Head of Finance Operations

Are you looking to make a real impact in a life-changing, life-saving organisation through finance leadership? As Head of Finance Operations at NHSBT, you will be at the heart of a complex, mission-driven organisation, leading the financial operations that enable the safe, efficient flow of funds which support the delivery of blood, organs and tissues that save and improve lives every day.

This is a pivotal role overseeing NHSBT's financial engine, ensuring the integrity, control and efficiency of high-value financial transactions. You will blend strategic oversight with deep systems and process expertise to shape robust, compliant and future-ready finance operations. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Finance, Commercial and Digital, you will drive continuous improvement, influence the design and implementation of new ERP solutions, and lead a skilled team to deliver trusted financial services that directly support NHSBT's life‑saving mission.

Note:

This is a national role, requiring travel across England based on business needs. The role offers a hybrid working option. You will be assigned a base location, which could be one of the NHSBT main centres or blood centres. The exact location will be confirmed after the final interview and mutually agreed upon with the line manager during the verbal offer stage.

If you are based at one of our London centres, you will receive High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS), where applicable.

• Financial Transaction Leadership & Control: Own and ensure strict oversight of the organisation’s income (£650m) and expenditure (£300m), including cash management, receipting, payments, and the Purchase‑to‑Pay process, ensuring timeliness, accuracy, and compliance.
• Finance Systems & ERP Expertise: Serve as the operational subject matter expert for Oracle e‑Business Suite and all inward and outward‑bound financial transaction interfaces, including BACS and other bank payments and the implementation of a new ERP system, shaping business processes to support efficient financial transaction capture, reporting, and decision‑making.
• Governance & Compliance: Embed robust financial controls across transactional processes, ensuring adherence to Government Functional Standards, IFRS, HMRC regulations, audit recommendations, and finance systems best practice.
• Process Improvement & Stakeholder
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Partner with senior operational managers across Finance, Commercial, Digital (DDTS) and wider business to review, design, and continually improve end‑to‑end transactional processes, data quality, and reporting.
• Leadership & Reporting: Lead a team of 16 staff (including 4 direct reports), ensuring delivery of operational financial services and statutory outputs, including contributions to the Annual Report.

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you’ll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary— donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.

Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do. By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference— Caring, Expert and Quality.

Together we’ll save and improve more lives than ever.

You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

What we offer:

• NHSBT promotes flexible working opportunities, and this role is available on a hybrid working basis.
• 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part‑time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years service and to 33 days after 10 years.
• NHS pension…