Job Description

abrdn plc is one of the world’s largest investment companies, rooted in a long-standing culture of caring about the future and making a positive impact. Together, we invest for a better future—making a difference in the lives of our clients, customers, employees, society, and shareholders. Our strategy is to build a vibrant and value-creating, purpose-led organisation, with the current and future needs of our stakeholders at the heart of all we do.

About the Centre of Excellence / Department

Over the past three years, abrdn’s Finance function has undergone a transformation to:

• Unify all parts of the function under the “One Finance” strategy, structured around three Centres of Excellence: Finance Operations, Finance Reporting, and Business Partnering & Performance.

• Enhance working practices.

• Implement best-in-class cloud ERP, general ledger, and data mart technologies.

Led by the Finance Operations Director, the Finance Operations Centre of Excellence plays a critical role in servicing our clients and providing key financial information to customers and stakeholders. This Centre of Excellence manages our outsourced relationships/activities for Source to Pay, Banking and Client Billing, as well as Finance Systems, and performs Record to Report activities to oversee the controlled production of the general ledger.

We are driven by our desire to meet the needs of our business customers, colleagues, and wider stakeholders. We are in the final phase of our strategic plan, working to improve efficiency and effectiveness, making the best use of our transformative investment to achieve top quartile performance.

About the Role

This role reports directly to the Finance Operations Director, providing support across all aspects of the function. Key responsibilities include:

• Supporting the development and implementation of the Finance Operations Strategy.

• Driving solutions for cross-functional ad-hoc issues and projects.

• Supporting Finance Operations Leads and the wider finance function in understanding and measuring operational performance, driving a step-change in our outsourced service delivery.

• Attending senior management forums as required, and deputising for the Finance Operations Director where appropriate.

• Leading the identification, design, and implementation of continuous improvement initiatives across all Finance Operations processes to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness.

• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to streamline processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce operational risks.

• Driving the implementation of process automation and leveraging technology to achieve operational excellence.

• Working closely with the Finance Operations leads to drive improvements in the FinOps control environment, with a focus on defining and embedding relevant oversight controls related to outsourced activities.

• Supporting the remediation of audit findings and responding to emerging risks.

• Collaborating with Risk and Compliance teams to ensure that controls align with the broader risk management framework.

The successful candidate will work closely with our outsourced vendor, ensuring alignment with our business objectives and adherence to agreed service levels. They will also build strong relationships with key stakeholders across the business, including Finance, Risk, Compliance, and IT.

Candidate Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field. A Master’s degree or relevant professional qualification (e.g. ICAS, ACA, ACCA, CIMA) is preferred.

• Extensive experience in Finance Operations, with a focus on continuous improvement, project management, and control implementation.

• Proven experience in managing complex projects and leading process improvement initiatives.

• Strong understanding of financial processes such as Source to Pay, Order to Cash, Record to Report, and Banking Operations.

• Experience in managing outsourced vendors and ensuring high standards of service delivery.

• Excellent project management skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

• Proficiency in financial systems and process automation tools.

Our Benefits

At abrdn, we offer an environment where you can learn, get involved, and be supported. Your reward package includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus, private healthcare, and a range of flexible benefits—including gym discounts, season ticket loans, and access to an employee discount site. You can read more about our benefits here.

How We Create Value

Our strategic drivers are the foundations from which we deliver for all our stakeholders: High Impact Intelligence, Enduring Relationships, Connections without Borders, and Future Fit. You can find out more about our values here.

Our Inclusive Culture

We are committed to exploring the possibilities of working smarter. This means we’d like to hear from you, whatever way you like to work.

We are dedicated to building inclusive workplaces, valuing diversity in our workforce, and welcoming enquiries from everyone. If you need assistance or a reasonable adjustment due to a disability, please let us know as part of your application, and we will assist. You can find out more about our inclusive culture here.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment.  We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance.  We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.