provide specialist expertise, ensuring every child and young person receives a good education, is in a safe and healthy environment and is given expert guidance to realise their full potential.

At Capita we provide traditional back-office support services such as HR to schools and multi academy trusts. We also have a specialised education and skills support organisation, Entrust.

Entrust is a joint venture company between Staffordshire County Council and Capita and has supported educational establishments across England to improve outcomes since 2013.

As an education and skills support services organisation, we’re all about excellence in education, creating better outcomes and making things easier for our customers. It’s central to everything we do.

What’s in it for you?

• A competitive basic salary (Up to £75,000)

• 23 days’ holiday (rising to 27) with the opportunity to buy extra leave

• The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office, volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice

• Auto-enrolment to our company pension, life assurance, a cycle2work scheme, 15 weeks’ fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, paternity pay of two weeks…and plenty more

• Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle – from discounts on retail and socialising, to health & wellbeing, travel and technology

• Access to our Employee Network Groups, which represent every strand of diversity and allow colleagues to connect and learn from each other on an open, inclusive platform

Unlock Your Potential with Capita

At Capita, your career can take you wherever your ambition leads. You'll become part of a diverse network of talented, forward-thinking professionals working across a wide range of disciplines and sectors. We’re committed to your growth — offering endless opportunities to expand your skills, explore new paths, and advance your career.
 

Join us and discover a career with purpose. #CareersWithPurpose

🤝 Customer first, always​🧑‍💻 Fearless innovation​✅ Achieve together​💙 Everyone is valued

What we hope you’ll do next:

Choose ‘Apply now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.

Equal Opportunities

At Capita, we’re committed to providing an inclusive, barrier-free recruitment process and working environment for everyone. We want everyone to have the best chance of succeeding as they move through their application and start their career with us. We are an equal opportunity and Disability Confident employer; we want to hear from you if you’d like to discuss any adjustments you might need during your recruitment process. Please email [email protected] or call 07784 237318 and we’ll get back to you to discuss. 
For more information about equal opportunities and the types of adjustments we can offer, please visit the Capita Careers website.

If you have a question that does not relate to adjustments during your recruitment process, please email our Talent Acquisition team - [email protected]

AI & Fair Recruitment at Capita
At Capita, we use technology, including AI-enabled tools, to help us manage applications consistently and fairly. These tools support our recruitment teams, they do not make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by a trained member of our Talent Acquisition team, and all decisions are made by people. If you need any adjustments during the process, we’re here to support you.

How We Use AI in Our Hiring Process
To help us deliver a fair, consistent and efficient recruitment experience, Capita uses AI-assisted technology at some stages of the process. These tools simply help us organise and assess information, they do not replace human judgement. All decisions are made by our recruitment team and hiring managers. If you have any questions or need adjustments, please let us know and we’ll be happy to support you.

Location:

,

Time Type:

Contract Type: