About the job

Job summary

Are you looking for an opportunity to be actively involved in reshaping the RAF’s vision for the Finance Function in the years ahead?

The Air Finance vision is to be an agile, high performing team integral to effective decision making for a world class Air Force.

The Air Finance Team consists of three functional areas; Finance Business Partners, Specialist Services and Finance Operations, which all sit within the Director of Resources area of responsibility, interacting with numerous stakeholders across the Command and broader Defence.

This recruitment is for one G7 senior management position within the Finance Operations Financial Management Reporting (FMR) team.

The team is made up of approximately 60 personnel, divided into 13 sub teams.

This post offers the opportunity to build upon financial, communicating and influencing and leadership skills, whilst working as part of a large, friendly, and flexible team.

We are looking for a proactive individual to lead the team to run timely and robust financial management processes and produce high quality financial information and reports, to help inform recommendations to senior management.

Job holders will be required to liaise with stakeholders including wider finance colleagues (Civilian and Military), RAF Stations and Units and Senior Managers; therefore, proven communication skills are essential.

Professional Finance qualifications are essential to the role. Air Command is building a learning culture within the Function and your continued development is important to us, therefore support may be available for you, to undertake further appropriate qualifications or attend CPD events.

 We are based at Headquarters Air Command at RAF High Wycombe; an attractive place to work, located in the village of Walters Ash. There are good public transport links with regular bus services to/from Aylesbury and High Wycombe as well as free car parking on site.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week operating a hybrid working pattern. Hybrid workers will attend the office for a minimum 60% of their time. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into consideration. This means colleagues’ experiences of hybrid working will differ. Also, any employee’s experience of hybrid working will change over time as role requirements and possibly personal circumstances change.

Job description

Finance Operations is responsible for conducting all foundation financial activities for Air Command through owning financial management processes, report production and initial financial analysis. The team provide an efficient and effective In-Year Management (IYM) and Annual Budget Cycle (ABC) reporting function, across various budgets for Air Command units.

Key responsibilities of this post include:

• Proactively lead and manage multiple teams across the Top-Level Budget Plan (TLBP), the Infrastructure Plan (IP) and/or the Equipment Programme (EP) including refining team processes, establishing a battle rhythm and conducting effective planning to ensure delivery of high-quality reporting to internal stakeholders.
• Lead resource management across the wider team, ensuring resilience and on the job training to provide consistent high standards in reporting.
• Maintain an oversight of financial information activity at a strategic level, ensuring all deadlines are met.
• Maintain links with stakeholders through a strong customer focus, providing key support and guidance, developing, and improving the process for feedback, ensuring customer satisfaction rates remain high.
• Provide ongoing support to Finance Business Partners to enable them to convert financial information into a story for Budget Holders, to assist with decision making.
• Lead and support ongoing process development and improvement activity across Finance Operations and wider Air Finance to help standardise and streamline what we do.

Person specification

It is essential that the successful applicant can:

• Build effective relationships and manage engagement across a wide range of both internal and external teams.
• Work flexibly in a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment.
• Communicate effectively with a diverse group of stakeholders, covering complex processes and financial information.
• Display strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Work confidently and effectively in Microsoft Excel.

It is essential that the successful applicant has:

• Previous experience in a finance role.
• Extensive accountancy and financial management experience, preferably including a professional accountancy qualification (CCAB, CIMA or equivalent), or substantial progress towards gaining a qualification

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,670, Ministry of Defence contributes £15,570 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

During the application process you will be assessed against the following behaviours:

• Changing & Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Communicating & Influencing
• Delivering at Pace 

Please present your evidence using the S.T.A.R. format (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

When writing Behaviours, applicants are strongly advised to ensure that their submission uses the STAR format and demonstrates the behaviours detailed at G7 level in the Civil Service Success Profiles – Civil Service Behaviours booklet. Comprehensive coverage on Success Profiles can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles  

 In your application you only need to provide evidence of:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

 For the application candidates will be required to provide a CV, setting out your career history with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided any reasons for gaps in the last two years.  

 Candidates will also be required to submit a 750-word statement of suitability explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provides evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the criteria set out above.

 These cannot be uploaded to the advert. You will submit using the online templates provided on the CS Jobs dashboard.

 For the interview, candidates will be asked to prepare a short 5-minute presentation – the topic will be advised closer to the interview date.

 Part-time or Job-share will only be considered provided full time hours can be covered.

 A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk .

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.