Financial Analyst - FP&A

ABOUT ALU ALU provides higher education for a higher purpose. Our students declare missions, not majors.They develop the real-world skills to take on the world’s most pressing challenges. And they take ownership of their learning from day one through our peer and student-led approach – because ALU believes in the power and agency of young people to start shaping the future right now. Together with a world-class faculty and staff, our students are igniting a ripple of positive impact across Africa and the world. We are dedicated to fostering an open yet secure environment, balancing the safety of students, staff, and visitors with respect for individual rights, and safeguarding responsibilities. HOW WE WORK The ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new. The African Leadership University is committed to ensuring the safety and Well-being of all students under our care. As part of this commitment , we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place , which outlines our Zero-tolerance approach to any violation of safeguarding. ABOUT THE TEAM The Financial Performance & Reporting team at ALU is being established from the ground up. Under the leadership of the Associate Director of Financial Performance & Reporting, the team's mission is to transform financial data into strategic insights that guide institutional decision-making. This encompasses areas such as financial planning, management reporting, revenue assurance, and performance analysis. This is a small but high-impact team, where the work has a significant impact. The systems, frameworks, and processes you help develop will directly influence how ALU understands and manages its financial performance for years to come. ABOUT THE ROLE The Financial Performance & Reporting team sits at the core of ALU’s finance transformation agenda, with a mandate to establish a disciplined, insight-driven approach to financial management across the institution. Led by the Associate Director of Financial Performance & Reporting, the team is responsible for translating financial data into clear, actionable insights that support decision-making at both operational and leadership levels. This includes ownership of financial planning, management reporting, performance analysis, and the integrity of underlying financial data. The team operates at the intersection of FP&A and financial control, working closely with the Finance Operations function to ensure that reporting is grounded in accurate, reconciled, and complete financial information. As such, the function plays a critical role in reinforcing month-end discipline, strengthening data integrity, and enabling ALU’s “report once” reporting framework. This role reports directly to the Senior FP&A and ultimately to the Associate Director of Financial Performance & Reporting. As part of a small, high-impact team, you will contribute to building the systems, processes, and standards that will define how ALU manages and understands its financial performance going forward. ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES 1. COGS Analysis & Management Own the monthly COGS reporting cycle: extract, reconcile, and analyze all direct programme costs against budget, tracking variances by cost category, programme, and campus. Maintain the COGS master schedule, ensuring all direct costs, faculty fees, programme delivery costs, student-facing expenses, and contracted services are correctly coded, allocated, and reconciled to the NetSuite ledger. Prepare monthly COGS variance commentary for review by the Associate Director, highlighting key drivers, timing differences, and cost risks. Monitor cost per student and cost per programme metrics, flagging anomalies and trends for management attention. Drive identification of cost optimisation opportunities across programmes. 2. Overhead Tracking & Departmental Cost Reporting Maintain the overhead tracker across all departments: HR, Technology, Finance, Facilities, Marketing, and Administration. Produce monthly departmental overhead reports with budget vs actuals, variance analysis, and narrative summaries for departmental leads and senior management. Reconcile overhead expenditure to NetSuite ledger entries monthly; identify and investigate mispostings, timing differences, and unbudgeted spend. Track committed spend and accruals to ensure completeness of the monthly overhead picture; maintain the accruals schedule. Challenge departmental spend against approved budgets and enforce cost discipline through proactive engagement with budget owners. 3. Audit support & Month-end close Prepare and maintain all core supporting schedules for the monthly and year-end close: prepayments, accruals, fixed assets, depreciation, and capitalized costs. Ensure all schedules are fully reconciled to the NetSuite trial balance and delivered to the Finance Operations Director within the agreed close timeline (by close +5). Maintain the fixed asset register: additions, disposals, depreciation runs, and year-end reconciliation. Support the Finance Operations Director in providing audit-ready schedules during statutory and donor audits. Proactively identify schedule discrepancies and reconcile items; investigate and resolve with the Finance Operations team. 4. Budgeting & Forecasting Support (Cost focus) Support the annual budgeting cycle: consolidate departmental cost submissions, validate assumptions, flag outliers, and prepare the cost budget for review by the Associate Director. Maintain rolling overhead and COGS forecasts, updating for actuals, known changes, and management decisions each month. Build and maintain cost scenario models: sensitivity analysis on key cost drivers (headcount, programme volumes, exchange rates) to support institutional planning. Provide cost-side inputs to the Senior Financial Analyst for integration into the consolidated financial model and Board reporting. Support business case preparation: model cost implications of new programmes, operational changes, and investment proposals. 5. Financial Performance Reporting (Cost contribution) Prepare the cost performance section of the monthly management accounts: a structured, clearly narrated view of COGS, overheads, and total expenditure vs budget. Deliver cost variance analysis for consolidation by the Senior Financial Analyst into the monthly Board pack and management reporting cycle. Produce the monthly expenditure dashboard: overhead burn rate, COGS efficiency, headcount cost trends, and key cost ratios. Contribute supporting data and cost schedules to donor reports prepared by the Senior Financial Analyst, ensuring budget vs actuals reconciliation for grant-funded programmes. Translate cost performance into actionable insights for management decision-making. 6. CAPEX & Project Cost Tracking Track capital expenditure against approved budgets: maintain the CAPEX schedule, monitor spend against authorizations, and flag overspend risks. Reconcile CAPEX actuals in NetSuite to the project register; liaise with the Finance Operations Director on capitalization, depreciation, and disposal treatments. Prepare CAPEX progress reports for senior management, highlighting spend status, pending commitments, and forecast to completion. 7. Tools & Systems NetSuite (ERP) : Extract AR ledger, grant-coded transactions, deferred income data; run saved searches and exports Google Sheets / Google Suite: Primary working environment for all trackers, reconciliations, dashboards, and reporting files SQL : Working knowledge query writing for data extraction and reconciliation (advantage) Salesforce : Extract billing, opportunity, and payment data; validate against NetSuite; support donor register Google Suite (Slides / Docs) : Format dashboards and reports for leadership and donor audiences REQUIRED EXPERIENCE Essential Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field. 3–5 years of experience with demonstrated experience in overhead tracking, cost variance analysis, and supporting schedule preparation. Strong proficiency in Google Sheets and/or Excel: advanced formulas, pivot tables, and structured financial models. Experience working with ERP systems (NetSuite experience is a strong advantage). Solid understanding of management accounting principles: accruals, prepayments, fixed assets, cost allocation. Detail-oriented with a disciplined approach to reconciliation and schedule accuracy. Clear written communication: able to present cost findings in plain language for management Desirable qualifications Part-qualified or fully qualified accountant (ACCA, CPA, CIMA, CA, or equivalent) preferred. Experience in education, non-profit, or international development financial environments. Exposure to CAPEX management, project cost tracking, or fixed asset accounting. Understanding of grant budget tracking and donor fund allocation (supporting role). Audit or assurance background (added advantage) Personal Attributes Cost disciplinarian: brings rigour and precision to expenditure tracking, reconciliation, and schedule ownership. Proactive investigator: spots variances and discrepancies early and investigates root causes before being asked. Structured and systematic: naturally organizes work into clean, version-controlled, audit-ready files. Comfortable with foundational work: motivated by building clean systems in a function that is still being established.