Head of Commercial Support

Job description

About the Role

We're looking for a Director level Finance Business Partner to join our Journals Publishing team, the largest publishing area within the Press and a key contributor to future growth. Working closely with the VP of Journals and the wider leadership team, you will provide strategic financial partnership, helping to inform decision-making, support business priorities, and ensure sustainable long-term success. This is a highly visible role that offers the opportunity to contribute across a broad range of financial, operational, and strategic activities.

As the lead finance partner for the Journals business, you will provide financial insight and analysis to support planning, performance management, and strategic decision-making. You will play a central role in budgeting, forecasting, five-year planning, balance sheet and cash flow management, as well as supporting society acquisitions and contract renewals through financial evaluation and modelling. The role also includes overseeing financial reporting for society partnerships, reviewing business performance, identifying trends and opportunities, and ensuring stakeholders have access to timely and meaningful financial information.

The successful candidate will bring strong finance business partnering experience, excellent analytical skills, and the ability to build effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. You will be comfortable working in a complex environment, supporting strategic initiatives, improving processes and reporting, and promoting strong financial governance and controls. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the future development of a globally respected publishing business while helping to shape improvements across finance and the wider organisation.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

About You

• Qualified accountant or equivalent with significant PQE.
• Deep knowledge of the Journals Publishing market.
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel.
• Experience with SAP S/4HANA and Business Warehouse is desirable.
• A logical thinker with strong analytical skills.
• A trusted advisor who is intellectually curious, commercially astute and able to contribute to business development initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence senior colleagues, challenge constructively and build trusted relationships across Finance and Journals.
• Team player who is trustworthy with sensitive information and able to communicate confidently with finance and non-finance stakeholders.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days' holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a management bonus.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact [email protected] with any queries relating to this role.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.