Team Leader Operations - English & Exams

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. For 90 years we have shaped brighter futures through education, arts, culture, language, and creativity. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. **We connect. We inspire.** **Pay Band:** 5 **Country/Location:** Noida, India **Department:**GSS English & Exams (IELTS Operations) **Contract Type:** Fixed term contract **Contract Duration**: 1 year **Closing Date:** 18 Sept 2026 , Friday 23:59 PM. **Work Schedule**: This is a 24/7 on-site role with rotating shifts, including night shifts. The position offers two days off per week, which may not always fall on weekends. Flexibility and adaptability to a continuous shift-based environment are essential. There is no hybrid work arrangement for this position, and it requires working onsite five days a week. **Training & Assessment Requirement** Successful candidates will be required to complete mandatory process training and achieve the required pass mark in a competency assessment before undertaking independent production responsibilities. Support, coaching, and reassessment opportunities will be provided where applicable. **Role Description/Purpose** To provide day-to-day leadership, coaching and operational supervision for the Operations team within Shared Services, ensuring accurate, timely and compliant processing of finance activities such as refunds, accruals, reconciliations, invoice/payment support, payroll inputs, vendor/customer queries, reporting and month-end support. The role holder will act as the first level escalation point for finance process queries, monitor SLA adherence, ensure required evidence is maintained, and contribute to continuous improvement activities led by Operations leadership so that finance services remain reliable, audit-ready and aligned to stakeholder expectations. **Role Accountabilities** The British Council Shared Services Centre supports English & Exams operations by delivering standardised, scalable and controlled back-office services across regions and countries. Finance Operations is a critical support function that enables timely and accurate processing of financial transactions, reconciliation activities, refunds, accruals, payroll inputs, reporting and query resolution. The Team Leader – Operations will play a key role in managing daily workload, coaching team members, following agreed process controls, supporting month-end and audit requirements, and ensuring consistent team-level service delivery for internal stakeholders and regional finance/business teams. You may be required to work extended hours during month-end, quarter-end, year-end, audit support, transition, training or hiring activities, and will manage high-volume and time-sensitive finance activities while maintaining accuracy, compliance, evidence logs and SLA monitoring within agreed procedures. You will lead and coach Finance Operations team members to deliver accurate, timely and compliant processing of assigned finance activities, identifying risks, bottlenecks and potential SLA breaches early, taking corrective action within agreed procedures, and escalating higher-risk matters to the Delivery Manager using logical analysis and evidence-based information. You will support continuous improvement and process standardisation initiatives led by Operations leadership. You will supervise daily finance operations including refunds, accruals, reconciliations, invoice/payment support, payroll inputs, customer/vendor query handling and reporting activities as applicable to the process, ensuring work allocation, queue management, ageing review, prioritisation and timely closure of finance transactions within agreed SLAs and quality standards. You will act as the first level escalation point within agreed procedures for process queries, exceptions, pending approvals, reconciliation differences, payment/refund issues and stakeholder follow-ups, maintain SOPs, process maps, trackers, workflow notes and knowledge articles, and ensure team members are trained on process updates through a structured knowledge transfer approach. You will support month-end, quarter-end and year-end activities by confirming task completion, evidence availability, open-item status and timely escalation of blockers, and support compliance with finance policies, delegation of authority, approval matrix, audit requirements, documentation standards and agreed control checks by following defined procedures and escalating exceptions. You will maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders and escalate issues where required, monitor team performance, productivity, schedule adherence, attendance, training needs and quality outcomes, and provide feedback through team meetings and one-on-one discussions. You will prepare shift plans, workload plans, handover notes and contingency support for peak finance cycles and critical business deadlines. On quality, controls and compliance, you will perform quality checks, sample reviews, error analysis and root-cause reviews for finance transactions, ensuring corrective and preventive actions are tracked to closure, escalate recurring risks, process gaps and capacity concerns to the Delivery Manager, and support internal and external audit requirements by ensuring documentation, transaction trails and control evidence are complete, accurate and retrievable. On governance and reporting, you will prepare and maintain team-level daily, weekly and monthly finance dashboards, including volume, productivity, SLA, ageing, accuracy, error trends, open risks and escalations, review team-level performance data and recommend operational improvement opportunities to the Delivery Manager, and support compliance with BCMS and British Council policies, finance controls, records management requirements and applicable information security standards by ensuring team activities follow agreed guidance and by escalating exceptions promptly. On information security, you will ensure the team is aware of information security policies and complies with them, ensure the team complies with ISO 27001, IGA and access management requirements, raise incidents or escalate immediately when any non-compliance, data risk or access issue is observed, disable accounts immediately for leavers and absconders or employees on long leave, document, monitor and review access levels for the team, especially for finance systems and shared folders, and provide security awareness and education to team members handling financial and personal data. **Qualifications & Experience** **Essential:** - Graduate - 5 years or more experience in finance operations (O2C, P2P & R2R), shared services, BPO/back-office operations, accounting support or transaction processing environment - At least 2 years of team leading experience, preferably managing a finance operations team of more than 10 people - Working knowledge of refunds, accruals, reconciliations, invoice/payment support, payroll inputs, month-end support, reporting or similar finance processes - Good understanding of SLA management, quality checks, audit evidence, process controls and escalation governance - Understanding of finance operations, shared services, BPO/back-office service delivery and transaction processing controls - Strong MS Office skills, especially Excel; ability to maintain trackers, reports, reconciliations and dashboards accurately - Knowledge of SLA management, queue management, ageing analysis, quality checks, audit evidence and process documentation - Good people and interpersonal skills to build effective relationships with team members, managers and finance stakeholders - Clear verbal and written communication skills with ability to explain finance process updates, risks, exceptions and escalations professionally - Proactive approach with focus on problem analysis, root-cause identification, prioritisation, accuracy and timely resolution - Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle financial, personal and commercially sensitive information appropriately **Desirable:** - Experience in finance shared services, global operations, transition/hypercare support or multi-country finance processes - Working knowledge of ERP/finance systems, workflow tools, Power BI, Power Query or advanced Excel reporting - Lean/Six Sigma, accounting, finance or process improvement certification would be an advantage **Further Information** Right to Work: Locally recruited Applications are welcomed from candidates currently in this location with a natural right to work. Applications are also welcomed from candidates currently based in other British Council country offices. However, please note candidates must have a natural right to work in the country, on a permanent basis, as immigration clearance and/or on-going visa support is not provided by the British Council for this role. Relocation support is also not provided. **India (OCI)** Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders will need have, or be able to obtain, a valid special work permit issued from Government of India (GOI) to work in the British High Commission (BHC). BHC will not be able to sponsor work visas or obtain/ assist with the special work permit from GOI. Offers of employment made to OCI card holders will be conditional upon candidates obtaining a special work permit. Note: For requisite special permission to take up employment in any foreign Diplomatic Missions in India, OCI Cardholder must visit A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world. **Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement** We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes, increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities. **Safeguarding Statement** The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children. If you experience any difficulties with submitting your application, please email