About the job

Job summary

The Financial Control Division (FCD) is a friendly, dynamic, and fast-paced team working at the heart of UK Export Finance. We are responsible for ensuring that effective financial control processes are in place. We coordinate the Department’s estimates, budgets and forecasting processes. We produce accurate and reliable monthly management accounts, annual accounts, and other published financial information. We manage the UKEF bank accounts, purchase ledger, fixed asset registers and the general ledger. We advise on accounting treatments, own the UKEF accounting policies and are working with others across the organisation and beyond to implement large-scale changes in our accounting policy, systems, and processes to operationalise IFRS 9 and IFRS 17.

Our friendly and collaborative team is growing to support a larger number of UK Exporters. Not only has the demand for UK Export Finance products significantly increased since the pandemic, but the business is operating in a more uncertain market than it has seen in a long time meaning activity on claims and recoveries is also increasing. It’s therefore an exciting time to join us as we support a business that is at the heart of delivering government export and trade policy to build the UK economy back stronger. We are also in a unique period of transition as we prepare to implement IFRS 9 and IFRS 17 accounting standards that will affect how we account for nearly all our front-line business. This will offer the successful applicant a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience, and indeed, help shape and contribute to this fundamental shift that involves implementing wide-reaching new processes and new finance systems, including a new general ledger and a calculation Engine.

Job description

In recent years, UKEF has expanded both in terms of the number of products offered and of volume and the total value of transactions. In addition, UKEF is preparing to implement significant changes to its reporting policies and processes because of the implementation of two new reporting standards (IFRS 17 and IFRS 9).

To support these changes, the IT infrastructure used to record and manage UKEF business is due to undergo large-scale change and expansion over the next few years with the implementation of new systems and the automation of more processes.

The primary responsibility of the Senior Finance Systems Accountant is to support the implementation and configuration of Aptitude and the interaction of it with the other new systems and processes; he/she will develop, support and maintain the new processes and procedures used to produce the monthly and quarterly management and yearly financial accounts; he/she will support and manage the data flows (via interfaces or manual) between Aptitude and various other systems and the General Ledger.

In the longer term, he/she will maintain and provide ongoing support to this expanded portfolio of systems used to manage billions of pounds worth of transactions each year.

Person specification

The primary purpose of the Senior Finance Systems Accountant is to manage and maintain the finance systems, specifically Aptitude Comply solution but with the opportunity to cross-train with other Finance and Reporting applications.

The role will have oversight of full Aptitude i.e. AICE (Aptitude Insurance Calculation Engine), AAH (Aptitude Accounting Hub) or AC (Aptitude Calculate) and management and user issues.

The roles will shadow the implementation team and will sit between the Project and BAU teams to support both the developers and the SMEs, during the configuration and development and till the go-live, at which point they will take charge of the new BAU systems.

Responsibilities:

• Work shadows the development team and support any changes to the Aptitude configuration;
• Coordinate SMEs and project team to make sure all requirements have been captured and acted upon;

• Support interfaces and associated reconciliations
• Answer complex queries from stakeholders/end users
• Support financial systems and data-related projects, including implementations
• Reviewing systems performance and identifying system issues
• Implement system controls to provide quality assurance over financial data
• Aid the design, testing and implementation of new reports
• Train and support finance and non-finance team members in the use of Aptitude
• Prepare system reconciliations
• Act as a subject matter expert in delivering Finance requirements
• Support any testing and new developments with training to hand to Finance teams on completion of projects
• Ensure Finance Process documentation remains up to date for any changes
• Support the preparation of systems information for the audit reports
• Manage the controls and user support processes;
• Become an expert in specific E2E processes;
• Ensure that Aptitude procedures and processes are fully documented;
• Engage with stakeholders to identify opportunities for improvement.

This list is not exhaustive, you may be required to carry out additional duties according to business need

 

Apprenticeship opportunities

This role may be open to apprenticeship opportunities on completion of probation. If successful, your line manager will discuss with you what apprenticeship options that may be available and whether you would like to pursue them. An apprenticeship provides a great opportunity to gain a professional qualification whilst working.

 

The essential criteria can be found in the person specification within the Information Pack attached below.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,890, UK Export Finance contributes £11,850 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, Ability, Experience and Technical skills.

We are assessing candidates using Success Profiles (see Appendix 1) and across the whole process we will assess your Experience, Ability, Technical aptitude and Behaviours as highlighted below.

You will be invited to complete the online application form.  The application form must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

All applications will be sifted against our minimum selection criteria outlined in the personal specification. 

You will be asked in the relevant sections of the application form to provide examples of evidence against a range of the success profiles (refer to appendix 1).  Where applicants are asked to apply with a personal statement, you should fully articulate in 500 words how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification within the Information Pack

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

1. Experience
2. Ability
3. Technical

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial interview; this will include the following assessment:

1. Behaviours/Technical/Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all four behaviours highlighted and your technical ability to successfully carry out the role.
2. Technical - a short presentation (this will be on a topic determined by UKEF and will need to be prepared in advance).

Details of interview panel members will be e-mailed to all successful candidates who are invited for interview.

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.