Senior Lead, Finance Business Partner

Overview

This role provides lead finance partnership for the K12 Assessments portfolio within the US K12 Business Unit. The portfolio spans three franchises: School Assessment (end-to-end state summative assessment programs), GED (a US high-school-equivalency credential operating under a joint venture agreement), and Evaluation Systems (educator licensure and certification assessment). These businesses maintain long-term relationships with state education agencies.

This is a highly commercial finance leadership role—serving as the senior finance voice on the Leadership Team and lead business partner to the K12 Assessments Managing Director. The position owns the financial, commercial, and strategic agenda across all three business models, shaping contract, pricing, and investment decisions.

Dual accountability defines success:

• Drive the business forward with the Managing Director
• Keep the US K12 Executive Partner, Finance ahead of events through transparent, early, and quantified communication of performance, risks, and opportunities—framed with recommended options.

Responsibilities

Commercial partnering

• Partner with the Managing Director and Leadership Team to shape commercial strategy grounded in robust financial insight and a clear view of unit economics.
• Own the financial lens on core economic drivers, including:
  • Contract wins, renewals, and lifetime value
  • Test volumes and price realization
  • Candidate conversion and attach economics
  • Cost-to-serve and content investment returns
• Build rigorous bid and renewal economics for state RFPs, including incremental revenue versus incremental cost-to-serve; evaluate pricing posture by contract; and assess disciplined scope expansion opportunities within existing programs.
• Provide a forward-looking external perspective (state funding and policy developments, demographic and pipeline trends, competitor performance) and translate insights into implications for plans and pricing.

Performance, transparency & escalation

• Maintain a “no-surprises” partnership with the US K12 Executive Partner, Finance by elevating emerging risks and opportunities early—such as contract renewals, state budget developments, and policy changes—quantified and framed with recommended actions.
• Own the monthly performance narrative for K12 Assessments, including drivers and variances versus plan, forecast movements, and leading indicators behind them.
• Bring discipline to revenue forecasting across three distinct models, with rigorous cost-forecast governance:
  • Long-term contracts recognized on percentage of completion
  • Short-cycle registration-driven testing volumes
  • Candidate-funded program fees
• Represent K12 Assessments in US K12 Business Unit forecast, planning, and risk-and-opportunity reviews; ensure consistency of numbers, assumptions, and narrative across levels.
• Maintain an accurate risk and opportunity register, including owners and mitigation plans.

Contract, partnership & joint-venture governance

• Oversee GED joint venture financial governance, including intercompany service arrangements, royalty obligations, and partner reporting—ensuring charging arrangements are accurate, contractually compliant, and well evidenced.
• Maintain a complete view of the state contract portfolio (terms, scope, profitability, and renewal exposure) and lead finance support for major renewals and new-state pursuits.
• Manage financial arrangements with internal service providers across the organization (test delivery and operations services), ensuring clear, fair, and well-governed cost arrangements.

Planning, investment & performance management

• Lead the annual operating plan and long-range plan for K12 Assessments, embedding commercial and market perspectives.
• Partner on capital allocation and investment decisions (including significant ongoing content and product development investment) to ensure returns exceed hurdle rates and investments deliver against business cases.
• Define and track portfolio performance metrics aligned to commercial success, including contract health, volumes, price realization, attach rates, and margin.

Frameworks, capability & ways of working

• Develop and embed consistent frameworks, methodologies, and financial tools to improve decision quality across three businesses with different operating rhythms.
• Champion data-driven decision-making, automation, and AI-enabled ways of working across the finance team and business.
• Act as a conduit between the business and Finance Operations and Centers of Expertise to build technical and process excellence into business practice.

Leadership

• Build and lead the K12 Assessments finance team by integrating finance professionals from three heritage businesses; develop talent, foster collaboration, and plan succession.
• Build partnerships across US K12 Business Unit finance, Group Finance functions, and other teams.
• Role model organizational behaviors.

What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months

• Establish a trusted partnership with the Managing Director and K12 Assessments Leadership Team, with finance visibly shaping the portfolio’s biggest contract, pricing, and investment decisions.
• Implement a reliable performance and escalation rhythm with the US K12 Executive Partner, Finance, with forecasts supported by data and early surfacing of risks and opportunities.
• Create one coherent finance view across all three businesses with clean baselines, consistent reporting, and a single trusted contract and performance picture—transitioning smoothly into the new US K12 Business Unit structures and cadence.
• Support major contract renewals with rigorous economics and ensure joint-venture financial governance operates cleanly through the transition.
• Build a stable, motivated finance team with clear development paths and strengthened analytical capability.

Requirements

• Professional finance qualification.
• Significant experience in senior finance business-partnering roles with strong commercial exposure.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive stakeholders, provide independent challenge, and shape strategic decisions.
• Deep expertise in financial planning, forecasting, investment analysis, and commercial performance management.
• Proven ability to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable insight and communicate performance, risk, and opportunity upward with candor and precision.
• Strong understanding of materiality and ability to prioritize across competing agendas in a fast-moving environment.
• Ability to identify business risk early and implement mitigation; stewardship mindset alongside growth.
• Collaborative leadership style with proven capability to build and develop high-performing, cross-cultural teams, including integrating teams from previously separate organizations.
• Enterprise mindset and comfort operating across organizational boundaries in a matrixed structure, including shared corporate functions.

Compensation & Benefits

• Minimum full-time salary range: $147,000 – $273,000.
• Eligible to participate in an annual incentive program.
• Benefits details are provided by the employer.

Location & Work Schedule

• Workplace type: Remote
• Schedule: FULL_TIME

Application & Deadline

• Applications accepted through Nov 5th, 2026 (may be extended depending on business needs).

Equal Opportunity

The organization is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.