Finance Analyst

Credible financial planning. Informed decision-making. Impacting the future.

Finance Analyst

£36,000-£45,000 (+ Benefits & study support, if applicable)

Reports to: Finance Manager (Central Fundraising)

Department: Chief Operating Office

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office).

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Closing date: 17 March 2025 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: One to two competency-based interviews (depending on application volumes)

Interview date: From the week commencing 17 or 24 March 2025

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

Cancer Research UK’s Finance team’s credibility and professionalism in handling income fundraised by public generosity is essential to the smooth running of our organisation. As a large, complex charity with nearly 600 shops, 570 yearly events, and thousands of supporters, we receive income through several income streams. In 2023/24, the Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement (MFE) directorate helped raise an incredible £463m to support our life-saving research. Our Fundraising Finance teams are integral to this effort by providing insightful reporting and robust financial planning for MFE, making them crucial to the success of our mission.

As a Finance Analyst, you will join our Central Fundraising Finance team, working to bring the Fundraising Finance teams together to ensure a collaborative approach to financial reporting, planning, and analysis. Your purpose will be to partner closely with the Fundraising Finance teams to consolidate and review month-end reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and long-term planning across MFE. Leveraging your expertise in financial planning, modelling, and reporting, you will deliver in-depth analysis and decision support to senior stakeholders in Fundraising Finance (including Managers, Heads, and the Finance Director).

Additionally, you will oversee the P&L and financial planning activities for two new teams within the MFE directorate: Audience, Strategy & Innovation, and Data, Insights & Performance. In this capacity, you will work alongside the Finance Manager and budget holders, providing budgeting, forecasting, and insightful analysis to facilitate effective decision-making and support business cases, initiatives, and projects within these teams.

If you are a part or newly qualified Finance Analyst who has helped to review and consolidate large budgets and forecasts in large, complex organisations, we’d love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

Financial Reporting:

• Producing regular planning and reporting for the Fundraising Finance, Audience, Strategy & Innovation, and Data, Insights, & Performance teams.
• Partnering with Fundraising Finances team to consolidate and review month-end reporting, budgeting, and forecasting across the Marketing, Fundraising & Events (MFE) directorate (c.£400m income).
• Delivering financial planning activities for the Audience, Strategy & Innovation, and Data, Insights, & Performance teams within MFE.
• Understanding variances and providing accurate and insightful assessments of financial performance.
• Reviewing management information and analysis to find efficiencies and improvements.
• Collaborating closely with the Management Accountants to ensure accounts are complete and correct.

Analysis and Financial Decision Support:

• Providing analysis and information to support decisions, projects, and business cases for your business areas with the support of the Finance Manager.
• Analysing trends and performance, feeding findings into forecasts and long-term financial planning.
• Producing analysis that turns data into insight, understand the 'so what' and questioning 'what's next?’.
• Helping decision makers to understand the impact of their initiatives and decisions on the charity's financial plan.

Financial Planning:

• Collaborating with colleagues in the Central Fundraising and wider Finance team to help produce the financial planning (forecasting, budgeting and long-term planning).
• Developing and providing income/expenditure modelling to support all financial planning (forecasting, budgeting, and long-term planning) for your business areas.
• Enabling the organisation to own and take responsibility for their finance plans by:
  • Building strong relationships with both the Fundraising Finance, Audience, Strategy & Innovation, and Data, Insights, & Performance teams.
  • Clearly communicating and presenting financial information to senior leaders (e.g., Directors of Finance and MFE), and both financial and non-financial stakeholders across the above teams.

What skills will I need?

• Part-qualified or newly qualified Finance Analyst (ACCA/ CIMA/ ICAEW or equivalent).
• Produced financial planning within large, complex organisations.
• Experience supporting with reviewing and consolidating large budgets and forecasts throughout a full financial year (c.£400m income).
• Experience in delivering financial planning, modelling, and reporting (including variance analysis, budgeting, and forecasting).
• Built strong business partnering relationships with both Finance and business teams, as well as senior leaders (e.g., Heads and Directors).
• Proven ability to clearly analyse, present, and explain financial information and extract key issues with both financial and non-financial stakeholders.
• Can set and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment while maintaining strong attention to detail and effectively managing expectations.
• IT Literate and comfortable manipulating data in Excel (e.g. v-lookups, index match and Pivot Tables)

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

Additional Information

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact [email protected] or 0 20 3469 8400 as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.