Staff vacancies:

Finance Manager

Salary: £37,500 – £40,000
Hours: Full-time (37.5 hours per week)
Location: Birmingham / hybrid
Application deadline: Monday 1 December 2025, 10am

We are excited to advertise this full-time Finance Manager vacancy. The role encompasses the finance operations of the charity, from purchase ledger, payroll and bank reconciliations to preparation of the accounts, cashflow forecasts and delivery of Board reports. In autumn 2024 we migrated to iplicit, with potential to realise further efficiencies.

Could this be you, or someone you know? We anticipate you will be part- or fully-qualified (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or CIPFA) and have:

– transferable experience preparing statutory and management accounts
– experience of owning/managing efficient finance processes and controls
– high proficiency and confidence with modern, cloud-based finance software, spreadsheets and other relevant programmes
– excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Recent experience of charity SORP, partial exemption VAT – and an interest in supporting the strategic development of the organisation – would be very helpful.

Find full details in the Application Pack.

We welcome informal pre-application conversations, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

To apply, please email to Peter Trethewey, General Manager:
– a covering letter (or letter plus CV) that set out your experience and interest in the role
– a completed Application Form (PDF/DOC)

Ex Cathedra welcomes applications from everyone and is committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone feels valued and supported. If you have any access needs relevant to your application, please contact Peter.

Application deadline: Monday 1 December 2025, 10am
Interviews (please hold): Tuesday 9 December 2025

We would also consider a part-time Finance Manager (3 days pw) with the appointment of a part-time Finance Coordinator (2 days pw). Please contact Peter ahead of application if you are interested in applying on this basis.

Performer enquiries:

We’re always delighted to receive audition requests from prospective singers, both professional singers and professionally-trained volunteer singers. For more information about how we work and how to arrange an audition, please click here.

Prospective freelance instrumentalists are welcome send email Melissa Brown, Concerts Producer, with a copy of their CV.

For details of our Scholars and Student Scholars schemes, click here. If the Scholars scheme is not currently open to applicants you are welcome to contact Melissa with your details and ask them to be held on file so that we can keep you updated.

We also encourage you to complete our Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form (see below), and require everyone who works or volunteers with us to satisfactorily complete a Safer Recruitment self-declaration form, which we will supply.

Trustee roles:

We are also always interested to hear from prospective trustees. At this time, Ex Cathedra is developing our co-creative practice, expanding our work with communities who do not traditionally engage with choral music, and securing financial resilience in light of post-pandemic changes and local authority funding cuts. We have also begun working on the phased retirement of founder and artistic director Jeffrey Skidmore. It is an exciting time to help steer Ex Cathedra through some of the challenges and opportunities we anticipate over the next few years.

We have one vacancy on the Board and welcome all expressions of interest, there is no deadline at this time. We are particularly interested to hear from you if can support our development in one or more of the following areas:

• finance – trustee oversight and support for our skilled, experienced finance team
• HR – recognising our diverse mix of employed and freelance staff, scholars, adult and young amateur singers and participants

You do not need experience in singing, music or the arts, but you must share our belief that everyone should have an equitable opportunity to experience the physical and wellbeing benefits of singing together and the power of inspirational choral music.

If you are interested, you are welcome to download and read our most recent Trustee Recruitment Pack. Some of the areas of particular interest listed have since been filled but the majority of the content remains relevant for all ongoing expressions of interest, and we would be pleased for you to tell us how you could help.

If you would like to explore the idea of being an Ex Cathedra trustee:
– we are happy to arrange an informal conversation with Peter Phillips, Chair of the Board
– this would usually be following by an invitation to send a formal letter of interest and CV, and an interview process.

We also encourage you to complete our Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form (see below), and require everyone who works or volunteers with us to satisfactorily complete a Safer Recruitment self-declaration form, which we will supply.

Equality and Diversity:

Ex Cathedra is committed to ensuring that everyone feels welcome and included at all of our performance, education and participation activities. We are working to become a more diverse organisation that reflects our region and the communities with whom we work.

To help us monitor our ability to reach a range of applicants, we encourage applicants to complete our Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form, which is anonymous and not used as part of any selection processes.