King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us:

The role is situated within the Finance, Procurement, and Analytics Directorate and is responsible for supporting the Procure to Pay (P2P) team in the delivery of its services.

This is a full-time position based at our Lavington Street Offices, Guy’s Campus, operating under an informal hybrid working arrangement. The current expectation is a minimum of two days per week on campus, with staff required to be present as necessary to meet business needs. Attendance may be more frequent during initial training, ad hoc training, and induction periods.

The Procure to Pay Services Team encompasses a range of functions, including:

•       Purchasing Card Support

•       P2P Support

•       P2P Transactional Processing for domestic and foreign currency payments

•       Expenses Support

•       Studentship and Student Expenses

•       Supplier Compliance and Payments Teams

About the role:

The Accounts Payable Transactional Team Lead is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the Accounts Payable (AP) function, ensuring that all transactions are processed accurately, in compliance with policies, and within required timelines.

This pivotal role involves leading, mentoring, and supporting the AP transactional team to deliver a high-quality, efficient service. The postholder will manage workload allocation, set clear priorities, and monitor performance against agreed SLAs and KPIs to ensure consistent achievement of targets. Through regular one-to-one meetings, team discussions, and performance reviews, the postholder will promote engagement, accountability, and continuous improvement, while supporting staff development via coaching, training, and skills enhancement. They will also design and deliver training for new employees on core processes, including three-way matching, non-purchase order registration, task management, and resolution of Proactis manual discrepancies.

The role encompasses end-to-end invoice processing across multiple legal entities, ensuring accuracy, policy compliance, and timely posting. Responsibilities include resolving invoice discrepancies, GRN issues, and supplier queries, while managing high volumes of transactions. The postholder will take ownership of specific AP processes, including rent, utility, and GP surgery invoices, as well as Faster Payments and other critical requests. They will manage BACS, foreign currency, and student payment runs, maintain robust financial controls, oversee the Western Union foreign currency process in line with SLAs, and support the transition away from petty cash through management of the retail payment process. Contributions to month-end reconciliations and reporting are also required.

The postholder will ensure all AP processes comply with governance, audit, and internal control requirements. They will proactively identify opportunities to improve efficiency, standardise procedures, and reduce manual effort, while supporting system enhancements, testing, and the implementation of digital solutions. Producing operational metrics, analysis, and actionable insights will be a key component in driving continuous performance improvement.

Acting as a primary point of contact for stakeholders across procurement, finance, and the wider business, the postholder will cultivate strong collaborative relationships internally and externally. They will liaise with suppliers to enhance service quality and resolve issues efficiently, providing clear, professional communication on complex financial and process matters.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Proven experience in Accounts Payable, including at least 2 years in a supervisory or team lead role

2.      Strong knowledge of AP processes, financial controls, and P2P best practices.

3.      Excellent attention to detail, analytical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

4.      Strong written and spoken English, with the ability to articulate complex information clearly and confidently to diverse stakeholders.

5.      Experience using the Helix ticketing system and consistently meeting SLAs

6.      Advanced Excel skills and experience with ERP systems.

7.      Extensive experience in preparation of payment runs.

8.      A proactive, customer focused approach with a passion for continuous improvement.

Desirable criteria

1.      Experience in a shared services or high-volume transactional environment.

2.      Participation in transformation projects or process improvement initiatives.

3.      Knowledge of VAT, payment regulations, and supplier compliance standards.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.