SOUTHBANK CENTRE - Head of Finance Business Partnering

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK's top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.

The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).

We present work for everyone and we welcome applications from everyone. We particularly welcome applications from people from a BAME background or those who are Deaf or disabled as they are currently under-represented in our workforce.  If you wish to discuss reasonable adjustments for this role please indicate this on your application form and we will be in touch with you.

By attracting people to work for us from a broad range of backgrounds with diverse attitudes, opinions and beliefs we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.  We offer a stimulating and professional environment in which to work - and the pace and scale can be breathtaking. This is a remarkable place to work and our people require the ability to work in The Southbank Centre Way - to think, act and learn with speed and agility.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Leading the Business Partnering team to ensure the delivery of a quality customer focussed service to the organisation;
• Leading change, promoting innovation and seeking continuous improvement in all areas of Business Partnering including reporting, budgeting, forecasting and modelling;
• Acting as Business Partner for Development, Production, Major Projects and Admin;
• Building effective communication channels and providing in-depth support by shaping and maintaining excellent relationships with the business and ensuring budget holders are supported on all financial issues;
• Supporting departments in preparing business cases for new projects and working across the organisation to improve business performance;
• Working closely with the Financial Controller to ensure financial processes and systems remain fit for purpose;
• Being responsible for the development of the team.

The successful candidate must be a professionally qualified accountant with a driven and proactive approach and robust technical skills from the Charity, Commercial or wider Public Sector.

You will have a strong sense of commercial acumen, an analytical mind-set and be a natural and innovative problem solver. You will possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to engage and develop staff that you manage and build rapport with a range of finance and non-finance persons across the organisation.

Recruitment timings:

Application deadline – Sunday, 21st April

Shortlisting – week of 29th April

1st Stage Interviews – week of 6th May

2nd Stage Interviews – week of 13th May

To apply, please send your CV and covering letter via the link by Sunday 21st April, or for an informal discussion regarding the role, please don't hesitate to contact Bryony Feeney via rhe Allen Lane website.