Strategic Finance Manager
Food Standards Agency
About the job
Job summary
Are you a talented leader dedicated to helping your teams do their best work possible?
Are you looking to make a real, lasting difference through the delivery of high quality financial advice?
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is looking for a Strategic Finance Manager who will help teams across the organisation to make the right decisions and get the most out of the money they spend.
You will work alongside Strategy, Policy and Analyst colleagues to coordinate fiscal work across the organisation and ensure that the FSA is best equipped to make the most of its funding. As we move towards a new Spending Review, your input will help to define what we can achieve as an organisation.
Job description
You’ll excel at taking in the wider picture of the FSA’s work, delivering informed strategic advice and analysis that can guide our strategic direction and ensure we are prepared for the future. Data and analytics with play a central role in your work, and you’ll champion the use of information to guide our decision making and strategic planning. Through the delivery of briefings to senior leaders across the organisation, you’ll become a key voice in the FSA, and a trusted source of advice whose ideas have a real impact on the work that we do.
You’ll have a talent for building effective working relationships that empower the FSA’s work and enable us to make the most of our negotiations with the Treasury as we seek to secure the funding necessary to deliver our important work.
If you are a talented leader who can take an informed overview and refine it into effective strategic planning, and are excited by the opportunity to use your skills to help the FSA deliver safe food to consumers across the country, this is a fantastic opportunity to develop your career and make a real impact through your work.
Person specification
Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, our organisation, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.
We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £54,404, Food Standards Agency contributes £15,179 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.Full details of the selection process are detailed in the attached candidate pack. Application and shortlisting You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role. Technical: You will be asked a question to confirm that you meet the Technical requirements of the role. · Full or part-qualified CCAB or CIMA accountancy qualification or equivalent (consideration will be given to supporting full qualification for part-qualified staff) If you cannot answer yes to this question – you will not be able to proceed further with your application. You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential and desirable criteria. Essential criteria Experience · Lead criteria: Experience of providing strategic advice and analysis on financial impact, performance and risk to senior stakeholders. Within this, the ability to confidently critique and challenge stakeholders regarding their financial management and delivery. · Experience of leading others to deliver high quality, timely products in support of high-profile areas of an organisation, and to do so by working proactively, and confidently. · Comfortable and confident in working at pace, either independently or as part of a team, to manage a full workload with conflicting short and long-term priorities. · Experience of building and maintaining strong relationships with senior and wider stakeholders, bringing insight and influence to inform effective decision making. This will include delivery of high-quality written and oral briefings and recommendations to Senior Leaders / Boards / Ministers. Desirable criteria (Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie between candidates). Experience · Experience of delivering products in support of a Spending Review and/or other fiscal events. Lead Criteria An initial sift may take place on just the identified Lead Criteria indicated. In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the Lead Criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirements will be unaffected by the pass mark raise. Interview If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in which we will assess you against the following Civil Service Behaviours Level 4 Behaviours · Seeing the Big Picture · Leadership · Communicating and Influencing · Delivering at Pace · Working Together Full details of the positive indicators being assessed for each Behaviour can be found in the Candidate Pack. As part of the interview process, you will be asked to prepare a seen presentation. Further information will be provided to you on the day / invite to interview email. Expected Timeline Advert closes: 26/03/24 Sift: Expected to take place 27/03/24 Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 08/04/24 Interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams. (If you do not have the Microsoft Teams application installed on your computer, you can join on the web without installing the application.) Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change. The FSA is dedicated to a policy of equal opportunity for all. Being truly reflective of our society and building a culture where everyone can perform at their best is critical to the work of the FSA. We are looking to recruit from the widest possible talent pool and encourage candidates to apply from a diverse range of backgrounds. We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer and are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment and selection process and beyond. All appointments are made on merit. Please be assured that diversity or socio–economic information requested during the course of your application plays absolutely no part in our selection processes and is not seen by anyone assessing applications. Any information provided is anonymised and used for statistical purposes only. We actively review the deployment of talent on a periodic basis in the interests of optimising personal development and the achievement of business plans. Childcare Vouchers Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk Reserve List A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made. Candidates that do not pass the interview, but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade. Visa Sponsorship Please note that the FSA does not hold a licence to sponsor any visa applications and we are unable to provide any advice about visas. |
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
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.