Finance Business Partner

The Open University; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 47,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK university in Milton Keynes seeks a Finance Business Partner to support financial operations and relationships across the institution. The role involves budget preparation, financial analysis, and stakeholder engagement. Ideal candidates will be qualified finance professionals with strong analytical skills and experience in financial reporting. The position will also allow for flexible working arrangements, blending office and remote work, contributing positively to work-life balance.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits package

Qualifications

• Extensive accounting experience.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles and financial reporting.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and review unit/faculty level budgets.
• Challenge and approve resourcing decisions.
• Recommend and review financial control frameworks.
• Lead financial planning and budget setting.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Analytical skills

Financial modelling

Communication skills

Proficient in Microsoft Excel

Education

Fully qualified member of a Finance professional body (e.g. ACCA, CIMA)

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

The focus of this role is to support and assist the Senior Finance Business Partner to lead a team of Finance colleagues, in a Finance Business Partnering Hub. The role will require you to successfully build relationships and partnerships with senior management and stakeholders across the University on a cross‑section of financial, business and accounting activities and projects; leading the input and contribution into institutional projects and initiatives will be key to our ongoing success.

The aim is to drive impact and understanding of financial reporting on business performance and analysis, enabling a link to financial data to inform business strategies, while preparing and supporting business cases and financial analysis as needed. Providing advice, professional opinion and assisting with decision making will help ensure financial sustainability is maintained.

Key Responsibilities

• Preparation, continuous review, agreement and challenge of unit / faculty level budgets and forecasts, considering unit and cross‑university impact.
• Challenge and approval of resourcing decisions based on unit / faculty needs.
• Advice and modelling of complex proposals (e.g. curriculum, strategic business cases / programmes, major external projects etc.).
• Recommend and review the financial control and reporting frameworks in contracts considering delivery, mitigation, and risk, both financial & non‑financial.
• Lead detailed financial planning / budget setting for business units ensuring any potential differences to the Income and Expenditure Model (IEM) are understood and agreed before publication.
• Lead zero‑based budgeting for high volume / complex non‑staffing budgets.
• Establish level of risk and uncertainty in financial forecast and quantify potential financial impact.
• Establish early significant position changes for budget / forecasts on an ongoing basis in order to flag and influence financial decisions.
• Authoring (by exception for complex projects), reviewing and approving claims to funder.
• Involvement and approval of significant / material contracts, bids and tenders.
• Consider implications of external drivers and challenges and implement change as required.
• Support corporation tax analysis as required.
• Line management and development of a small team of Finance colleagues.

About You

Essential

• Fully qualified member of a Finance professional body e.g. ACCA, CIMA with extensive accounting experience.
• Experience of stakeholder management and the ability to develop strong working relationships with stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles and financial reporting and legislation.
• Excellent analytical skills along with the ability to create and present detailed reports and deliver PowerPoint presentations.
• Ability to work and communicate effectively with all levels of management.
• Adept at financial modelling and forecasting.
• Proficient in the Microsoft Office suite, especially with Excel.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the Higher Education sector would be beneficial.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email [e-mail] quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be 2‑3 times per week.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are anticipated to take place January 2026.

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following as separate documents:

• CV
• Supporting statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.

£47,389 to £56,535 per annum