The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.
We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.
We’re are recruiting the following below:
Job Title: Head of Business Partnering | Multiple Locations
Location:
- UK
- South Asia: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal
- East Asia: Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, Kenya
- Europe: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia
- Middle East & North Africa: Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait
- Americas: Colombia, Venezuela
Department: Finance
Contract: Indefinite Contract
The Role
- The Cultural Engagement (CE) Head of Business Partnering acts as the deputy and strategic partner to the Director of FP&A – Cultural Engagement, providing leadership across finance business partnering for the CE sectors enabling functions and the Geographic Directorate.
- The role is responsible for delivering high-quality Business Decision Support (BDS), financial planning, forecasting, reporting and analysis to support effective decision-making during a period of significant organisational change.
- It also oversees financial support to the Grant-in-Aid Board, ensuring that grant funding is allocated, monitored and utilised in line with British Council strategic priorities and FCDO settlement requirements.
- The postholder plays a key role in driving strategic alignment and influencing decision-making across CE and improving financial planning capability across the organisation.
- A major focus of the role is to champion finance transformation initiatives, including adoption of the new financial planning tool, enhancement of business partnering capability, and continuous improvement of reporting and planning processes.
- Operating within the FP&A Business Decision Support (BDS) team, the role supports a complex global portfolio spanning Arts, Education, English programmes, research, commercial activity, grant-funded programmes, and mixed-funding models.
- The successful candidate must bring strong commercial finance expertise, international business partnering experience, excellent analytical and communication skills, and the ability to translate complex financial information into clear strategic insights that support the British Council’s global cultural engagement objectives.
Main responsibilities
- Acting as the right hand to the Director of FP&A – CE, the role leads CE’s global Business Partnering team of 14 in providing a consistent, high-quality business partnering service and financial oversight across the Cultural Engagement (CE) portfolio The role works across the CE matrix of regional grant programmes, enabling functions, and the Geographic Directorate to drive aligned financial planning, governance, performance management, and strategic decision-making, while representing CE’s consolidated finance interests within the wider global finance community.
- The position also has responsibility for management reporting, financial analysis, and strategic planning, overseeing global budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, investment appraisal, scenario modelling, grant-in-aid reporting, and financial risk management.
- It ensures the delivery of timely, accurate, and insightful management information across grant funded and commercial activities, translating complex financial and programme trends into actionable strategic recommendations for senior stakeholders and supporting CE transformation initiatives through robust financial analysis and performance insights.
- It also ensures that CE is aware of material financial risks and provides support and solutions as to how these risks will be mitigated.
- The role acts as the key liaison between CE and Corporate Finance, ensuring that strategic alignment, governance, and compliance are maintained through senior-level engagement.
Education
- Educated to degree level
Professional Qualification and Certification
- Recognised International Accounting or Finance qualification
Role specific knowledge and experience
Minimum/essential
- Min. 10 years’ experience in financial management, FP&A, management accounting or grant finance.
- Professional accounting qualification (CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent).
- Demonstrable experience supporting complex programmes or portfolios, ideally involving funded work.
- Demonstrable experience of business partnering senior business stakeholders (Executive leadership or Board level)
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders in a matrix or multi‑country organisational context.
- Team leadership and staff development of global teams (10+ staff).
- Demonstrable experience of delivering finance process improvements and efficiencies.
Desirable
- Strong capability in financial modelling, forecasting and analytics.
- Experience in Cultural Engagement, development programmes or non‑profit grant management.
- Experience with SAP or similar ERP platforms.
- Experience with Anaplan or similar EPM platforms.
Language Requirements
- The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required”.
Application Deadline: Wednesday, Sept 16th (11:59 local time)
METHOD OF APPLICATION
Interested and Qualified candidates should use link below to Apply.
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