Head of Finance - Corporate

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and motivated qualified accountant to lead the finance team of the Corporate, Operational Services, Estates and Education divisions at Oxford University Hospitals.

To succeed in this role, you will be a self-motivated, proactive individual with excellent communication, leadership and influencing skills, and have a proven track record of delivery.

The role will also involve managing the divisional finance team and driving improvement and development within the team.

This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated finance professional to contribute to driving improvement, supporting the Trust in achieving its goals, and ensuring the financial sustainability of services.

Main duties of the job

The Head of Finance – Corporate is a senior leadership role responsible for delivering comprehensive financial management across the Trust’s Corporate, Operational Services (OS), Estates, and Education divisions. The role provides strategic financial leadership, ensuring the effective management of income, expenditure, workforce, and activity in alignment with performance targets.

Key responsibilities include preparing accurate financial reports, leading on the month-end process, and supporting divisional management teams in evaluating business cases for change. The role also ensures compliance with Trust financial policies while developing financial awareness among non-finance managers.

The post holder will lead the budgeting process, ensuring annual budgets are agreed and implemented, and will monitor financial performance, identifying corrective actions as necessary to achieve divisional targets. A critical focus will be on delivering efficiencies and supporting cost improvement plans to maintain the Trust’s long-term financial viability.

In addition to overseeing the management accounting team, the role ensures robust financial systems and processes are in place to deliver timely, accurate reporting.

Finally, the Head of Finance – Corporate supports strategic initiatives such as elective care recovery and operational targets, driving improvements while fostering a culture of financial sustainability and shared learning across the Trust.

Working for our organisation

For more information on OUH please view OUH At a Glance by OUHospitals - Issuu

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community.

We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.

These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via the OUH YouTube channel.

The Finance department at OUH is a team focused on improving financial information and helping senior stakeholders and clinical teams understand the narrative behind the numbers. We are working to embed a learning culture, encouraging staff at all levels to both undergo training and deliver training to others.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main purpose of the role: To work as a member of the Finance Senior Management team in delivering a comprehensive financial service to the Trust, to provide financial management support to the Trust's Corporate, OS, Estates & Education Divisions and Executive Directors, and to take the lead in delivering certain of the core activities of the Finance Directorate

Please see attached the Job Description and Person Specification for this role.

Person specification

Education & Qualifications

• Qualified CCAB Accountant
• Registered and active Continued Professional Development
• Evidence of continuous formal management development

Experience

• Significant professional finance experience since qualification
• Extensive experience of operating at a strategic or corporate level in a complex organisational environment, preferably NHS
• Substantial experience of developing business cases in the NHS.
• Substantial experience of leading and managing teams.
• Experience of advising and working in tandem with senior managers, clinicians and directors of a large NHS organisation
• Experience of presenting complex technical information to large groups of non-finance professionals
• Experience of developing and delivering cost improvement programmes in a complex NHS environment.
• Significant experience of working in a devolved management structure

Knowledge

• Expert knowledge of the NHS financial regime and its application to an NHS provider
• Expert knowledge of the NHS Capital regime
• Expert knowledge of the NHS Business Case process and experience of developing cases
• Knowledge of service line reporting, Patient Level Costing and NHS Reference Costs
• Knowledge of Payment by Results and NHS Contracting
• Expert knowledge of performance reporting and performance management

Analytical and Judgement Skills

• Able to prioritise workload where no precedent exists
• Able to prioritise tasks in complex project environments.
• Able to analyse and interpret complex data, and to present this clearly
• Able to operate in complex environments where leadership is diffuse
• Able to demonstrate an aptitude for working in teams
• Able to make clear and autonomous decisions and to be accountable for them

Communication and Relationship Skills

• Able to communicate complex technical data in a rigorous manner, utilising a variety of media
• Excellent written communication skills
• Able to build relationships of trust with external and internal stakeholders
• Able to lead staff in a manner which promotes a customer focus
• Able to manage conflict in an open manner

Planning & Organisational Skills

• Able to plan and lead complex managerial processes
• Able to project plan in a coherent way
• Able to develop several options to resolve highly complex problems
• Able to deliver to tight deadlines
• Able to work in a “matrix” way in a complex environment