Strong financial controls. Collaborating cross-functionally. Resolving complex challenges.
Financial Control Manager
£57,500- £62,500 + benefits
Reports to: Financial Reporting & Controls Specialist
Grade: P3
Directorate: Chief Operating Office
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time 35 hours per week
Location: Stratford, London . Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)
Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
Closing date: 24 November 2025, 23:55
This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk as soon as possible.
Recruitment process: One competency-based interview with an exercise
Interview date: From the week commencing 01 December 2025
How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.
At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.
Cancer Research UK’s Finance team’s credibility and professionalism in handling money fundraised by public generosity is essential to the smooth running and future ambitions of our organisation, ultimately helping the charity reach our goal of beating cancer. As the UK’s largest charity, we have a large, complex set of statutory accounts and external reporting requirements. In 2024/25, our expenditure was £715m and our income was £735m. We have multiple subsidiaries, including Trading (c.600+ stores which generated £135m income) and Cancer Research UK Horizons (a world-class cancer research partner).
As Financial Control Manager, you’ll play an impactful role in leading the ongoing development and implementation of our financial control framework, driving process efficiency, overseeing performance and exception reporting, and monitoring audit findings to ensure robust internal controls. You’ll also contribute to major finance transformation projects, such as cloud-based system migration, Salesforce integration, and FRS 102 updates.
Furthermore, you’ll oversee the balance sheet reconciliation process and act as Product Owner for reconciliation systems. This includes managing and developing the Financial Control Accounting team, reviewing reconciliations, and partnering with stakeholders across the organisation to ensure reconciliations are produced on time, well-controlled, and effectively monitored and reported to Senior Finance Management.
If you’re a qualified accountant with strong technical expertise in financial controls and external reporting, and proven stakeholder and team management skills, we’d love you to join our mission.
What will I be doing?
Team Management:
Leading, managing, and developing an inclusive, high-performing team consisting of c.5 direct reports from a range of levels and backgrounds.
Fostering a positive culture that recognises success, drives performance, and retains talent.
Setting clear objectives and KPIs (key performance indicators), monitoring performance, and addressing underperformance through structured performance management.
Providing coaching and feedback to support team development and accountability.
Internal Control Framework:
Championing internal controls and fraud awareness across Cancer Research UK, providing expert advice to all process owners on best practices (including senior stakeholders).
Ensuring effective monitoring tools are in place to identify and eliminate financial control weaknesses.
Contributing to system improvement projects, ensuring changes embed strong financial controls and mitigate fraud risks.
Coordinating responses to internal and external audit findings, reviewing recommendations, and drafting management responses.
Balance Sheet Reconciliations:
Ensuring the timely production and sign-off of balance sheet reconciliations with strong controls and resolution of agreed items to agreed service levels.
Monitoring Financial Operational Performance across Cancer Research UK:
Supporting the development of performance metrics and dashboards to monitor the effectiveness of financial control processes and reconciliation timeliness.
Leading operational review meetings with the Finance Leadership team to identify areas for deeper insight and performance improvement.
What are you looking for?
Qualified accountant (ACCA/ ICAEW or equivalent) with experience reviewing, developing, and implementing robust financial controls.
Line managed, developed, and supported 5+ direct reports with a successful track record leading, empowering, motivating, and coaching others and driving high performance.
Has successfully built credible and collaborative cross-functional internal and external stakeholder relationships with strong interpersonal, communication, influencing, and negotiating skills (including senior leadership and auditors).
Demonstrable leadership skills with experience supporting stakeholders and teams in driving and navigating change and transformation environments.
A proactive problem-solver with a continuous improvement mindset, capable of resolving aged reconciling items, driving timely resolution of control issues, implementing effective solutions, championing innovation, promoting best practices, and challenging the status quo.
Experience reviewing balance sheet reconciliations and holding stakeholders accountable for their accuracy and ownership (note: this role focuses on reviewing, not preparing balance sheet reconciliations).
Practical knowledge of FRS 102 reporting standards (Charity SORP would also be advantageous, but is not essential).
Strong prioritisation and organisation skills with the ability to work independently with minimal supervision, manage multiple priorities, and meet deadlines while maintaining strong attention to detail and accuracy.
Ideally, has some knowledge of Business World and Salesforce.
Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.
Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination
Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism
Human: Act to have a positive impact on people
Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively
We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.
If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.
What will I gain?
We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.
You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.
Additional information
Owing to the nature of this position, any offer of employment for this role will be subject to a satisfactory basic DBS check.
For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.
For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.