Senior Finance Manager

We require a suitable individual to act as a Senior Finance Manager within the Finance & Contracts team of LGC's Grant Management Group (GMG), based in Twickenham, Middlesex. GMG provides Central Commissioning Facilities (CCF) for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), managing a number of major health research programmes and infrastructure investments for NIHR and DHSC, with a total annual budget in excess of £400 million. Reporting to the Assistant Director, Finance, the postholder will have responsibility for the day-to-day financial management of the ~35 research funding streams (including research programmes, Research Schools and infrastructure funding streams), with a total annual budget of in excess of £400 million, managed by GMG on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and NHS England (NHSE). This will include payment of contractors, financial reconciliation, outturns, forecasting, etc.. The postholder will also be responsible for developing and maintaining systems for ensuring and demonstrating that NIHR obtains value for money from the research it funds. The postholder will support and be supported by the Finance and Contracts team and will work closely with programme teams and other cross-cutting teams within GMG as well as liaising with staff in the DHSC SRED Directorate on a regular basis. The post may require some travel to meetings in London and very occasionally throughout England, necessitating occasional overnight stays. Key Responsibilities Ensuring that the quarterly outturns and forecasts of expenditure for the research budgets managed by the CCF submitted to DH are submitted in a timely manner and are of high quality and accuracy. Working closely with the Assistant Director, Finance and colleagues in the DH R&D Directorate to understand DH's financial reporting and monitoring requirements and to develop reporting structures and processes which meet these requirements in as efficient and effective manner as possible Contributing to the development and maintenance of appropriate governance systems to oversee the use of NIHR and DH funding within the NHS and HEI settings Liaising with Finance teams in NHS organisations, HEIs and other entities to resolve any financial issues which arise Supporting another Senior Finance Manager in the implementation of systems and process improvements to continually develop the finance function, in particular the processes for financial and contract management within programme teams Ensuring that CCF staff working in programme teams have the necessary knowledge and skills to work effectively with the Finance & Contracts team to manage their research budgets, providing training and ad hoc support, as necessary Ensuring that there are effective financial information flows between CCF and DHSC/NHSE, ensuring that customers are kept fully informed of any issues relating to research budgets and that key information is relayed to CCF staff when required Participating in finance initiatives of strategic importance to customers and supporting efforts to ensure appropriate consistency of GMG processes with best practice in other research funders (including other NIHR Coordinating Centres) Supporting customer and internal and external audit requirements Line management of 2 Management Accountants and oversight of 3 more members of the Finance and Contracts team, including responsibility for training and professional development Responding to queries from programme staff, contractors and other stakeholders including management and oversight of the Jira query system Contributing to the development and maintenance of robust finance-related policies and SOPs Supporting efforts to ensure appropriate consistency of GMG processes with those of other research funders (including other NIHR Coordinating Centres) Supporting another Senior Finance Manager in ensuring that process maps of centralised finance-related activities are accurate, maintained and reviewed regularly to guarantee the efficiency and quality of service provided Supporting another Senior Finance Manager in developing and maintaining a variety of Excel-based tools to support GMG's financial systems Supporting the continued centralisation of finance and contracts work currently undertaken by programme teams where appropriate Representing the GMG Finance team at relevant meetings including specialist working groups Supporting the Assistant Director, Finance, deputising where needed Working collaboratively with the other Senior Finance Managers, deputising where needed Any other reasonable tasks required by line management.

Person Specification Professional accounting qualification (ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) or qualified by experience Ability to organise own workload effectively, working to multiple prioritised tasks, targets and deadlines Ability to plan for changing volumes of work as well as changing business needs, anticipating the requirement for support from the business in critical periods First-class attention to detail Ability to establish and maintain strong, productive working relationships with GMG programme staff, building trust and credibility throughout the organisation Commitment to ensuring lessons are learned and fed into work processes and training Ability to explain complicated and possibly contentious information to a wide range of audiences Ability to liaise effectively with external stakeholders including senior customer finance leads and applicant finance offices Ability to work flexibly, proactively and independently, showing initiative in tackling allocated tasks Ability to plan work against broader organisational goals Self-confident and able to instil confidence in others Positive attitude to change Strong sense of responsibility, including excellent time-management, task prioritisation and organisational abilities Excellent interpersonal skills Significant work experience in posts demonstrating acquisition and application of financial knowledge Knowledge and practical experience of research grant financial management is desirable Excellent computer skills: fully conversant in MS Office (Excel in particular), databases and use of web-based grant management systems Track record of contribution to mapping of local processes and preparing quality documentation Strong analytical skills Strong written and verbal communication skills Experience of managing staff Able to communicate effectively and clearly at all levels, both verbally and in written format Strong analytical skills Professional and hard working