Senior Finance Operations Manager

We are working with an international alternative asset management group who are seeking a Senior Finance Operations Manager to join their Finance Operations team. This newly created role will involve overseeing the day-to-day financial operations of the organisation ensuring that the financial data is accurate, efficient, timely and compliant. You will also lead a small team of finance professionals they will delegate tasks and responsibilities to the team and ensure that each member of the team is fulfilling their roles and responsibilities effectively.

Roles & responsibilities
Key roles & responsibilities focus on:

• Manage the day-to-day duties of the Finance Operations team including the activities that are undertaken internally and by outsourced service providers for accounts payable, accounts receivable and cash management to ensure the timely and accurate reporting of trade creditors, trade debtors and cash positioning and forecasting.
• Plan and manage the monthly financial close process as it relates to Finance Operations, including the timetabling and coordination with the Reporting team over key activities such as close of accounts payable, bank reconciliations and accrual reporting.
• Manage the quarterly compliance reporting processes including VAT and Office of National Statistics returns.
• Oversee and closely monitor the preparation and calculation of management fee invoices ensuring accuracy of fee calculations and timely preparation of the invoices. Also monitor the process of the raising of invoices relating to monitoring fees and portfolio expenses accurately and on a timely basis.
• Manage internal and external audit reviews performed over the activities of the Finance Operations team, including accounts payable, bank reconciliations, account management and managing the global bank confirmation processes.
• Oversee the fund expense recharge process including ensuring the accuracy of fund allocations, review of sundry debtor balances, timely debt collection and substantiation.
• Ensure the operation of identified key controls (e.g. bank reconciliations, balance sheet substantiation) within Finance Operations and the adequacy of accurate and up-to-date control documentation on all relevant processes.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes and controls across finance operations and systems paying particular attention to system processes that could be enhanced with a new ERP system.
• Support the Head of Finance Operations and Systems in monitoring key KPIs for the Finance Operations team, including timely cash collection and time taken to pay for AP and expenses.

Personal Qualities & Experience

• We are looking for someone who is proactive, ambitious and thrives from delivering continuous improvement & enhancements
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Leadership skills, with a proven track record of managing teams and driving results
• Adaptable and excellent system skills essential
• Well established excel skills, being able to summarise large data sets in a thoughtful manner to allow senior management to form easy conclusions & summaries (Pivots, Lookups, short cuts to data cleanse, charts and graphs)
• Good accounting knowledge, although this is not a technical accounting role
• Finance are undertaking a significant programme to ensure the business is ready for the next phase of its impressive growth journey. The business are investing heavily in data and technology to innovate and automate their processes. Prior exposure to projects that continually evolve business processes through use of technology would be hugely beneficial.