Commercial Analyst
WORLD CHANGERS TOGETHER
Job purpose
The University of Glasgow is on an exciting change journey, with many strategic projects in-flight over the next few years. To strengthen our internal change and commercial capability, we have an opportunity for 2x Commercial Analysts to join us. This is initially for a 2-year fixed term, with the aspiration to make these roles permanent should the pilot be successful.
We are looking for two senior professionals who are strategic and highly analytical thinkers. Given the scale of change planned for the years ahead, the University requires an ongoing, internal and mature approach to business cases and options appraisals. The ideal candidates will work across the institution – supporting the Transformation and Information Services portfolios regularly, with work on ad-hoc projects also factored into their capacity. We’re looking for candidates who thrive working with cross-functional teams to support data-driven decision-making.
These roles will be matrix-managed, reporting to our Deputy Director of Finance, in the Financial Planning & Analysis Directorate, but working closely with the Transformation Team in particular.
Main duties & responsibilities
- Collaborate with stakeholders to understand projects from concept to completion and create the relevant business case and performance metrics at each stage.
- Deploy good interpersonal skills including negotiating, motivating, influencing, and building credible relationships with stakeholders.
- Provide specialist advice and guidance to translate business requirements into tangible, measurable outcomes.
- Partner with business owners (Transformation Leads), Strategic Engagement and hypercare (Transformation Transition) functions within Transformation to ensure benefits are achieved as part of the change adoption process, as well as a close partnership with the PMO function throughout a project lifecycle
- Support University governance as required, by helping senior stakeholders understand the value-implications of pending decisions.
- Develop and maintain complex financial models to forecast benefits including cost avoidance, efficiency gains, return on investment, user experience and student satisfaction amongst others.
- Partner with our Planning Insight & Analysis function to understand historic data/performance and identify key trends, variances, and opportunities for improvement.
- Prepare and present detailed financial reports and dashboards to senior management, providing actionable insights and recommendations.
- Collaborate with project teams to develop and refine benefit-realisation strategies as part of wider deployment plans.
- Support the annual budgeting and forecasting process, ensuring alignment with the University’s overall objectives.
- Conduct scenario analysis to evaluate the impact of potential business decisions, including horizon scanning.
Knowledge and qualifications
Essential
- Either: Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary professional knowledge and management skills in a similar or number of different specialist roles. Or: Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9,10 or 11 (Ordinary/Honours Degree, Post Graduate Qualification), or equivalent, including being professionally qualified in relevant discipline, with a broad range of professional experience in a management role(s).
- Detailed and evidenced knowledge of commercial analysis across the end-to-end lifecycle of strategic projects.
- Evidence of self-management and leading on areas of complex financial analysis involving extensive datasets.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the Higher Education sector.
- Knowledge of large-scale technology programmes e.g. CRM, Enterprise Integration Platform.
Skills
Essential
- Demonstrable ability to quickly understand and distil projects into measurable outcomes, being creative with data analysis to problem-solve given many projects have no like-for-like comparison within the institution as a baseline.
- Effective communication and presentation skills to interact with the wider Finance Directorate, Transformation Team, and wider stakeholders.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to establish effective working relationships.
- Comfortable to manage and analyse large data-sets – for example experience with BI tools, extracting and manipulating data.
- Resilient and able to effectively deal with ambiguity and able to maintain momentum in the face of obstacles/setbacks.
- Advanced skills in the use of Microsoft packages such as Excel, Word, Access, PowerPoint; and accounting software packages.
Experience
Essential
- Experience working as a commercial analyst within a large, complex organisation.
- Experience creating business cases, and doing options appraisal, across a number of projects concurrently.
- Significant experience of working with complex datasets, completing dataset reconciliations and translating into end user reporting.
- Demonstrable background planning and analysis role experience in a complex environment.
- Demonstrable delivery of insightful business information and reporting.
- Experience of working with and influencing at various levels across organisations including senior management.
World-Changing Campus
We have delivered one of the most significant expansions of a UK university city campus for over a century.
Over the last decade, the University of Glasgow has invested in its estate to expand its world-class campus and facilities.
An area covering 14 acres of land next to our magnificent Gilmorehill campus has been redeveloped to build a mix of modern research, teaching and public spaces.
Our new buildings will mean the University remains a centre for world-changing research, as well as a vibrant community hub and centre for public engagement.
The development will transform our teaching, learning and research spaces. It will allow us to bring together the best minds of today and tomorrow within world-class interdisciplinary research spaces that offer flexibility and stimulate collaboration, and modern study spaces that will combine study and social learning space with technology enabled teaching.
- The Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre (ARC) is changing the way research is conducted at Glasgow. The ARC is the creative and collaborative heart of research at the University of Glasgow, bridging the boundaries between research, cross-subject collaboration and true societal impact . The ARC brings more than 500 world-leading researchers from a range of disciplines together in a building specifically designed to break down organisational structure and facilitate collaboration and interdisciplinary work.
- The James McCune Smith Learning Hub is an inspirational and diverse learning space. The flagship building was the first to be completed as part of our campus development, and provides a creative environment, combining flexible study and social learning space with multi-styled and technology-enabled teaching. It can accommodate more than 2,500 students, and includes a lecture theatre with capacity for 500 students. State-of-the-art teaching facilities, with flexible study spaces and interactive teaching for students, help to create a more immersive learning experience.
Find out more
Living in Glasgow
A UNESCO City of Music, a vibrant arts and culture scene, a food-lover’s delight, and a shopper’s paradise. Just some of the highlights of the ‘friendliest city in the world’. As well as that accolade by the Rough Guides poll, Glasgow has also been named a must visit destination by publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, and Wanderlust.
Music
The city hosts an average of 130 music events a week catering for every taste; from rock to rap, and classical to country. Glasgow also has a world class club scene playing host to some of the world’s top DJs.
Shopping
Outside of London’s West End, Glasgow is frequently voted the best place for shopping in the UK. A must-visit destination for any shop-a-holic, it houses high street chains, international designers, and independent retailers. The West End, home to the University of Glasgow, is bustling with vintage fashion, vinyl stores, and second-hand bookshops.
Arts and Culture
Glasgow’s arts scene has gone from strength to strength, and is the base for five internationally renowned performing arts companies including the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet. The city has several world-class museums, which are free to the public, and the city’s architecture is a work of art in itself.
Food and drink
You can be in Glasgow and taste the world with its many diverse restaurants, cafes, and bars. And if you’ve yet to sample the delights of haggis and whisky, Glasgow is the place to be.
The City and Beyond
Glasgow has all the opportunities and excitement of a big city but its compact size means you can quickly travel from one vibrant district to the next. You could be relaxing in one of its many parks, before shopping in the quirky West End, and then dancing until the wee small hours in the Merchant City.
And when you fancy getting out of the city you can reach the stunning Loch Lomond in just 30 minutes, climb one of our many breath-taking Munros, play golf at one of Scotland’s many world-class courses, visit one of our ancient castles, or go further North and search for Nessie! Scotland has also just been named the world’s most beautiful country by Rough Guides.
Relocating to Glasgow
Choosing to relocate to Glasgow is a big decision. There are numerous things to be considered, such as the costs of moving, the cost of living, and where exactly to relocate to. We have created two guides to aide you in the decision making process.
Find out more on relocating to Glasgow at the below link:
WORLD CHANGERS TOGETHER
WORLD CHANGING GLASGOW 2025
Our outstanding disciplinary breadth and expertise has enabled us to make world-changing advances in fields as diverse as medicine, physics, linguistics, public policy and global development.
The key to our success is our talented staff and students pushing back at the boundaries of knowledge and understanding together.
Our World Changers Together strategy recognises the fundamental importance of a culture of open cooperation: not just as colleagues and mentors or students and teachers, but as a community of discovery that reaches beyond its walls and draws inspiration and strength from its connections and partnerships worldwide: excellence that's part of something bigger. The strategy is articulated across three themes:
COMMUNITY
- People centred, globally engaged
CONNECTIVITY
- Collaboratively minded, digitally enhanced
CHALLENGES
- Solution focused, impact oriented
Find out more
How to apply
Full details of the role and how to apply can be found by visiting our website:
The closing date for applications is 24 November 2024
Please note that this post may be eligible to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker visa route if tradeable points can be used under the Skilled Worker visa rules. For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
It is the University of Glasgow’s mission to foster an inclusive climate, which ensures equality in our working, learning, research and teaching environment. We strongly endorse the principles of Athena SWAN, including a supportive and flexible working environment, with commitment from all levels of the organisation in promoting gender equity.
Our values
The future holds innumerable challenges for our sector, our society, and our world. We will have to adapt and change what we do and what we offer if we are to navigate these successfully. Our strategy and approach may evolve as the landscape changes, but our values will remain constant: a fixed point of certainty in uncertain times.
We have identified our values in consultation and partnership with our staff and student community. Living and upholding these values will ensure that we remain true to the spirit of our community and ourselves:
Ambition and Excellence
- We strive for excellence through our work
- We defend academic freedom globally
- We recognise and celebrate shared success
- We have an unrelenting focus on development
Curiosity and Discovery
- We innovate and solve problems together
- We lead by influence and example
- We engage with lifelong learning and personal development
- We learn from our mistakes
Integrity and Truth
- We uphold honesty, integrity and fairness
- We share our work widely and generously
- We do the right thing, not the easy thing - or we don’t do it
- We take responsibility
An Inclusive Community
- We are one Glasgow team, and we care for and respect one another
- We advocate for diversity and believe in variety as a vital part of a healthy university
- We champion education as an engine for social progress
- We practise and advance sustainability