Assistant Director - Business Finance - Edtech

We are looking for a commercially astute and dynamic Business Finance Lead to partner closely with the leadership team of a fast-paced study abroad business.

This is a strategic, business-facing finance role that goes beyond traditional financial reporting. The ideal candidate will act as a trusted advisor to business leaders, driving commercial decisions, evaluating growth opportunities, improving profitability and bringing strong financial discipline to business operations.

Key Responsibilities:

- Business Partnering: Work closely with business leadership to provide financial insights, challenge assumptions and support strategic and operational decision-making.

- Commercial Evaluation: Assess new products, business initiatives and growth opportunities through financial modelling, cost analysis, pricing evaluations and profitability assessments.

- Business Performance: Monitor annual operating plans (AOP) against actual performance, identify deviations and recommend corrective actions to improve business outcomes.

- Sales Incentives & Revenue: Design, evaluate and optimise sales incentive structures to drive business performance while maintaining commercial viability.

- Cost & Profitability Management: Develop cost sheets, evaluate unit economics and identify opportunities for margin improvement and cost optimisation.

- Collections & Working Capital: Track collections, identify potential risks and work with business teams to improve cash flow and collection efficiency.

- Financial & Tax Advisory: Provide guidance on financial and tax implications of business decisions, coordinating with relevant specialist teams where required.

- Market Intelligence: Track competitor strategies, industry benchmarks and market developments to bring an external perspective to business decisions.

- Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a small finance team while ensuring effective collaboration with business stakeholders.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

- Strong experience in business finance, commercial finance or finance business partnering, with a demonstrated ability to influence business decisions.

- Preferably from the higher education, edtech or study abroad sector. Candidates from high-growth D2C, e-commerce or consumer internet businesses will also be considered.

- Strong numerical aptitude with the ability to perform quick commercial assessments, interpret financial data and provide actionable recommendations.

- Sound understanding of business economics, pricing, profitability, cost structures and fundamental taxation principles.

- Commercially aware, with the ability to benchmark performance against industry trends and competitor practices.

- Proactive, solution-oriented and comfortable challenging conventional thinking.

- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with multiple competing priorities.

- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to engage directly with senior business leadership.