Director of Finance & Operations

Director of Finance & Operations

In summary

Title: Director of Finance & Operations

Job base: Hybrid working, blending home working within any of our three locations in Chelsea or Harefield Hospital (minimum 40% of time in the office)

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

Job summary: To ensure the effective lead the charity's finances and core services, including HR and IT and supporting the work of our Board of Trustees as Company Secretary

Internal relationships: Across the charity, including CEO, member of SLT, six team members (three of which are direct reports, attendance at trustees' Board and finance & audit committee.

External relationships: Associate Director of Finance Heart, Lung, and Critical Care Clinical Group; funders and supporters; investment partners; auditors; bank managers; external IT and data service providers, external accountants and payroll providers.

Salary: Circa £85,000 (depending on experience)

Working Pattern: Full-time, with hybrid working, requiring the employee to attend one of our office sites at least two days a week. We are open to candidates who would like to work a flexible working arrangement (four days minimum, with two days in the office).

Job description:

Introduction

Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity exists to advance care for people with heart and lung diseases. Working closely with Royal Brompton & Harefield hospitals - part of Guy's & St Thomas, one of the largest foundation trusts in England - we fund life-changing projects to expand medical understanding and find innovative treatment options; to renew and upgrade equipment; and improve the everyday experience of patients and staff alike.

The Director of Finance & Operations is responsible for ensuring the effective leadership of our finances and core services. The position reports to the CEO, with whom the postholder will work closely on strategic issues; sits on the charity's senior leadership team; and has direct relationships with both our trustees and hospital partner's leadership team.

The role would suit someone who is an experienced senior leader, with proven success in working in partnership with Senior Leadership Team colleagues and Boards of Trustees. Excellent interpersonal skills and superb financial analysis and management expertise will be key to driving our success, enhancing our financial resilience and strengthening our operational capabilities.

In line with the charity's core behaviours, we value diverse backgrounds and contributions.

The charity

Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity is dedicated to improving the lives of people with serious heart and lung disease. Each year we grant around £6m to fund projects at our partner hospitals, including current initiatives such as:

• Equipping Royal Brompton Hospital with a high specification genetic sequencer to screen and plan treatment for patients and their families
• Creating a new consultant fellowship in imaging related to structural heart disease
• Providing core funding for the rb&hArts programme combining improvements to the hospital environment with therapeutic activities such as Singing for Breathing
• Supporting three fellowships annually to support allied health professionals in pursuing research projects
• Funding the Road to Recovery programme to provide mental health support for patients with long Covid
• Committing £100,000 to a Patients' Fund each year, to support around 40 micro-projects from palliative care 'comfort boxes' to better seating and new televisions on wards

Our funding comes from the fundraising efforts of thousands of supporters as well as income generated by our investments in property and equity markets.

We have a small, committed and skilled team (29 in 2024/25), with expertise across fundraising, marketing, HR, property management, grant-making and financial management.

We are committed to - and hold ourselves and each other to account for - the following core behaviours:

• Setting ourselves challenging goals, in order to achieve more for the charity's beneficiaries
• Working as one team, sharing information and ideas, and valuing our diverse range of backgrounds and contributions
• Solving problems, using our resources, our networks and our creativity to provide a better service
• Creating opportunities to learn, and supporting each other to grow
• Enjoying our work, celebrating our successes and finding time to have fun as a team.

The role

Overall

The Director of Finance and Operations is a crucial role for our charity, encompassing:

• Supporting the CEO in executing the Charity's strategic plans by overseeing the organisational capability that ensures the Charity's assets and infrastructure provide maximum impact for beneficiaries.
• Developing and executing strategy for Finance & Operations, ensuring the charity is well run and focuses on driving growth in income and impact.
• Acting as Company Secretary, supporting good governance and the work of the Trustees
• Leading the finance and operations teams, planning and managing workloads, and ensuring a high standard of support is offered by the team to the wider charity
• Leadership and management of the Finance and Operations teams, ensuring that team members have direction, support and development opportunities
• Representing the charity with our hospital partners and other external stakeholders, building networks and attending external events on behalf of the Charity, to build long term and meaningful partnerships
• Supporting the Chief Executive in leading the organisation and deputising as required, both internally and externally
• Acting as a member of the Senior Leadership Team providing collective leadership for the charity
• Embracing and modelling the charity's core behaviours

Finance:

• Leading our finance function, ensuring accurate and timely financial flows, for a charity with annual income of around £11m and strategic reserves of more than £130m
• Being responsible for the preparation of the Charity annual statutory accounts, ensuring statutory accounting deadlines are met, working closely with the external auditors to incorporate best practice into the workings of the charity finance function and to lead and co-ordinate the timely implementation of audit recommendations
• Oversee all financial planning, analysis, performance and risk reporting including budgeting and regular forecasting
• Ensure all tax returns and gift aid claims are completed and submitted in a timely manner.
• Acting as budget holder and authorised signatory in accordance with the charity's scheme of delegation

Investments:

• Monitoring the charity's investments, working closely with our investment advisors, Director of Property & Estates and the Finance & Audit Committee
• Monitoring the charity's investments, working closely with our investment advisors, Director of Property & Estates and the Finance & Audit Committee
• Providing advice and recommendations to trustees on investment decisions and strategies, including our responsible investing position

Business planning:

• In partnership with the CEO, the executive team and Trustees, ensuring the development and implementation of the charity's strategic plan and annual budgets
• Leading the annual business planning process in the Charity, ensuring we have clear budgets, KPIs and milestones to deliver against our plan
• Overseeing and continuously developing a range of timely and insightful financial and non-financial reporting, including management accounts, charity scorecard and risk register, which support the charity to make effective decisions and allows oversight of strategic and operational objective

Governance:

• Act as Company Secretary, supporting trustees in their work and ensuring that the organisation complies with corporate governance requirements set by regulators
• Co-ordinate support for Board and Committee meetings.
• Work closely with the Chair of our Finance & Audit committee to set the agenda and provide relevant information for trustees
• Support the CEO and Chair of the Board with recruitment, onboarding and development for Trustees

Tech / IT:

• Developing a technology strategy which sets out to simplify, optimise and keep users safe and secure.
• Championing organisational capability to utilise data and analytics for decision making
• Working with our outsourced provider to ensure that the Charity's IT infrastructure needs are met

People and culture:

• Work with our HR Business Partner to develop a People Strategy which fosters a culture characterised by ambition, agility and learning.
• Support the development of a visionary EDI strategy
• Ensure operational support is effective, to review and develop organisational systems and ensure staff are well supported to be able to work effectively.

Flexibility statement

The content of this job description represents an outline of the post only and is therefore not a precise catalogue of duties and responsibilities. The job description is therefore intended to be flexible and is subject to review and amendment in the light of changing circumstances, the needs of the organisation and always following consultation with the post holder.

Application process
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