Finance Process Lead (Retail) - Temporary (to 30/06/2028)
Salary: £49,492 to £58,226 (dependent on experience)
Contract type: Temporary: Fixed Term Contract or Secondment
Hours: Full-Time
Location: Poole, Dorset, England
Location description: Hybrid between home and Poole – average of 2 days per week in office (as required)
Closing Date: 01-03-2026
Reference: 21231
About us
Our purpose is simple: to save lives at sea. 24 hours a day, every day, RNLI lifesavers are ready to launch to the rescue. They are supported by a dedicated, professional, and talented team behind the scenes. This is your chance to join that team and use your unique skills to help save lives every day.
We’re looking for a Finance Process Lead to join our Digital Transformation Programme Team until the end of June 2028. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who will be supporting the Senior Finance Workstream Lead Officer on our Digital Transformation Programme in ensuring the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Programme is successfully delivered.
Your role
As Finance Process Lead, you will be supporting the Senior Finance Workstream Lead, acting as a key liaison between the Finance function and the Digital Transformation Programme. You’ll provide expert input into the design, build, and implementation of new finance processes and systems, ensuring alignment with best practice, regulatory compliance, and the charity’s strategic objectives. You will play a pivotal role in shaping how finance supports the organisation’s mission in a digital-first, data-driven environment.
This role will be tasked with focusing on the following areas:
- Act as a representative for finance within the transformation programme, working cross functionally with BAU representatives and collaborating closely with business analysts, solutions architects and project managers
- Support the Senior Finance Workstream Lead in ensuring future state designs deliver effective controls (preventative and detective) to meet all Fiscal and Regulatory Compliance/Reporting and RNLI Policies, including where necessary control reconciliations for interfaces/integrations
- Ensuring the integrity of all financial reporting, both internal and external and acting as a subject matter expert for the organisational future in accounting, funds, and fraud, including ongoing responsibility for any legislative changes
- Collaborate with IT and external vendors on system configuration, testing, and data cleansing and migration activities
- Lead the design and optimisation of end-to-end finance processes (e.g., Forecast to Plan, Plan to Report, Source to Pay, Donate to Receive, Order to Cash, etc), supporting the delivery of data enabled decision making based on simple and standard financial reporting
About you
You’ll be someone who is meticulous and diligent to ensure the necessary accuracy and compliance. Our ideal candidate will love problem solving with the ability to understand the bigger picture and how decisions made will impact Finance. They must possess exceptional communication skills at all levels and be confident in building effective relationships with both financial and non-financial colleagues.
To be considered as our new Finance Process Lead, you will:
- Be a fully qualified member of an accounting body (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) OR
- You should hold a recognised accountancy qualification, be working towards a qualification or be qualified by significant experience
- Have substantial knowledge of core finance processes: F2P, P2R, S2P, O2C, D2R, P2P, DS2R, P2PR, I2D, A2D, etc.
- Experience in the preparation of statutory and management accounts
- Extensive ERP systems and Microsoft Office experience
- Strong understanding of charity sector finance operations, including restricted/unrestricted funds, grants, and donor reporting
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills
- Strong ability to bridge business and technology, translating finance needs into digital solutions
It is also desirable that you have:
- Previous experience working on large-scale digital transformation or ERP implementation in the not-for-profit sector.
- Knowledge of data governance, reporting tools, and performance dashboards.
- Experience contributing to change management, user training, and process adoption initiatives.
So, if you want to support our organisation’s aim to reduce drowning, and can think strategically, and make those strategies a reality as our new Finance Process Lead, this could be the role for you. Please apply via the button shown.
Safeguarding
The RNLI is committed to safeguarding, protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).
Diversity at the RNLI
Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable) and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One
