Job Description

Job Category: Professional and Managerial
Degree Level: First Degree
:
.Job Title: Financial Planning & Reporting Analyst
Grade: 6
Department: Finance
Location: Dubai Campus
FTE and Working Pattern: 1, Fulltime 35 hours per week
Reports to: Finance Business Partner
Purpose of Role
The Financial Planning & Reporting Analyst will play a pivotal role in strengthening the University's financial planning and reporting framework. This position is responsible for enhancing budgeting and forecasting processes, delivering accurate and timely financial insights, and supporting strategic decision-making across the institution. The role ensures robust financial analysis, scenario modeling, and comprehensive reporting to enable informed decisions aligned with the University's long-term objectives.
Reporting to the Finance Business Partner, the Analyst will provide critical support to both the Finance Business Partner and the Financial Controller through detailed reporting, data analysis, and performance monitoring. The successful candidate will contribute to improving financial processes and developing tools that enhance transparency and efficiency across the University.
Ideal Candidate Profile

• Minimum of three years' experience in a similar financial planning and analysis role.
• Strong technical expertise in FP&A reporting and analytical tools, including Power BI, Oracle Financials, and advanced Excel.
• Proven ability to interpret complex financial data, produce insightful reports, and communicate findings effectively to stakeholders.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to manage workload efficiently under time constraints. Prioritising tasks and resources to meet critical deadlines without compromising quality. Maintaining composure and accuracy when working under pressure.

Key Responsibilities
Budgeting & Forecasting

• Support the Finance Business Partner with the development and refinement of financial modelling for annual budgets and multi-year forecasts.
• Assist in the implementation of improved forecasting methodologies to increase accuracy and responsiveness.
• Create scenario modelling to assist with strategic decision making, risk management, resource allocation, planning and forecasting accuracy, stakeholder communication and long-term financial sustainability.

Financial Analysis

• Conduct in-depth variance analysis and trend reporting to support the Finance Business Partner and Financial Controller with the identification of risks and opportunities.
• Assist in providing scenario modeling for new projects, capital investments, and strategic initiatives.

Reporting

• Assist the Finance Business Partner with the preparation and presentation of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial performance reports for senior leadership.
• Develop dashboards and visualizations using Power BI to support data-driven decisions.

Systems & Data Management

• Utilize Oracle Financials and other ERP tools for data extraction and consolidation.
• Ensure data integrity and compliance with internal and external reporting standards.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to streamline financial processes and enhance analytical capabilities.
• Contribute to the development of best practices in financial planning and reporting.

Key Competencies

• Exceptional attention to detail with the ability to analyze and interpret large, complex data sets, transforming them into clear, concise, and visually engaging reports tailored for non-finance stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Collaborative approach with strong influencing skills.

Qualifications & Experience
Essential

• Educated to at least SCQF level or similar or equivalent practical experience in the workplace
• Minimum of three years' experience in a similar financial planning and analysis role.
• Experience in FP&A, budgeting, and forecasting, ideally within higher education or a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills.
• Advanced Excel skills; experience with ERP and BI tools (e.g., Oracle, Power BI) mandatory.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Experience of working within a similar environment as outlined above
• Demonstrable problem-solving skills
• Well-developed interpersonal skills
• Demonstrable excellent customer service
• Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment

Desirable

• Professional accounting qualification (e.g., ACCA, CIMA, CPA) or equivalent experience.
• Experience of Higher Education

Heriot-Watt University Values
With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.
We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland's international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.
At Heriot-Watt we've created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.
We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we've an excellent reputation for graduate employability.
In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.
Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.
Our values are:

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.
For full details on our University, please view our website
'How to Apply'
Please submit your CV and a cover letter setting out how you meet the criteria for this role.
Shortlisted candidates may be invited to complete an on-demand-video interview as the first stage of the selection process. Successful candidates will then proceed to in-person formal interviews at our Dubai campus, where you will be asked to deliver a brief presentation on a relevant topic. Following the formal interview, the preferred candidate will attend a second interview with senior staff at the Dubai campus before a final offer decision is made.
At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.
Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.
Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.
The appointment is conditional upon successful completion of all Labor and Immigration formalities, and the start date will need to be delayed if the employment visa is not in place.

Skills Required