Job Description

Job Title Project Analyst

Grade: G4

Details
As a Project Analyst at Student Loans Company (SLC) you will be chiefly responsible for the Financial Management of an area of the Change Portfolio. The Change Portfolio constitutes a series of Programmes and Projects designed to meet the needs of SLC’s Stakeholders as well as developing SLC’s own strategic goals. Your remit isto provide specialist financial advice to your client group as well as being an integral element of the governance structure.You will become a financepartner to your area of responsibility and, as a subject matter expert, you willprovide comprehensive financial reporting information and present that information at key stakeholder meetings. For you, success will be a financially aware client group, whose risk aware decisions are based on solid financial information.
You’ll have the chance to challenge yourself, simply explaining financial concepts to non financial stakeholders and ensuring value for money is achieved for all expenditure, working in diverse areas, in a company whose turnover is amongst the largest companies in the country. What’s more, you’ll play a pivotal role in helping us to achieve challenging targets, using your interpersonal skills you’ll become a true finance partner to your client group.
Main Roles & Responsibilities

•Understand stakeholder requirements to ensure customer focused results.

•Provide day to day support to Programme and ProjectManagers assisting as necessary to provide financial analysis and advice.

•Produce and present period actuals and forecasts for budget holders, including preparing month end accruals, transfers and adjustments.

•Produce month end Dashboards and Financial Reports highlighting any significant issues. Supporting budget holders in understanding the impact of the monthly results and forecasts against budgets to ensure budgetary control is maintained and variances understood.

•Represent Finance in key budget holder meetings such as Programme and Project Boards to clearly communicate issues and provide sound financial advice and support.

•Ensure corporate governance is adhered to throughout the function and review compliance with financial regulations.

•Ensure VFM is achieved by reviewing processes and expenditure and providing challenge on all new demand requests along with forecast and budget movements - embedding in the decision process with the budget holders and senior managers to understand the assumptions in cost and how changes in the delivery of the programme influence these.

•Responsible for the preparation and presentation of investment and other project appraisals for inclusion in business cases and budgets, providing specialist advice as required.

•Support the procurement and commercial activity assisting in contracttenders, ensuring the internal approvals process is adhered to and provide assurance for coding expenditure.

•Liaise with the Programme Management Office and Project Managers to ensure capacity requirements are communicated and resource implications are understood.

•Continuallyanalyse the Change Portfolio cost base to identify opportunities and efficiencies and monitor dependencies.

•Support the Finance Business Partner and the Key Stakeholdersin the setting of the annual Change Portfolio budget. Understanding and documenting the key business assumptions, main cost drivers and the impact of the service proposals.

•Ensure the integrity of the finance information within all reports and management information created to agreed deadlines and communicate comments in appropriate detail.

• Proactively seek to identify and develop the Project Accounting reporting functionality.

•Developthe service to senior stakeholders to ensure it meets their needs in a sustainable way.

•Support the Project Administrator to ensure acceptable levels of timesheet completion are achieved for your area of responsibility.

•Proactively lead and support colleagues in the Finance Department to ensure comprehensive information flow between the different teams especially governing the interaction between Business as Usual (BAU) and the Change Portfolio.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Full membership of a relevant professional body although consideration will be given to Part Qualified members of a relevant professional body who possess sufficient experience to fulfil the requirements of the role
•Project or relevant Management Accounting Experience
•Advanced Excel skills
•Ability to be flexible in approach to problem solving, to take responsibility for actions and deliver business focused solutions
•Proven record of understanding dependencies and reconciling all outputs
•Demonstrable ability to present financial risks and assumptions to non financial audiences•Experience in supporting commercial activities
•Experience in identifying financial governance risks and issues and generating corrective action
•Experience in delivering investments appraisals that have influenced business decisions
•Experience in identifying business financial efficiencies and opportunities
•Experience in initiating improvements to customer service
•Knowledge of current accounting standards
Desirable Sills & Experience
•Experience of Oracle based system
•Post qualification Project Accounting experience
•Experience of working in large organisations
About SLC
Student Loans Company is a non-profit making Government-owned organisation set up in 1989 to provide loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK. We are responsible, in partnership with Local Authorities in England and Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Education and Library boards in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Institutions and HM Revenue & Customs, for student support delivery in the UK.