Navy Command, Deputy Finance Business Partner
- Recruiter
- Ministry of Defence
- Location
- Kentigern House - Glasgow; Clyde - Helensburgh; Portsmouth
- Salary
- £44,590
- Posted
- 20 Dec 2024
- Closes
- 16 Jan 2025
- Ref
- 382830
- Approved employers
- Approved employer
- Job role
- Audit, Compliance/risk, Finance business partner, Financial accountant, Financial analyst, Financial planning & analysis
- Sector
- Defence and military, Public sector
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Experience level
- Qualified accountant
About the job
Job summary
Navy Command Headquarters is the nerve centre of the Naval Service. It supports operations around the globe and provides the ships, people, aircraft and equipment to deliver the UK’s defence policy.
In Navy Command, our civil servants work alongside their military colleagues in jobs that matter; jobs which often have a direct impact on the quality of the operational capabilities we deliver. Roles can offer great job satisfaction and there are many opportunities to develop and progress both within the Ministry of Defence and across the wider Civil Service.
The Submarine Directorate in Navy Command is responsible for all submarine in service capability and availability, including oversight of the Submarine Flotilla and Clyde Naval Base.
The Clyde Capital Work Programmes is responsible for the delivering "An integrated submarine operating base at Clyde, supporting a Submarine Force that is safe, secure, sustainable and resilient, and ready to excel in operations out to 2067”.
The Clyde Capital Works; a £2Bn programme of work comprising of new build facilities and refurbishment to support current and future operations on HMNB Clyde over the next 15 years. The programme of work is part of Government Major Programmes & Projects and is considered a top 100 government programme. This is an exciting time to join the team, the delivery environment is both challenging and rewarding
The Deputy Finance Business Partner will communicate financial data and information clearly and provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight, and business solutions.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Management Reporting/FBP areas are responsible for analysis of the ledger to understand the financial position and supporting the team to produce financial reports.
- Ensuring that financial reporting is accurately completed both within corporate reporting systems and for input of accounting entries to support decision making.
- Providing the consolidated financial position at various levels. Utilising information obtained from Finance Business Partner Reviews to provide a draft of commentary.
- Producing standardised reports / dashboards for monthly financial reviews and Annual Budget Cycle (ABC).
- screenings along with supplementary information to the Finance Business Partner (FBP) and Finance Leadership Team (FLT) as appropriate.
Optimising Performance
- Enabling self service capabilities where possible, allowing individuals access to information
- Team members may support specific Business area(s), team members will be expected to cover Business areas as required.
- This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.
Job description
Building effective stakeholder engagement
- Exercising sound judgement to provide advice, influencing Business areas to make informed decisions that balance short term priorities (e.g. in year efficiencies) with longer-term sustainability.
- Building and maintaining relationships with customer budget holders and wider stakeholders.
- Acting as the first line of defence for issues and queries raised by the business where there is no clear solution or if a rapid resolution can be provided.
Supporting the business to deliver their outcomes and driving financial performance
- Developing an understanding of the business, its stakeholders, and deliverables to support development of credible financial plans.
- Driving financial performance against agreed targets, business plans and objectives working collaboratively with stakeholders within the business and from other functions.
- Providing guidance at appropriate level budget holder meetings and boards.
- Understanding the drivers behind key variations, working with the business to identify potential solutions, identify risks and opportunities.
Management Reporting - Providing insight to the Business, Finance Leadership Team, and wider Finance teams
- Providing the consolidated financial position at HLB within the organisation. Utilising information obtained from Finance Business Partner reviews to provide a draft of commentary, subject to the relevant endorsement.
- Producing standardised reports / dashboards for monthly financial reviews and ABC screenings along with supplementary information to the FBP and FLT as appropriate.
Specialist Services - Providing services as the Subject Matter Expert
- Providing support and guidance on how to input and utilise standard cost models to enable Business users to undertake costing activities.
- Supporting the Business in producing a robust audit trail, where possible drawing upon central costing data, to underpin their data inputs and estimates.
- Ensuring specialist input is sought from the Costing Team in Specialist Services
- Providing constructive challenge, scrutiny, insight, and analysis
- Providing ad-hoc analysis where the requirement is justified, working with Ad Hoc MI and Information to build suitable outputs. Presenting information to drive, challenge and support enhanced decision-making.
- Translating and adding insight to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements.
- Being involved at the start, reviewing, and providing input to business cases, investment appraisal and other strategic documentation, identifying and highlighting any potential issues.
- Supporting the Business in identifying and applying relevant costs, benefits, and investment appraisal techniques.
- Providing advice on compliance with policy, standards, accountabilities, and controls
- Undertaking scrutiny of business cases up to [insert values] ensuring that cases provide value for money, consider the wider corporate impact (e.g. legal, commercial), through-life implications and that a robust risk assessment is undertaken.
Acting as the bridge between the business and the rest of finance
- Engaging with the business and drawing on the required support from the finance function.
- Working collaboratively with Finance teams and other functions to ensure that leadership have the right information and advice.
Continuous improvement
- Dedicating time to sharing best practice and ideas for refining standardised processes and procedures.
- Seeking feedback on the services provided, and continuously striving to improve the service provision. Promptly address any key issues that arise ensuring that processes or ways of working are adapted accordingly, and customers are informed where there is an impact.
- Managing issues highlighted during internal or external audit, engaging relevant stakeholders to enable corrective action. Promptly addressing any misinterpretation of guidance, sharing with team members to promote embedding the lesson(s) learnt.
Delivering your area of responsibility
- Management of team members, empowering, motivating and coaching to enable effective delivery.
- Supporting individual’s personal development and careers, ensuring you and the team make time to develop themselves and their peers.
- Being open to challenge and new ideas, sharing of knowledge and experience, encouraging others through building a supportive team environment.
- Ensuring the team are getting the basics right at the first attempt.
- Developing and embedding the use of standardised processes to deliver a consistent output to customers
- Exercising sound judgement and interpretative ability, and application of innovative thought to derive novel solutions.
- Seeking advice, referring upwards as required, where problems are particularly complex or have wider implications.
Person specification
Essential Experience
- Preparation of financial accounts.
- Delivering financial services in a complex organisational environment in the Local Government, Commercial or Central Government arenas.
- Delivery of a Management Accounting service.
- Managing a small team
- Knowledgeable in the use of Microsoft Excel & PowerPoint.
Desirable Experience
- Working knowledge of MoD financial systems e.g CP&F and PB&F.
- Level 4 qualification with AAT, CCAB or CIMA, or working towards qualification or equivalent and financial experience over an extended period.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Managing a Quality Service
- Working Together
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £44,590, Ministry of Defence contributes £12,917 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.