Senior Lead, Finance Business Partner

Overview

This role provides senior finance leadership for K12 Assessments within the US K12 Business Unit, supporting three franchises:

• School Assessment (end-to-end state summative assessment programs)
• GED (high-school-equivalency credential operating under a joint venture agreement)
• Evaluation Systems (educator licensure and certification assessment)

The position is a highly commercial finance leadership role, serving as the lead finance business partner to the K12 Assessments Managing Director and as the senior finance voice on the Leadership Team. Responsibilities span financial, commercial, and strategic agenda-setting across all three businesses, including contract, pricing, and investment decisions.

Responsibilities

Commercial partnering

• Partner with the Managing Director and the Leadership Team to shape commercial strategy, grounded in robust financial insight and clear unit economics.
• Own the financial lens on key 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, including incremental revenue versus incremental cost-to-serve on state RFPs, pricing posture by contract, and disciplined evaluation of scope expansion opportunities.
• Bring a forward-looking, external perspective (state funding and policy developments, demographic and pipeline trends, competitor performance) and translate it into implications for plans and pricing.

Performance, transparency & escalation

• Maintain a no-surprises partnership with the US K12 Executive Partner, Finance through early elevation of emerging risks and opportunities—quantified and framed with recommended actions.
• Own the monthly performance narrative for K12 Assessments, communicating clearly to the Managing Director, the Business Unit, and Group Finance, including:
  • Drivers and variances versus plan
  • Forecast movements and the leading indicators behind them
• Apply disciplined revenue forecasting across three distinct models:
  • 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, ensuring consistency of numbers, assumptions, and narrative across levels.
• Maintain an up-to-date risk and opportunity register, including owners and mitigation plans.

Contract, partnership & joint-venture governance

• Oversee the financial governance of the GED joint venture, 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 Pearson, including 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 into forecasts.
• Partner on capital allocation and investment decisions, including significant ongoing content and product development investment, ensuring returns exceed hurdle rates and investments deliver against their business cases.
• Define and track performance metrics aligned to commercial success across the portfolio (contract health, volumes, price realization, attach rates, margin) and drive accountability for outcomes.

Frameworks, capability & ways of working

• Develop and embed consistent frameworks, methodologies, and financial tools to raise 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 the business.
• Serve as a conduit between the business and Finance Operations and Centers of Expertise to ensure technical and process excellence is built into business practice.

Leadership

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

What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months

• Trusted, established partnership with the Managing Director and K12 Assessments Leadership Team, with finance visibly shaping major contract, pricing, and investment decisions.
• A reliable performance and escalation rhythm with the US K12 Executive Partner, Finance—backed by data, with risks and opportunities surfaced early.
• One coherent finance view across the three businesses, with clean baselines and consistent reporting, transitioned smoothly into the new US K12 Business Unit structures and cadence.
• Major contract renewals supported through rigorous economics, with joint-venture financial governance operating cleanly through the transition.
• A stable, motivated finance team with clear development paths and strengthened analytical capability.

Requirements

• Professional finance qualification and 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 candour and precision.
• Strong understanding of materiality and ability to prioritize across competing agendas in a fast-moving environment.
• Ability to identify business risk early, implement mitigation, and demonstrate stewardship 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

• The minimum full-time salary range is between $147,000 – $273,000.
• This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program.
• Benefits are available to eligible employees.

Compensation is influenced by skill set, level of experience, and specific location. As required by the California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range is as listed above.

Location

This role is subject to location-based pay rules as required by the following jurisdictions: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC.

Application Deadline

Applications accepted through Nov 5th, 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.