Company Description
Octopus is a group of companies which invests in the people, ideas and industries that will help to change the world.
We believe that the companies serving two of our most important needs - our financial wellbeing and our planet's future - are failing. And we want that to change. We want everything we do, whether that's in financial services or energy supply, to have a positive impact on the people it touches.
In our financial services business, we care as much about the impact our investments have, as we do about the returns that we generate for our investors. We manage more than £9.1 billion* on behalf of retail and institutional investors, specialising in renewable energy, real estate, smaller company and venture capital investing.
Our energy supply business - Octopus Energy, is one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. It has grown from start-up to more than 1.7 million customers over the last four years and is now the #1 rated UK energy supply business, and the only one to be recommended by Which? three years in a row.
Octopus Energy, Octopus Giving, Octopus Investments, Octopus Renewables, Octopus Real Estate, Octopus Ventures, Seccl Technology and Octopus Wealth are all part of Octopus Group. Visit octopusgroup.com.
Job Description
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Finance Manager to join the Octopus Funds Finance team, within the Octopus Real Estate division on a 12-month fixed term contract, reporting directly to the ORE Institutional Funds Financial Controller.
The Finance Manager will be responsible for producing financial information for the ORE retirement development fund, liaising effectively with the fund's joint venture partners and owning delivery to the Investment Directors and the external Fund Manager. They will own the finance workstreams related to new acquisitions into the fund and will support the set up and launch of any new retirement development fund structures. They will also take responsibility for delivering strategic projects for the ORE care home funds, including a project to explore outsourced accounting and bookkeeping.
In addition to strong technical skills, the right candidate will have experience of working across multiple projects and delivering to tight deadlines. They will have had exposure to real estate and fund structures, be familiar with working in a financial services environment, and have experience of working with external administrators or externally managed teams. They will be working with a wide range of stakeholders, both internal and external, and will need to demonstrate the skills to manage these relationships professionally, influencing others and gaining the confidence of senior stakeholders.
Key responsibilities
- Maintain a thorough understanding of the retirement development and care home funds and the current issues impacting them, applying this knowledge to reports and narrative produced.
- Own the relationship with the retirement development fund's joint venture partner(s) and external fund manager to produce financial information to a consistently high standard and ensure all fund reporting and tax requirements are complied with.
- Own the finance workstreams for any new acquisitions or joint venture partnerships entered into by the fund, and the set up of any new fund structures.
- Own the delivery of strategic projects across the care home funds as directed by the Financial Controller.
- Communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
- Apply processes and controls relevant to the funds, in line with the wider financial control environment of the Octopus group.
- Identify potential efficiencies in the ORE accounting and reporting process and implement these where appropriate.
Qualifications
- Qualified accountant (ACA / CIMA / ACCA or equivalent) with 3+ years post-qualification experience.
- Strong Real Estate sector credentials
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with external administrators or finance teams.
- Exposure to corporate transactions (acquisitions, disposals, reorganisations, or financing).
- Ability to manage multiple projects and workstreams, with a proven track record of delivering results.
- Willingness to support the development of more junior members of the team.
- Professionalism whilst working with both internal and external teams.
- Flexible and willing to adapt to changing team requirements.
- Confidence to present, influence others and lead.
Additional Information
Our Values and DNA
At Octopus we don't just focus on what we do but also how we do it. Everyone shares our values of being straightforward, helpful and bold. And while these are the principles that guide us as an organisation, our DNA goes even further, by revealing our inner strength:
We are loyal: we fully buy-in to the company's vision and believe in everything that Octopus stands for. We are respectful: we live and breathe the Octopus values of being helpful, straightforward and bold. We are resilient: we have an inner strength that means we never give in We are intellectually curious: we seek to understand how the world works and we're always learning, adapting and improving We understand who our customers are: and because we know them really well, we always give them our very best.
What we offer
Octopus has built an exciting and inclusive high-performance culture where employees feel empowered. This means we welcome discussions around flexible working hours. We also understand the value of diversity, and we have a team dedicated to promoting gender, ethnic, socio-economic, LGBT and disability equality, to make sure we back up our words with actions. All Octopus employees are given the opportunity to develop new skills, aim higher and accelerate their careers.
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