University of Birmingham Hiring for Finance, Planning and Change Partner (Dubai) – Dubai Professional Services/Executive & Corporate Office – 99837 Job at Dubai Full Time

Position Details

Dubai Professional Services, External Relations/Executive & Corporate Office

University of Birmingham, Dubai campus

Salary: Competitive

Grade 8

Full time

Location: Dubai, UAE

Closing date: 8 July 2022

University of Birmingham Dubai

Having established ourselves in Dubai International Academic City in 2018 we have now taken up residence of our state of the art new campus and are excited to build on our brand and reputation as a global institution. This post represents an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious World Top 100 University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai.

Professional Services Ethos

Our ethos as a Professional Services team has been developed in line with the principles of being a Birmingham Professional. In particular, here in Dubai, this means that all Professional Services colleagues seek to collaborate effectively to ensure the needs of the whole campus community and our stakeholders are met. It also means that we work constructively together to provide a flexible range of service and support that adapt to the changing needs of the Campus as we grow. There are specific focal points in the academic cycle when all Professional Services team members will be expected to contribute regardless of their primary role, for example Welcome or Graduation. In addition, the duties listed below are illustrative of the general nature and level of responsibility of this post which is likely to change over time in response to the needs of the Campus and as you develop your experience and skills. You will have the opportunity to develop and may also need to specialise your duties further, over time, in agreement with your manager.

In order to contribute to the success of the team and the University’s vision for the Dubai Campus the Professional Services team will be seeking to continue to recruit and develop colleagues who display:

• a high level of intellectual aptitude;
• strong agility and a portfolio of skills that can adapt to meet changing circumstances;
• an innovative and creative mindset; and
• both an enterprising and entrepreneurial nature to support our growth and pursuit of excellence.

Department Overview

The Executive and Corporate Office will provide outstanding support to the leadership of the Dubai campus to assist in delivering the vision and mission set out by the University’s Executive Board and Council. The members of the office will support the delivery of the strategic ambitions through the delivery of central corporate services functions that begin at a range of levels and develop in line with the development of the campus. The Office will work closely with colleagues from the UK campus in order to ensure that governance, policy and processes required are effective in meeting the needs of both Edgbaston and the Dubai campus.

Job Summary

You will be responsible for the effective provision of financial, planning and change management support to the University’s Dubai Campus. You will need to liaise with colleagues in the Edgbaston Finance Office, Planning Office, and Strategic Change Office in order to deliver your role effectively. As this is a senior role in Dubai, you will have a high degree of responsibility and autonomy in acting as an expert advisor providing strategic support for the Provost and Director of Campus Services.

Although you will formally report to the Head of Finance Business Partnering, you will have day to day accountability to the Provost and Campus Director and Deputy Campus Director in Dubai.

Main duties

General

Finance

• Developing budgets and forecasting, contributing to the University’s annual financial planning process (COMPACT),
• Medium/long term financial planning,
• Financial reporting,
• Supporting contract negotiations,
• Developing and monitoring business cases, including for staffing needs and ensuring these are reviewed and approved,
• Provision of regulatory financial information,
• Capital planning (feeding into capital programme planning process),
• Managing relevant external relationships, eg with banks.
• Cashflow planning in conjunction with UK Treasury team

Planning

Change

• identify requirements and design solutions
• engage with end-users and other stakeholders to gain commitment and cooperation
• develop benefits realisation plans to inform on-going monitoring and reviews of activity
• develop communications to ensure on-going staff/student engagement with change
• work with key staff in the Edgbaston Strategic Change Team and/or IT Services as required
• Identify change-related risks, issues and dependencies and take action as appropriate

General

Person Specification

• Educated to degree level or equivalent level 6 qualification.
• Relevant professional accountancy qualification and registration, with relevant post qualification experience in a start-up/developing organisation.
• Development of longer-term plans to balance with short-term pressures.
• Excellent analytical, review, and interpretation skills, of both narrative and numerical data. The post-holder must be able effectively to research and analyse quantitative and qualitative management information, and to identify issues and actions arising from their analyses.
• Demonstrable experience of successfully delivering change management initiatives or other successful project management experience.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex messages to non-experts and to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
• Experience of gaining and retaining the confidence of colleagues and having the standing to represent the University externally.
• Ability to generate innovative solutions in response to challenges to deliver strategic change and to articulate these sharing both implications and benefits.
• Excellent IT and data analysis skills, including relevant experience of Microsoft Office packages. Aptitude for learning new packages to support analysis and presentation of information.
• Actively promotes equality and diversity to internal and external stakeholders.
• Able to use data to identify equality and diversity issues.
• Experience of developing interventions to address equality and diversity issues.

As interest in all of the advertised posts has been extremely high, we encourage you to apply online, tailoring your skillset against the listed criteria in the application form.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.