Assistant Management Accountant

Plymouth Marjon University; United States; Hybrid; USD 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Plymouth Marjon University is seeking a finance professional to join the collaborative Finance team, supporting the Management Accountant with timely reporting across the University. The role requires strong organisation, attention to detail, and excellent communication skills.

You will work with Open Accounts and eBIS, assisting in budgeting, reconciliations and data-driven improvements. Based on our hybrid policy, you can work from home or on campus, with a minimum of two days onsite per week.

Qualifications

• Experience in finance roles with a focus on accuracy and detail.
• Strong data handling, reporting and variance analysis skills.
• Excellent communication with internal teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Prepare monthly management accounts and monitor income vs budget.
• Support the annual budgeting process across income, expenditure and capital.
• Run academic partnership reconciliations—data extraction and verification with partners.
• Ensure invoices and payments align with agreements and records.
• Maintain Open Accounts and eBIS hierarchies to match organisational structure.
• Support regulatory returns, ad hoc analysis, and process improvements.
• Develop knowledge in costings, business cases and longer-term planning.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Data analysis

Communication skills

Finance experience

Tools

Open Accounts

eBIS

Job description

We are recruiting a finance professional to join our collaborative finance team, supporting the Management Accountant in providing timely and accurate reporting across the University.

We need someone highly organised and confident, with a passion for detail and accuracy, advanced excel skills and a genuine interest in using data and systems to improve how things are done. You will, at times, act as a link between Finance and our academic and professional services departments, so excellent communication skills and a helpful, constructive approach are essential.

This role directly supports Marjon University's mission by giving budget holders reliable financial information to support effective decision making. Helping the University achieve financial resilience, so we can keep delivering a high-quality experience for students and staff.

It is essential that you have previous finance experience, higher education experience is desirable but not essential. We are interested in recruiting someone who is enthusiastic, positive and able to apply their knowledge to a new organisation.

What you'd be doing:

This is a varied role covering the full management accounting cycle. You will help prepare the monthly management accounts, monitoring income and expenditure against budget and explaining key variances. You will support the annual budget process across income, expenditure and capital, and work with colleagues across the University to make sure information is captured accurately at source.

A key part of the role is preparing our academic partnership reconciliations, which means extracting data, agreeing programmes, student numbers and fees with partners, and making sure invoices and payments are correct.

You will also help maintain our finance (Open Accounts) and procurement (eBIS) system hierarchies, ensuring they align with our organisational structure. Alongside this, you will support regulatory returns and ad hoc analysis and play an active part in developing our systems and processes. You must be able and willing to get things done.

Over time, there will be opportunities to develop your knowledge and skills and get involved in programme costings, business cases and longer-term planning.

Where you'll work:

In this role, you'll be based in the Finance team, on our green campus in the north of Plymouth. We're a small, close-knit team who work together closely to deliver an outstanding service to our colleagues from all business areas.

Our current hybrid working policy means you can work from home or on campus, but you will be required to maintain strong campus links and will work onsite at least 2 days per week, ideally 3.

At Marjon, we are deeply committed to supporting every member of our staff. Our values sit at the heart of everything we do, and we hope you will take pride in becoming part of our community.