About the job

Job summary

As Great Britain's regulator for the energy industry, Ofgem exists to ensure a safe, secure and sustainable energy supply to British households and businesses

This is an exciting opportunity for you to join Ofgem in a brand-new role in our newly established Financial supervision team. The Senior Financial Advisor will work within the Financial Resilience & Controls division to focus on financial resilience and undertake supervision of domestic and non-domestic energy suppliers.

As Senior Financial Advisor, you will provide high-quality advice and guidance on matters relating to energy trading, primarily evaluating suppliers’ strategies from risk and commercial perspectives. You will work collaboratively with members of the Supervision Team to support their contribution to the work plan provided at Ofgem. You will develop the financial skills required to assist the development of colleagues.

Working across the year with the Financial Supervision team, you will develop and deliver the supervisory strategy for your assigned suppliers. You will stay up to date with marketing movements and analysis ensuring you can provide insights into energy trading strategy for suppliers, and evaluate how suppliers manage, monitor and comply with regulations and risk exposures. With a keen attention to detail, you will produce high-quality documentation of all decisions and analyses.

We are seeking a candidate who has extensive experience gained through corporate trading or the wider energy trading arena. Thriving in a high-risk environment, you will have an immaculate understanding of risk management to efficiently identify, assess and mitigate market risks associated with energy trades. Ideally, we are seeking a candidate with a degree in finance, mathematics, economics or a relevant field. You will have the ability to communicate complex information and data simply and clearly. You will be an exceptional conversationalist who can manage key stakeholder relationships. This will include maintaining strong working relationships with a rage of internal and external stakeholders

If you're ready to make a transformative impact in the energy sector, apply now and become part of a committed team dedicated to a sustainable future.

Ofgem has a culture of inclusion that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues. It fuels our innovation and helps ensure we can best represent the consumers and the communities we serve. Everyone is welcome - as an inclusive workplace, our employees are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work.

Job description

Organisation Purpose  

The current energy market environment is unprecedented, with geopolitical issues leading to volatility in global energy prices. Now more than ever we need to go further and faster in pursuing the country’s climate goals and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to protect ourselves from similar future price shocks.  

Such challenging times require bold action. We are looking for people to meet the challenges we face head-on, and help us deliver a greener, fairer energy system. 

Team Purpose 

The Financial Resilience and Controls Directorate 

A financially resilient retail energy market will benefit consumers by ensuring a better balance of risks between supply licensees and consumers and, in doing so, reduce the likelihood and cost of widespread failures. A resilient, profitable, investable market is also essential for the sustainable competition Ofgem wants to see, where energy retailers have incentives to innovate in the pursuit of net zero and receive a reasonable profit as they drive up consumer service standards. 

The Financial Supervision team is a new, dynamic, friendly, and inclusive within the Financial Resilience and Controls Directorate. The supervision function will play a pivotal role in working with suppliers to understand and mitigate potential issues without the need for enforcement activity. It is envisaged to be done by furthering open, constructive and proactive relationships with suppliers, enabling Ofgem to deepen its understanding of suppliers’ financial risks and mitigating strategies, and form views and judgements based on analysis of a broader and more holistic base of evidence.    

Ofgem has a culture of inclusion that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues. It fuels our innovation and helps ensure we can best represent the consumers and the communities we serve. Everyone is welcome - as an inclusive workplace, our employees are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work.  

Purpose 

• This role is for a Senior Financial Adviser - Energy Trading expert in the Financial Supervision team. 
• It will sit in the Financial Resilience & Controls division that focuses on fostering financial resilience and undertakes supervision of domestic and non-domestic energy suppliers and be part of the Analysis Profession.  
• In our division, we have supervisors dedicated to the direct supervision of each UK licensed supplier. In addition, specialized supervisors may have particular areas of expertise and support all supervisors in carrying out in-depth analysis and evaluation in such areas.  

Person specification

Key Responsibilities of this Role 

• Provide high-quality advice and guidance on matters relating to energy trading, evaluating suppliers’ hedging strategy from a commercial and risk perspective. 

• As part of the Financial Supervision team, you will have the opportunity to develop and deliver the supervisory strategy for your assigned suppliers throughout the year. You will lead meetings with the firm, including with key Executives and Board members. 
• Engage with internal and external stakeholders on matters related to energy trading and impact of new policies.  

• Keep up to date with market movements and analysis: 

• Provide insight into suppliers’ energy trading strategies and risk framework; evaluate how suppliers manage, monitor, and comply with risk exposure and with regulations and reporting within the Energy Market 

• Prepare high quality documentation of all analysis and decisions. 

• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Supervision Team to support the team’s contribution to the overall Ofgem work plan. 
• Communicate complex financial information to a wide range of stakeholders. 
• Develop financial skills required for the development of colleagues. 

Essential Criteria

• Have extensive experience in your area of expertise gained through a corporate trading or other energy trading arena (Gas and Power trading). (LEAD) 
• Have good understanding of risk management to support in the effective identification, assessment, and mitigation of market risks associated with energy trading activities. 
• Understanding of the energy markets; derivative instruments and hedging techniques as well as options theory is preferred. 
• Degree in finance, mathematics, economics/relevant field or relevant commercial experience. 
• Ability to process and communicate complex information and data simply and clearly. 
• Stakeholder and relationship management – Experience of/ability to influence a range of internal and external stakeholders, with a track record of delivering results through building and maintaining strong working relationships. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,614, OFGEM contributes £12,315 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, Experience and Technical skills.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), your career history and qualifications.  

You will then be asked to provide a 1250 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential and desirable skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your supporting statement, how you meet each of the essential and desirable skills and capabilities. 

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expect all candidates to abide by these principles. Ofgem take any incidences of cheating very seriously. Please ensure all examples provided are of your own experience. Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant applications will be withdrawn from the process. 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.