About the job

Job summary

The Deputy Director Financial Management, Policy and Accounting, plays a key role in delivering finance, accounting, tax, customs and duty outputs on behalf of the whole Department. They are responsible for providing professional accountancy advice on a range of policy issues across the Department. It is a challenging and interesting role – with regular exposure to complex financial issues, as well as offering the opportunity to work closely with senior colleagues from across the Department and beyond.

Job description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

• Leadership of a team of 43 finance, accounting and tax, customs and duty subject matter experts.
• Production and timely delivery of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts ensuring publication before the summer parliamentary recess.
• Facilitation and management of the statutory audit of the Department’s accounts by the National Audit Office, addressing known and emergent issues.
• Support the delivery of the Operational Finance continuous improvement programme ensuring lessons are learnt and addressed from audit and other activities.
• Delivery of consistent, accurate and pragmatic advice across the Department, including to senior officials and ministers on finance, accounting, treasury management, governance and taxation policy.
• Development and delivery of a programme for the adoption of the new accounting standard on treatment of implicit and explicit insurance arrangements (IFRS17).
• Development and delivery of compliance with the Task Force for Climate related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) requirements.
• Delivery of further improvements to the Department’s management of the Statement of Financial Position including enhanced management information.
• Lead the cross government Technical Accounting Centre of Excellence and contribute to the Taxation Centre of Excellence.
• Effective management and engagement with external stakeholders including HM Treasury, National Audit Office, HMRC, Government Banking Service and Cabinet Office.
• Management and processing of casework relating to Losses and Special Payments, Gifting and Contingent Liabilities.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

• Excellent leadership skills with a proven track record at a senior level in a complex finance and accounting environment with a commitment to continuing professional development.
• Thorough understanding of financial accounting and reporting principles.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Experience of and comfortable with briefing board / committee level.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills and an ability to respond to urgent, unexpected issues.
• Ability to work effectively with multiple different internal and stakeholders to deliver business outcomes.

Benefits

• 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 average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Application

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55 Sunday 14th January 2024 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role. 

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. 

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

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.