Student Finance Implementation Consultant

Location: Bristol / Manchester hybrid (regular travel to partner sites across the UK and Ireland as needed)
Role Type: Permanent (full-time preferred, flexible working considered)

The Role

We are looking for a Consultant to join our Systems & Integration capability to lead defined Student Finance systems and integration workstreams across our higher education partners.

This is a delivery-focused consulting role for someone who combines strong analytical thinking with experience of Student Finance systems and higher education business processes. You will take ownership of workstreams, working directly with partner stakeholders to understand requirements, shape solutions and support successful implementation.

Working alongside Senior Consultants and Leads, you will help universities improve their Student Finance capabilities through business analysis, solution design, systems implementation and integration, ensuring solutions are aligned to institutional objectives and deliver measurable value.

Purpose of the role

To lead the delivery of Student Finance systems and integration workstreams by understanding business needs, shaping practical solutions and supporting successful implementation across our higher education partners.

Key Responsibilities

1. Requirements Gathering and Business Analysis
2. Lead requirements gathering workshops with partner stakeholders.
3. Elicit, challenge and validate business requirements.
4. Translate business needs into functional and non-functional requirements.
5. Produce user stories, process models and acceptance criteria.
6. Manage requirements throughout the project lifecycle.
7. Student Finance Systems Delivery
8. Lead configuration and implementation activities for Student Finance functionality.
9. Advise partners on best practice use of Student Finance systems.
10. Support solution design decisions.
11. Coordinate implementation activities across technical and business teams.
12. Ensure solutions align with business requirements and programme objectives.
13. Systems Integration
14. Define system integration requirements.
15. Work with technical teams to design and validate integration solutions.
16. Identify opportunities to simplify interfaces and improve automation.
17. Support investigation and resolution of integration issues.
18. Process Analysis
19. Lead current and future-state process mapping.
20. Identify opportunities for operational improvement.
21. Recommend changes to improve efficiency and user experience.
22. Ensure business processes are supported by system functionality.
23. Testing and Validation
24. Define test approaches and acceptance criteria.
25. Coordinate UAT with business stakeholders.
26. Support defect triage and prioritisation.
27. Ensure solutions are ready for deployment.
28. Stakeholder Engagement
29. Build trusted relationships with Student Finance, Registry, Finance and IT stakeholders.
30. Facilitate workshops and design sessions.
31. Provide advice and recommendations.
32. Manage stakeholder expectations.
33. Present findings and proposed solutions confidently.
34. Project Delivery Support
35. Own delivery of assigned workstreams.
36. Manage workstream plans, risks and dependencies.
37. Produce delivery reporting.
38. Coordinate activities across multiple stakeholders.
39. Ensure agreed deliverables are completed on time and to quality.
40. Internal Contribution
41. Contribute to development of PACT methodologies.
42. Support proposal development where required.
43. Share lessons learned across the practice.
44. Contribute to capability development.

Essential experience and capabilities

• Practical experience of finance processes and finance systems, gained within Higher Education or another sector.
• Understanding of core accounting concepts and processes, including accounts, ledgers, debtors or receivables, payments and double-entry accounting.
• Experience supporting the implementation, configuration, optimisation or improvement of finance-related systems, functionality or business processes.
• Demonstrable business-analysis experience, including the use of techniques such as as‑is and to‑be process analysis, process mapping, requirements elicitation and documentation, user stories, use cases and stakeholder analysis.
• Experience working within a structured systems implementation, change or project‑delivery environment.
• Experience collaborating as part of a project team, working to agreed milestones and taking responsibility for defined deliverables.
• Strong technical analytical skills, including experience using large or complex datasets to identify patterns, issues, requirements or opportunities.
• Ability to investigate unclear or incomplete requirements, establish what is needed and translate this into a practical delivery plan.
• Ability to understand how systems, data and business processes interact.
• Experience producing clear documentation, including requirements, process maps, workshop outputs, user stories, decisions and implementation artefacts.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, facilitation and communication skills, including the ability to work effectively with operational, technical and senior stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage priorities, maintain momentum and deliver work to agreed deadlines.
• High attention to detail and a commitment to quality.
• Ability to contribute to the wider team, including sharing knowledge, improving ways of working and supporting colleagues beyond individually assigned project tasks.

Desirable

• Direct experience of Student Finance systems or processes within Higher Education.
• Understanding of Student Finance operations, including tuition fees, sponsorships, bursaries, student payments, debtors or funding.
• Experience implementing, configuring, supporting or optimising Student Finance functionality.
• Experience with Higher Education student‑record systems such as SITS, Banner or TechnologyOne.
• Experience configuring or supporting Student Finance modules within student‑record systems.
• Knowledge of Student Finance England and Student Loans Company processes, payments and integrations.
• Experience of integrations and data flows between Student Finance, institutional Finance and Student Records systems.
• Familiarity with APIs and system integrations.
• Experience supporting user acceptance testing, system testing or implementation assurance.
• Previous Higher Education, consultancy or digital‑transformation experience.
• A recognised business‑analysis qualification, such as BCS or equivalent.

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