Head of Finance Operations

Are you looking to make a real impact in a life-changing, life-saving organisation through finance leadership? As Head of Finance Operations at NHSBT, you will be at the heart of a complex, mission-driven organisation, leading the financial operations that enable the safe, efficient flow of funds which support the delivery of blood, organs and tissues that save and improve lives every day.

This is a pivotal role overseeing NHSBT's financial engine, ensuring the integrity, control and efficiency of high-value financial transactions. You will blend strategic oversight with deep systems and process expertise to shape robust, compliant and future-ready finance operations. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Finance, Commercial and Digital, you will drive continuous improvement, influence the design and implementation of new ERP solutions, and lead a skilled team to deliver trusted financial services that directly support NHSBT's life saving mission.

Note: This is a national role, requiring travel across England based on business needs. The role offers a hybrid working option. You will be assigned a base location, which could be one of the NHSBT main centres or blood centres. The exact location will be confirmed after the final interview and mutually agreed upon with the line manager during the verbal offer stage. If you are based at one of our London centres, you will receive High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS), where applicable.

Main duties of the job

• Financial Transaction Leadership & Control: Own and ensure strict oversight of the organisation's income (£650m) and expenditure (£300m), including cash management, receipting, payments, and the Purchase to Pay process, ensuring timeliness, accuracy, and compliance.
• Finance Systems & ERP Expertise: Serve as the operational subject matter expert for Oracle e Business Suite and all inward and outward bound financial transaction interfaces, including BACS and other bank payments and the implementation of a new ERP system, shaping business processes to support efficient financial transaction capture, reporting, and decision making.
• Governance & Compliance: Embed robust financial controls across transactional processes, ensuring adherence to Government Functional Standards, IFRS, HMRC regulations, audit recommendations, and finance systems best practice.
• Process Improvement & Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner with senior operational managers across Finance, Commercial, Digital (DDTS) and wider business to review, design, and continually improve end to end transactional processes, data quality, and reporting.
• Leadership & Reporting: Lead a team of 16 staff (including 4 direct reports), ensuring delivery of operational financial services and statutory outputs, including contributions to the Annual Report.

About us

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you'll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.

Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do. By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference- Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever.

You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

Job responsibilities

What we offer:

• NHSBT promotes flexible working opportunities, and this role is available on a hybrid working basis.
• 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years service and to 33 days after 10 years.
• NHS pension scheme. The NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme (not dependent on investment returns). Further details and outline of benefits can be found at:
• We've fostered a culture of continuous learning where colleagues are well led, engaged, and encouraged to grow. We support you in reaching your full potential, both in your current role and future career. Our Thrive programme embodies our commitment to learning and development, offering a wide range of activities to support your personal and professional growth. It's open to everyone at NHSBT, ensuring you have the resources to succeed and shine in your role.

To learn more, please see our recruitment profile, which provides a summary of the job description and person specification. This can be accessed via the link below, or by clicking Apply if you are viewing this advert on another site.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Masters level professional accounting qualification from a CCAB or equivalent awarding body, with full membership of the respective accounting body having been achieved, plus significant post qualification experience working at a strategic level in a large complex organisation.
• Demonstrates commitment to own continued professional development (CPD).

Experience

• Knowledge and experience of transactional, operational and strategic financial management in a large multi disciplinary organisation.
• Significant line and team management experience.
• Significant experience of report writing, process documentation and business cases.
• Extensive experience of translating technical financial accounting requirements into transactional processes which can be used at scale and maintain financial controls, data integrity and audit trails, whilst maximising reporting and management information opportunities.
• Knowledge, understanding and practical experience of complex, cross discipline business process inter relationships, preferably across a manufacturing, warehousing and service supply chain.
• Knowledge of process improvement methodologies, business analysis techniques and related concepts, and demonstrable experience of delivering improvement.
• Extensive knowledge and experience of designing, implementing and managing best practice financial transaction processes, and managing performance against published and/or Board committee level KPIs.
• Advanced specialist knowledge of Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) data processes, Power Query, VBA, SQL and the management of inbound and outbound interfaces.
• Demonstrable experience of managing the operation, and change, of large complex financial ledger or ERP systems.
• Knowledge and practical experience of negotiating process change and outcomes in a challenging environment.