This is a key role in COEL’s Finance team: making the day-to-day finance engine run cleanly, predictably and calmly. You will strengthen cash discipline, control and confidence in the numbers – without adding bureaucracy – by tightening the basics (AP, AR, approvals, reconciliations and evidence routines) and making issues visible early so they are fixed fast.
Closing Date: May 15, 2026
You’ll be the person who owns the transaction rhythm: ensuring invoices are processed properly, approvals happen on time, exceptions are chased to resolution, and month-end is supported by good housekeeping rather than late heroics. You’ll provide simple operational reporting (blocked invoices, approvals backlog, supplier exposure, aged debt and dispute status) so Finance leadership and budget owners know exactly what needs doing, by whom, and by when.
This role suits a hands-on, controls-minded finance operator who is organised, resilient and comfortable working with non-finance colleagues. You’re pragmatic, firm and fair: you can train, nudge and challenge people to follow simple disciplines, and you escalate with facts (not noise) when governance or cash is at risk.
The purpose of this role is to make Finance operations reliable: AP, approvals, AR visibility and core controls run on clear routines that people follow, producing a clean ledger, predictable month-end and audit-ready evidence as standard.
You will reduce firefighting with suppliers and internal stakeholders by actively managing exceptions (missing POs, coding gaps, disputed items, approval delays) and by giving Finance leadership simple visibility of what’s stuck, what’s at risk, and what needs escalation.
COEL is a Cambridge-based commercial design and build, fit-out and workplace delivery business. We create inspiring, high-performing spaces for clients across the region, combining practical delivery capability with strong client relationships and a reputation for professionalism.
We run COEL with the discipline of a mature business, while actively improving governance, systems and ways of working to support sustainable growth. That means we care about the basics: clear accountability, simple processes that people actually follow, and data you can trust.
Strong financial discipline is central to protecting value: controlling cost and margin, managing supplier and client risk, and keeping cash visible and actively managed. This role is a practical part of that system.
