[Hiring] Financial Analyst - FP&A @ALU

Role Description

The Financial Performance & Reporting team sits at the core of ALU’s finance transformation agenda, with a mandate to establish a disciplined, insight-driven approach to financial management across the institution.

• Responsible for translating financial data into clear, actionable insights that support decision-making at both operational and leadership levels.
• Ownership of financial planning, management reporting, performance analysis, and the integrity of underlying financial data.
• Operates at the intersection of FP&A and financial control, working closely with the Finance Operations function.
• Plays a critical role in reinforcing month-end discipline, strengthening data integrity, and enabling ALU’s “report once” reporting framework.
• Reports directly to the Senior FP&A and ultimately to the Associate Director of Financial Performance & Reporting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
• 3–5 years of experience with demonstrated experience in overhead tracking, cost variance analysis, and supporting schedule preparation.
• Strong proficiency in Google Sheets and/or Excel: advanced formulas, pivot tables, and structured financial models.
• Experience working with ERP systems (NetSuite experience is a strong advantage).
• Solid understanding of management accounting principles: accruals, prepayments, fixed assets, cost allocation.
• Detail-oriented with a disciplined approach to reconciliation and schedule accuracy.
• Clear written communication: able to present cost findings in plain language for management.

Requirements

• Part-qualified or fully qualified accountant (ACCA, CPA, CIMA, CA, or equivalent) preferred.
• Experience in education, non-profit, or international development financial environments.
• Exposure to CAPEX management, project cost tracking, or fixed asset accounting.
• Understanding of grant budget tracking and donor fund allocation (supporting role).
• Audit or assurance background (added advantage).

Benefits

• Opportunity to contribute to a small but high-impact team.
• Ability to influence how ALU understands and manages its financial performance.

Role Responsibilities

• COGS Analysis & Management
  • Own the monthly COGS reporting cycle: extract, reconcile, and analyze all direct programme costs against budget.
  • Maintain the COGS master schedule, ensuring all direct costs are correctly coded, allocated, and reconciled to the NetSuite ledger.
  • Prepare monthly COGS variance commentary for review by the Associate Director.
  • Monitor cost per student and cost per programme metrics.
  • Drive identification of cost optimisation opportunities across programmes.
• Overhead Tracking & Departmental Cost Reporting
  • Maintain the overhead tracker across all departments.
  • Produce monthly departmental overhead reports with budget vs actuals.
  • Reconcile overhead expenditure to NetSuite ledger entries monthly.
  • Track committed spend and accruals to ensure completeness of the monthly overhead picture.
  • Challenge departmental spend against approved budgets.
• Audit support & Month-end close
  • Prepare and maintain all core supporting schedules for the monthly and year-end close.
  • Ensure all schedules are fully reconciled to the NetSuite trial balance.
  • Maintain the fixed asset register.
  • Support the Finance Operations Director in providing audit-ready schedules.
• Budgeting & Forecasting Support (Cost focus)
  • Support the annual budgeting cycle.
  • Maintain rolling overhead and COGS forecasts.
  • Build and maintain cost scenario models.
  • Support business case preparation.
• Financial Performance Reporting (Cost contribution)
  • Prepare the cost performance section of the monthly management accounts.
  • Deliver cost variance analysis for consolidation by the Senior Financial Analyst.
  • Produce the monthly expenditure dashboard.
  • Translate cost performance into actionable insights for management decision-making.
• CAPEX & Project Cost Tracking
  • Track capital expenditure against approved budgets.
  • Reconcile CAPEX actuals in NetSuite to the project register.
  • Prepare CAPEX progress reports for senior management.
• Tools & Systems
  • NetSuite (ERP): Extract AR ledger, grant-coded transactions.
  • Google Sheets / Google Suite: Primary working environment for all trackers and reporting files.
  • SQL: Working knowledge query writing for data extraction (advantage).
  • Salesforce: Extract billing, opportunity, and payment data.
  • Google Suite (Slides / Docs): Format dashboards and reports for leadership.