Heads of Financial Analysis
Posted by: Office For Students
Employed By: Office For Students
Job Title: Heads of Financial Analysis
Salary: either £79,498 - £83,299 Plus generous Civil Service defined benefit pension
Contract: Full-time
Location: Bristol or London, with regular travel to Bristol
Application Deadline: 12 pm, Monday 3 March 2025
Who We Are
The OfS is the statutory regulator for higher education in England. Our aim is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. We do so by regulating the higher education providers on our register to make sure they are delivering high quality courses and positive outcomes for their students; where they are not, we take action.
The higher education sector in England is complex and diverse and the OfS’s approach to regulation recognises this. Our new strategy signals a shift from an organisation in a start-up phase to an established regulator that understands its regulatory tools and how best to use them to shape incentives across the sector we regulate. We work to ensure that students in England enjoy higher education provision that is high quality; that their access to opportunity, success and progression is not limited by background, location or characteristics; and that providers are well and sustainably led.
What you’ll do
We are looking for a ‘Head of Financial Analysis’ to be a key part of our statutory duty to monitor and report on the financial sustainability of HE providers and the financial patterns and trends across the sector.
The purpose of this role is to lead an expert team to provide OfS with analysis and advice on the financial sustainability of the HE sector. The team identifies current and future financial risks and assess the implications of these risks on providers.
This role works across the OfS, including with the provider financial assessment team, the provider facing Core Regulatory Teams and with the OfS Data team.
The role will also work with key external stakeholders, including banks, government departments and other funding bodies, to ensure higher education finances and financial risks are understood.
Key to success in this role will be your ability to understand and interpret complex regulatory and legal frameworks, regardless of whether or not you have previous experience working in a regulator, in order to reach fair, evidence-based judgements on complex issues.
You will be equally adept at quickly adapting to working within higher education and able to learn and understand the key issues and challenges facing the sector. You will be people focused, committed to our mission of driving positive outcomes for students, and able to work at pace within complex and ambiguous environments. You will be an experienced leader of people and able to demonstrate an ability to motivate, develop and deliver exceptional results through people across an organisation.
You will understand the role and value of a regulator and, regardless of your professional background, show an understanding of how effective regulation works in practice. How we do things is as important to us as what we do and your approach will be underpinned by our values of Ambition, Openness, Learning and Diversity.
We are interested in hearing from candidates with experience of working in relevant financial analysis roles in the higher education sector, as well those who have experience of other regulators or regulated environments. This is an exciting time to join a rapidly transforming organisation that works to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.
Diversity and inclusion
We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do. We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
Working arrangements
We love working flexibly because we know that it helps us all to do our best work. We’ve created a set of principles to shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week.
Application is by CV and personal statement setting out how you meet the role requirements
Closing date for applications: 12 Noon Monday 3 March 2025
Interviews: From 31 March 2025