213 Operations jobs

Finance & Resources Director

Great teams don’t happen by accident. They are built by great leaders.

At Bluebell Wood, we believe outstanding leadership creates the conditions for people to do their best work. As our Finance & Resources Director, you’ll connect that leadership with a clear purpose: sustaining specialist care and support for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families.

We’re looking for an experienced and inspiring financial leader who can bring people together around a clear purpose, develop confident and high-performing teams, and create an environment where people feel trusted, supported and accountable for delivering their best. You’ll combine strategic insight, sound judgement and responsible stewardship with inclusive, people-centred leadership.

This is a key leadership role at Bluebell Wood, with the opportunity to influence not only what we deliver, but how we lead, collaborate and grow as an organisation. Reporting to the Chief Executive and joining our Senior Leadership Team, you’ll provide strategic leadership for finance, IT and facilities. Working with colleagues and Trustees, you’ll bring clarity to complex decisions, help us navigate financial pressures and plan for the future, taking shared responsibility for Bluebell Wood as a whole.

What difference will you make?

You’ll help us look beyond the current financial year, understand the choices and risks ahead, and ensure strong governance and effective use of our charitable resources. Your leadership will combine constructive challenge with collaboration, clear expectations and genuine care for people.

You’ll:

• Shape financial strategy and drive continuous improvement, using forecasts and scenario modelling to inform senior colleagues’ and Trustees’ decisions, balance immediate pressures with long-term sustainability and keep children, young people and families at the heart of choices.
• Oversee budgeting, reforecasting, cashflow, reserves, investments and restricted funds, ensuring realistic plans and sustainable management.
• Ensure robust financial governance, controls, reporting, statutory accounts, audit and tax arrangements, and oversee financial risk, procurement and contracts to provide clear insight and assurance, protect charitable resources and ensure value for money.
• Set strategic direction for our estate, facilities, technology and digital infrastructure, supporting safe operations, efficiency, data security and resilience.
• Lead and develop managers and teams, setting clear priorities, enabling others to take responsibility for delivery and creating opportunities to learn and contribute.
• Build trusted relationships across professional boundaries and with Trustees, advisers and partners, welcoming different perspectives and strengthening financial understanding.

The leader we’re looking for:

You’ll bring significant leadership experience and a track record of developing people and teams to deliver great outcomes. You’ll be comfortable balancing support with challenge and able to create clarity when things are complex or changing.

You’ll hold a recognised professional accountancy qualification, such as ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent, and bring significant senior-level financial leadership experience, including planning, budgeting, forecasting and longer-term financial modelling. You will have advised senior leaders and Boards or equivalent governing bodies, with a strong understanding of financial governance, controls, audit and risk. You do not need to come from the charity sector, but you’ll need to understand our financial and regulatory environment quickly.

We’re interested in how you lead, the difference you’ve made and the potential you see in other people. Most importantly, your approach will connect with our values.

Why Bluebell Wood?

This is an opportunity to lead somewhere with an extraordinary purpose, but also somewhere with real ambition for the future.

We’re strengthening leadership, developing our people and building an inclusive culture where colleagues can undertake their best work.

You’ll join an organisation where people are proud of our purpose, but where we are also honest about where we need to improve. That means this isn’t a role for someone who simply wants to maintain what already exists. We want someone who is excited by what could be possible and can bring others with them.

Could this be you?

If you are an inclusive, courageous and people-centred leader who can combine high expectations with genuine care, we’d love to hear from you.

Please don’t rule yourself out because you don’t meet every point perfectly. We recognise that experience and potential come in many different forms, and we welcome applications from people with different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and want our recruitment process to be accessible to everyone. If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage, please let us know so we can support you.

For full details about the role, please download the recruitment pack.