Finance Business Partner, Global Operations

CEA Study Abroad, Inc.; Australia; Hybrid; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

CEA CAPA is seeking a Finance Business Partner for Global Operations. You will drive financial insight, cost optimisation and performance transparency across international sites, translating data into actionable insights for decision-making and efficiency improvements.

You will own reporting, dashboards and benchmarking, partnering with Operations and Finance to identify cost-saving initiatives and ensure robust financial controls across the global portfolio.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting or related discipline.
• Professional accounting qualification or equivalent experience.
• Experience with data visualization tools is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Deliver financial analysis across costs and margins, identifying trends and opportunities.
• Perform variance analysis against budget and forecast, explaining drivers.
• Support monthly close and reporting to stakeholders.
• Develop dashboards and benchmarking across locations to monitor performance.
• Partner with Operations, Procurement and Finance to implement cost-saving initiatives.
• Present insights clearly to finance and non-finance audiences.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Power BI

Data analysis

Budgeting & forecasting

General ledger

Cross-functional partnering

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance or accounting

Professional accounting qualification

Tools

ERP systems

SQL

Google Data Analytics

Job description

Finance Business Partner, Global Operations

Full Time

Your Role:

As theFinance Business Partner – Global Operations plays a key role in driving financial insight, cost optimisation, and performance transparency across CEA CAPA’s international sites. Working closely with Finance and Operations leaders, this role translates complex financial and operational data into actionable insights that support decision‑making, improve efficiency, and strengthen financial controls.

The role combines strong analytical capability with hands‑on understanding of transactional data. It owns the development of reporting, dashboards, and benchmarking that enable senior stakeholders to clearly understand cost drivers, performance trends, and opportunities for improvement across global operations, with a focus on operational costs.

What You’ll Do:

Financial Performance & Analysis

• Deliver insightful financial analysis across costs and margin, identifying trends, risks and opportunities.
• Perform variance analysis against budget, forecast and prior periods, clearly explaining the underlying drivers and recommending actions.
• Support and review transaction‑level general ledger reconciliations for key cost areas, ensuring accuracy, completeness and transparency.
• Support the monthly close process, ensuring timely and accurate reporting to Finance and Operations stakeholders.
• Develop analysis that links financial performance to operational drivers, helping stakeholders understand the actions behind the numbers.
• Support regular cost reviews with accurate, timely and insightful analysis.
• Build and maintain benchmarking analyses across locations to identify performance gaps, efficiency opportunities and best practice.
• Partner with Operations, Procurement and Finance teams to identify, recommend and track cost‑saving and process‑improvement initiatives.
• Monitor key operational cost lines and highlight emerging risks, anomalies and opportunities to senior stakeholders.
• Design, build and maintain reporting and dashboards in Excel and Power BI to monitor key financial and operational metrics.
• Develop clear and practical management information that focuses on the drivers of performance rather than simply reporting results.
• Present insights in a clear, visual and actionable way to both finance and non‑finance audiences.
• Support the development of consistent global reporting and performance‑review processes across the operating portfolio.

Business Partnering & Commercial Support

• Act as a trusted finance partner to operational and commercial leaders, providing insight, challenge and support.
• Develop a strong understanding of the operational drivers behind financial performance and use this knowledge to challenge assumptions.
• Translate complex financial information into clear recommendations and practical actions.
• Support business leaders with investment decisions, business cases, pricing, profitability and resource‑allocation decisions.
• Provide financial input into strategic and operational initiatives and track the financial impact of agreed actions. Identify and propose process improvements to streamline reconciliations, reporting, and data collection.

Process Improvement & Data Integrity

• Identify and implement process improvements to streamline reconciliations, reporting and data collection.
• Improve the efficiency, consistency and scalability of financial reporting through automation and better use of technology.
• Ensure data accuracy, consistency and integrity across financial and operational systems.
• Work effectively with large, complex and sometimes imperfect datasets to deliver meaningful insights.
• Contribute to the documentation and continuous improvement of finance processes and standard operating procedures.
• Collaborate with Finance and Operations teams globally to resolve discrepancies and improve data quality.

What Makes a Great Candidate:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in finance, accounting, or related discipline.
• Professional accounting qualification or equivalent level of relevant finance experience.
• Relevant certifications in data analytics or visualization tools (e.g. Microsoft Power BI, SQL, or Google Data Analytics) are a plus.
• 5+ years’ experience in financial analysis, FP&A, commercial finance or finance business partnering, ideally within a global or multi‑location operating environment.
• Experience working with transactional financial data and general ledger systems.
• Strong experience in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis and financial modelling.
• Proven ability to interpret financial and operational data and translate analysis into commercial insight.
• Experience working with large datasets and multiple data sources.
• Experience partnering with non‑finance stakeholders and confidently challenging assumptions and forecasts.
• Experience with operational cost management, benchmarking or performance improvement is desirable.

Skills

• Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, Power Query and complex formulas.
• AI & Automation – Confident and practical use of AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude to improve reporting, automate repetitive analysis, streamline finance processes, enhance data interrogation, and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and scalability.
• Strong Power BI capability, including data modelling, DAX and dashboard development.
• Solid understanding of general ledger accounting, journal entries, reconciliations and cost allocations.
• Proficient in ERP systems and comfortable navigating multiple financial and operational data sources.
• Strong analytical and reconciliation skills, with excellent attention to detail.
• Commercially minded – understands what drives the business and focuses finance activity on decisions and outcomes.
• Analytical – looks beyond the numbers to understand the underlying drivers of performance.
• Constructive challenger – is comfortable questioning assumptions, forecasts and decisions while maintaining strong relationships.
• Proactive – identifies issues and opportunities and takes ownership of moving them forward.
• Accountable – takes responsibility for analysis, recommendations and agreed actions.
• Clear communicator – can explain financial concepts and insights simply and effectively to non‑finance stakeholders.
• Collaborative – works effectively across Finance and the wider business in a global environment.
• Highly organised – manages competing priorities and deadlines while maintaining a high standard of accuracy.
• Continuous improvement mindset – continually looks for better, more efficient ways to report, analyse and use financial information.

We believe great talent comes in many forms and that there is no one size fits all in hiring. If you feel you may be a great fit for this role but do not check all of the boxes, we encourage you to apply and show us why you're the right candidate for this position.

Who We Are:

CEA CAPA is a premier provider of transformative international education experiences, committed to empowering students to become thoughtful and thriving leaders through living and learning abroad. With a presence in 62 cities across 22 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia, we offer comprehensive study abroad and career readiness programs that integrate academic excellence and cultural immersion. Our global footprint includes 11 international study centers, and we proudly support over 10,000 students annually in partnership with more than 375 U.S. universities and over 50 international institutions. CEA CAPA is in a dynamic phase of growth and is powered by a global team of nearly 700 professionals who are deeply mission-driven and committed to creating inclusive, supportive and enriching environments that help students grow academically, personally and professionally.

Our commitment to creating a sense of belonging means we welcome individuals of all abilities, ages, citizenships, educations, ethnicities, family statuses, gender identities, genders, genetic information, languages, marital status, military experiences, political views, pregnancy, races, religions, sexes, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, and work experiences and therefore we encourage applicants from diverse lived experiences to apply.

Note: This role profile is intended to provide an overview of the key responsibilities and qualifications for the position. It is not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to undertake additional tasks and duties, as necessary and in line with evolving business needs. Any proposed permanent modifications to this role profile will be made in consultation with role incumbents, and relevant stakeholders in accordance with applicable policies and legislative requirements.