About the job

Job summary

Partnering our business leaders to deliver productivity and efficiency savings.

The Home Office’s mission is to deliver a safe, fair and prosperous UK. As well as working to reduce crime and enforce the law, we secure the UK border by carrying out immigration and customs controls for people and goods entering the UK.  Financial planning and risk management is as critical here as within any major organisation, and we depend on expert business partners, operating at the highest levels, to challenge and advise senior leaders.

Job description

This is a vital leadership role within Border Force and Immigration Enforcement that also contributes to the overall management and leadership of our broader finance function. Reporting to the Home Office Strategic Finance Director, you will provide support and challenge to Director Generals of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement on the financial management of their business areas. You will be supported by a finance business partnering team of 20 who advise on the financial viability of commitments, ensuring that all expenditure provides value for money for the tax payer. You will also lead them in identifying and mitigating financial and other business risks. 

Success depends on fostering and managing strong partnerships with Directors and Director Generals to support their business performance and delivery plans. You will therefore need considerable personal authority combined with experience of influencing direction at board level. This should include the ability to challenge assumptions and to communicate complex positions clearly and compellingly.  You’ll also demonstrate well-developed people leadership skills, including the capacity to instil organisational values and a strong customer service ethic.  With excellent analytical powers, you’re likely to be a qualified accountant (CCAB or equivalent).

 Along with extensive training and development, we offer structured career progression.  Other benefits include access to a valuable civil service pension and flexible working arrangements.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria: 

• Experience of influencing management at board level with strong analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex positions clearly and compellingly within a complex, politically influenced environment.
• Experience of successfully working with a broad range of senior stakeholders and external partners, demonstrating the communication and influencing skills to effectively challenge assumptions and influence direction in a complex environment.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal skills and authority; able to successfully foster and manage interrelationships between own team and other areas. A proven track record of creating a common purpose and instilling organisational values and behaviours that promotes a corporate vision.
• Strong people leadership skills, with a track record of developing, leading and motivating large teams and driving a diverse and inclusive working culture. Experience of and a commitment to ensuring that corporate functions are joined up where appropriate to enhance business outcomes and senior customer experience. 
• Proven ability to influence delivery of productivity and efficiency savings.
• A qualified accountant (CCAB or equivalent i.e. ACCA; CIPFA; ICAEW; ICAI or ICAS, or CIMA, or a European or international equivalent qualification). Candidates who are actively pursuing qualification and can demonstrate a commitment that their future career will be based in Finance will be considered.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Home Office contributes £20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on Thursday 22nd February 2024.

Provide some basic personal information;

1. A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;
2. A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. Diversity Monitoring - as part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview. Failure to submit both a CV and Supporting Statement will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.