SDA Head of Finance

About the job

Job summary

The nuclear submarine portfolio is a national endeavour, one of the largest UK investment portfolios and of critical strategic importance. We work with our supply chain to design, build, support and dispose of a unique piece of military hardware which must take its crew to sea for months at a time, keeping them there in safety, whilst powered by a nuclear reactor. This is what makes a nuclear submarine the most complex machine that the United Kingdom makes and supports, and this means we need people with exceptional skills to successfully deliver in the most challenging environment.

We’re looking to appoint a Head of Finance to join the Finance Leadership Team, working in partnership with the business to support the effective control and management of c£7.3 billion spend per annum.

The Head of Finance is responsible for all financial reporting and accounting advice across the SDA and has a professional responsibility to the SDA Chief Finance Officer and the MoD Director General Finance. They are responsible for delivering on the Government Finance mission of Protecting Value, Adding Value and Driving Value.

The Head of Finance provides direct support to the Agency Main Board, Executive Committee, and the Audit and Risk Committee. As part of the Finance Leadership Team, you will be responsible for ensuring a coherent framework of financial management control processes and procedures across the Agency, working collaboratively with other areas of the DNE to ensure the effective management, costing & reporting of the resources allocated to the SDA to deliver outputs on their behalf. You will also be responsible for producing the statutory accounts for the Agency.

We would like to hear from senior leaders with experience of working in both long-term capital projects and providing financial support and advice to Boards and Executive Committees. You must be able to motivate and lead individuals and teams to create and maintain the highest standards, driving improvements in financial systems and capabilities to ensure we put finance at the heart of decision making. We will be interested to hear how your experience has prepared you for this role.

We are looking for a leader who inspires others, creating an environment that empowers people to deliver, whilst supporting them to meet their potential, and creates a culture that that is focused on supporting and enabling business delivery.

Job description

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Leading the central finance team, you will work alongside the Head for Submarine Acquisition Finance, and Submarine Support Finance Head, to manage the SDA finances. Leading a team of 43 you will provide direction, prioritising where needed to ensure outputs are delivered. Working alongside the Finance Heads to provide broader leadership to all finance staff within the Agency.
• Driving Financial Performance: Responsible for ensuring delivery of the Finance KPI within the SDA Performance Framework. Lead the annual 10-year financial planning (Annual Budget Cycle) and In Year Management processes for the Equipment Programme and Equipment Support Plan and Agency Operating costs. Consolidate and present financial data, as well as providing professional advice and judgement to assist the SDA CEO and CFO with reviews to establish Equipment Plan and Operating Cost budgets. Offer financial Input to SDA Boards, e.g. SDA Executive Committee, and SDA Audit and Risk Committee.
• Financial Accounting: Ensure that the quality and veracity of the financial accounts within the Agency including both leading transaction processing and the requirement for complex accounting judgements around nuclear provisions and IFRS16 complex sites. Providing a Centre of Excellence for accounting advice to the teams. Manage the National Audit Office audit of relevant financial information within published MoD and separate Agency statutory accounts.
• Driving VfM: Review investment proposals and sign-off options to ensure robust and compliant with accounting policy and HMT control framework. Working closely with the Delivery Directors to hold Delivery Teams to account for their efficiency deliverables (£3.6Bn over 10 years), tracking performance both in year and across the ten-year planning period.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the interface for all financial related activity between the Agency, DNE and MoD Centre. Work collaboratively across organisational and functional boundaries to support decision making and enabling the business. Manage a DNE portfolio including coordination of pan-Agency finance issues and the production of an aggregated Agency portfolio financial position for the CEO and CFO.
• Systems Development & Exploitation: Lead on financial systems development and exploitation including development of dashboards, Project Accounting implementation, alignment with P3M R4 implementation and involvement in the requirement setting for MOD Finance Journey to the Cloud project.
• Finance Functional Management: As Head of the Finance Function within the Agency, linking with stakeholders to manage capacity through recruitment and managed moves, and improve capability through development of individuals and career pathways.
• Defence Nuclear Enterprise: Work as part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise to review ways of working, to align with increase financial delegations for Nuclear from HMT and optimise financial management and support across the enterprise.

Person specification

Personal Skills

Whilst not exhaustive, the following capabilities and demonstrable competence will be required for successful execution of the role:

• Strong leadership skills that enable delivery through others; creating an inclusive culture where team members are empowered, agile, responsive and high performing.
• Good attention to detail with the ability to interpret large volumes of complex data to provide valuable business insight.
• Provide creative and innovative solutions to complex problems with the ability to inform senior leaders to guide strategic decisions.
• Manage and influence a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders, both engaging with, and developing trust and confidence, whilst maintaining strong relationships with key partners to understand service requirements.
• Maintain integrity and uphold policy and process, challenging leadership, delivering technical capability, and demonstrating a commitment to excellence.
• Strong and effective stakeholder management and communications skills. 
• Ability to operate in a complex environment and deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Assist with developing clear and focused financial strategies and priorities, whilst considering political, economic, social, environmental and technological impact.
• Build a strong innovative culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing. Promote the importance of developing everyone to their full potential. Take a strategic perspective to identifying the capability needs of the organisation now, and in the future.

Please provide evidence of the following Essential Criteria in your Supporting Statement

Essential Criteria:

1. Experience of successfully operating in a senior finance leadership role within a large and diverse organisation, in both steady state and through transformational change.
2. Proven successful leadership of a large team.
3. Background in working with long term capital projects and experience in developing and delivering against budgets and forecasts.
4. Clear track record of delivering excellent finance management results in a complex and multi-disciplined environment.
5. Experience of providing expert professional financial reporting and accounting advice and guidance to others.
6. Demonstrable experience of successfully managing financial audit, ensuring compliance and accuracy of reporting.
7. Evidence of an Inclusive Leadership style which role models, inspires, motivates, and promotes collaboration to develop high performing teams, and champions wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusion.

The successful candidate will hold the following Qualifications / Memberships:

CCAB (including CIMA, ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAS, Chartered Accountants Ireland) or international equivalent qualification, with full Associate or Fellowship membership of the relevant accounting body and up-to-date CPD records.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.