CIPD - Financial Controller

CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. We champion better work and working lives and support a global community of people professionals to make a positive difference to organisations and the people who work within them.

We are looking for a Financial Controller to join us at an important time for CIPD and our Finance team.

Reporting to the Finance Director and managing four direct reports, you will take responsibility for financial control across the organisation and our international entities.

There is a lot happening at CIPD. We are changing some of our core systems, including those supporting our membership and qualifications, and we want to use this as an opportunity to improve the way Finance works across the organisation.

The Financial Controller will be central to this.

You will lead on financial controls, statutory reporting and audit, treasury, cash management and the integrity of our balance sheet and ledgers. Just as importantly, we want you to look at how we do things today and help us make them better – strengthening processes, improving controls and making sure we get the most from our systems (Netsuite and Salesforce).

This is a hands-on role. We aren't looking for someone who wants to manage from a distance. You will need to be comfortable getting into the detail, understanding where something isn't working and seeing it through to resolution. At the same time, you'll lead and develop a team of eight, helping them take greater ownership and continue to raise standards across the function.

You will also work closely with the Head of FP&A and colleagues across CIPD. A big part of the role will be building good relationships outside Finance and helping people understand why strong financial management matters.

About you

You will be a qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with strong technical accounting knowledge and experience of working in a complex organisation.

You'll have a good grounding in financial control and statutory reporting, but we're particularly interested in people who have improved things rather than simply maintained them.

You may have strengthened a control environment, improved a year-end process, introduced better balance sheet disciplines, supported a finance system implementation or redesigned financial processes. You'll understand what good looks like and be able to bring people with you when things need to change.

You'll also be an experienced people manager. We want someone who enjoys developing a team, sets clear expectations and is prepared to roll their sleeves up when needed.

Experience of working across multiple entities or international operations would be valuable, as would experience of NetSuite, Salesforce or finance transformation.

Why join CIPD?

This is a good opportunity for someone who wants to have a genuine influence on a finance function.

There is already a clear direction of travel, but there is plenty still to do. You'll have the backing of the Finance Director to challenge how things are done, improve processes and controls and help develop a finance function that is fit for the future.

And you'll be doing that within an organisation with a clear purpose.

The work CIPD does ultimately comes back to improving people's experience of work. As Financial Controller, you will make sure we have the strong financial management, controls and systems needed to support that work.

For someone who enjoys getting the detail right, developing people and making things better, there is a lot to get stuck into.

We reserve the right to close the process early and, as such, an early application is highly recommended.