School HR and Finance Manager

Job description

The School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London, is looking to appoint to the post of Finance & HR Manager for one year, maternity cover post. This is a key role in the School, responsible for providing operational leadership and support across finance and human resources. You will support the School Manager in monitoring the School’s management accounts and managing the annual financial processes. HR responsibilities will include supporting performance management, professional development and promotions/recognition awards of School staff, maintaining equality and diversity data for both School staff and postgraduate research students.  

This post will appeal to a personable, high-performing manager experienced in supporting HR and Finances in Higher Education. 

In accordance with the new hybrid working policy, the role holder will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% FTE on campus. 

This post will be offered Fixed term for one year 

This is a full time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

Leadership and planning 

• Assist the School Manager in the delivery of operational objectives in relation to staffing requirements for the School, aligning these with the Faculty’s objectives, and King’s Vision 2029 and the King’s Research and Education strategies 
• Support the School Manager in the development and implementation of the School’s forward plan, and associated initiatives and programmes, and regularly assessing the establishment, i.e. staff funded from HEFCE or endowment funds 
• Support the School Manager and School Executive on changes to the School’s staffing, alerting them to risks in relation to the School’s staff identifying ways these can be managed and mitigated 
• Working with the Faculty and other university colleagues, promote the contribution of the School to the wider university objectives including Vision 2029 

Professional Services leadership

• Oversee and manage the School’s staff support, taking an active role in the coordination of recruitment, probation and performance management, recognition, capability development and succession planning liaising closely with colleagues from the Faculty and central Professional Services teams to ensure the use of effective processes and the supporting IT systems 
• Leading Human Resource operations for the School, creating an inclusive, supportive and empowering environment for staff to reach their potential, embedding a culture of excellence 
• Line manage three members of staff 
• Work with the core HR data team to maintain effective systems for monitoring staff data held on the human resource management system, ensuring data are accurate, and supporting the completion of data returns and equality and diversity initiatives, including Athena SWAN 
• Monitor and analyse non-pay and establishment expenditure on a monthly basis 
• Facilitate the harmonisation and development of systems, processes and training across the School, capitalising on the significant investment in new IT systems; contribute to the formulation and subsequent implementation of the King’s/Faculty policies that underpin them 
• Ensure the School is compliant with university and external regulations and policies, seeking expert advice from colleagues in the Human Resources and Finance teams, interpreting and explaining this to staff as required 
• Create an ethos of collaboration and collegiality, establishing effective communications and relationships, and encouraging staff to work in partnership with academic and Professional Services colleagues across the university, to join professional networks and working groups, and to make a wider contribution to the School, Faculty and university 
• Forge relationships with key partners and stakeholders including King’s partnering NHS Trusts and acting as the primary School contact for internal and external partners in relation to human resource/staffing matters, working closely with the King’s Human Resource 
• Maintain a working knowledge of good practice and changes in human resource management, seeking the expert advice of Human Resources and Finance for more complex matters and for up-to-date knowledge of legislation, communicating information to School staff as appropriate 
• Facilitate an inclusive culture and ethos across the School teams, ensuring that Professional Services staff work in partnership with academic staff in departments/institutes and Professional Services colleagues in the Faculty team and functional networks 
• Deputise for the School Manager as appropriate, and represent the School, Faculty and university at meetings and events 

Other duties

• Lead or contribute to cross-Faculty/university initiatives  
• Undertake any other reasonable duties and projects as requested by the School Manager or academic lead.  These will include School-specific duties, for example supporting specialist Centres, liaising with external bodies etc to underpin the School’s core activity. 

Whilst working within the framework agreed with the post holder’s line manager/s, the post holder is expected to manage their own workload and is expected to be flexible in anticipating and responding to shifting and competing demands on their and the wider team’s time.  It is expected that the post will work with minimum regular supervision but will refer to their line managers for advice on issues which fall outside existing regulatory or policy frameworks. 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.      Educated to degree level or relevant experience 

2.      Proven excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills at all levels 

3.      Proven experience in a Human Resources context with knowledge of the employee lifecycle 

4.      Good numeracy and analytical skills to inform strategic decisions and procedure 

5.      Experience of servicing committees, writing reports and formal correspondence  

6.      Experience of using complex databases and business systems, e.g. HR and or finance systems 

7.      Ability to work under pressure in a busy environment 

8.      Experience of preparing budgets, business cases and plans, and monitoring key performance indicators, budgets and risks  

9.      A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias 

10.   Proven experience of implementing and improving processes 

11.   Excellent task management skills both for self and others, meeting tight deadlines 

Desirable criteria

12.  Experience of working in Higher Education 

13.  Relevant postgraduate or professional qualification  

14.  Line management experience 

15.  Experience of building an effective network across a complex organisation and with external stakeholders 

Candidates are strongly encouraged to specifically address the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification in their covering letter.  

Further information

The School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of five Schools that make up the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London. We have 400 members of staff (including 80 Principal Investigators) and over 200 PhD students located across King's Guy’s, Denmark Hill and Waterloo campuses.   

Our academic excellence is widely recognised: we are ranked 14th in the world for Pharmacy and Pharmacology (2019 QS subject rankings) and first in the UK for Clinical Medicine in terms of the proportion of King’s overall submission that was ranked 4* or 3* (REF2014). 

Through our partnership with King’s Health Partners, our scientists are joining up with world-class clinical services for the benefit of cancer patients in south east London and beyond. Working across our acute and community sectors, we are also maximising beneficial outcomes for our patients from medicines, through medicines optimisation. 

We teach both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes including our highly regarded MPharm degree and our MRes in Translational Cancer Medicine which was scored 100% student satisfaction (PTES 2018). 

More information: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/scps 

Whilst working within the framework agreed with the post holder’s line manager/s, the post holder is expected to manage their own workload and is expected to be flexible in anticipating and responding to shifting and competing demands on their and the wider team’s time.  It is expected that the post will work with minimum regular supervision but will refer to their line-managers for advice on issues which fall outside existing regulatory or policy frameworks. 

Please note that this job description reflects the core activities of the post. There may be changes in the emphasis of duties and it is expected that the post holder recognises this, adopting a flexible approach to work and willingness to participate in training.  Day-to-day activities and responsibilities will be determined by the School priorities and needs, and will inform specific objectives and tasks to be undertaken by post holders.   

As this is a generic job description to be used across the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, if changes to the post become significant, the line manager of the post holder is to discuss potential amendments to the job description with Human Resources, in liaison with the Faculty.