Deputy Director, Finance Business Partner

Job summary

Here at DESNZ we are delivering our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower, with clean electricity by 2030 and accelerating the UK’s journey to net zero. Our work is helping ensure clean energy for all, keep bills down and seize the opportunities to lead the world in new green industries.

DESNZ Finance is at the forefront of the Department’s work, as a key enabler of the Secretary of State’s policy objectives. We are recruiting to two vital leadership vacancies in our Finance Business Partner team.

Job description

Finance Business Partner Deputy Director, Major Infrastructure and Nuclear Finance

You will be responsible for all financial advice and oversight for over £90 billion of expenditure over the Spending Review period for our Nuclear, CCUS & Hydrogen, Net Zero Innovation and International portfolios. This includes mega projects Sizewell C and the Carbon Capture and Storage networks, Small Modular Reactors, developing a hydrogen store and power station, fusion including the new demonstrator facility (“STEP”), the work of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and our international development finance (ODA).

Our major projects blend public and private finance and you will use your financial expertise to ensure that the department takes the optimum path, with an appropriate balance between consumer and taxpayer funding. You will have a good grip on financial strategy development (e.g. what is the best approach to funding new nuclear power) as well as on contemporary detail and challenges (e.g. how to design, fund and account for our hydrogen business models).

Finance Business Partner Deputy Director, Markets and Consumer Finance

You will be responsible for financial advice and oversight for DESNZ’s work with households, including the £13.2bn manifesto commitment to the Warm Homes Plan funded at the 2025 Spending Review, and work to reduce household energy bills. You also cover DESNZ work on gas and refined products markets and security, our historical liabilities in fossil fuel extraction, and partnering work on parts of the electricity system.

As the energy system is highly integrated, you will work closely not only with the policy and delivery areas you partner, but also with other finance deputy directors, strategy, commercial, and other professionals to ensure the department makes the best possible use of financial levers in the round. The team’s work extends well beyond traditional government finance and includes advising on loans and other investment approaches, regulatory finance and helping identify where non-financial levers would reduce costs or improve outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure SROs for policies and programmes receive excellent financial advice such that DESNZ programmes are likely to succeed: meet strategic objectives, well-planned and governed, deliverable, value for money, affordable and correctly accounted for.
• Provide the Accounting Officer with clear, balanced and pragmatic advice where action or inaction by the department presents a significant risk to his duties.
• Ensure key financial / HMT issues are brought out, understood, escalated if necessary, and resolved, including liaising and negotiating with HMT.
• Improve the business’ ability to plan and forecast accurately, with clarity of the connection between finance and delivery of outputs and outcomes.
• Work with other professions, notably analysis and delivery, to provide the best, integrated expert advice.
• Ensure your diverse team is engaged, motivated and delivering at its best, with a commitment to continuous improvement.
• Play a full role in the Finance Directorate’s Senior Leadership Team and wider Government Finance Function. This will include providing duty cover for emergencies as part of a rota

Person specification

Within your CV and Statement of Suitability, it is important that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:

Essential

• A track record of providing excellent advice at pace to secure effective delivery and value for money for the public.
• Building strong collaborative relationships at senior levels which deliver good outcomes even when objectives may be in conflict (e.g. when negotiating over cuts).
• Outstanding ability to communicate (orally and written) a complex financial picture with clarity and accuracy to the most senior decision-makers, and building this capability in the department.
• Ability to be on top of the financial detail, e.g. that the numbers are always right, ensure that complex budgeting / financial rules imposed by HMT are complied with.
• Ability to develop and lead a diverse and high-performing team, building professional capability to deliver results both in the short and long term.
• High level of resilience, managing ambiguity and challenge whilst working at pace and under pressure.

Desirable

• A full accountancy qualification (CCAB, CIMA or equivalent) is desirable, though part-qualified applicants and/or those with substantial experience in public spending control (e.g. in HMT) will also be considered if committed to qualification.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period. Senior Civil Servant (SCS) staff are expected to aim for closer to 60% of the time at an office or non-home based location over the accounting period.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to apply

To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55, Tuesday 7th February 2026. As part of the application process you are asked to complete the following:

1. A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability (no more than 1,000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to undertake an assessment as part of this recruitment prior to a final interview panel:

• A staff engagement exercise: a structured exercise which involves shortlisted candidates facilitating a discussion with a selection of staff from the Department on a given topic.

These assessments will not result in a “pass” or “fail” decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

4. Final Interview

For further information on the application process and an overview on what to expect, please visit the Civil Service Careers website.

Overview of the Process

Government Recruitment Service will acknowledge your application and advise you of the outcome of the sift meeting. Depending on the number of applications received there may be a second stage sift.

Applications will be sifted to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please ensure you keep this in mind when writing your CV and supporting statement.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Arrangements for interview

The final selection panel interview will be held in person in London.

If candidates are required to prepare a presentation for their interview, they will be given at least one week’s notice of the subject.

Expenses incurred by candidates during the recruitment process will not be reimbursed by the Department except in exceptional circumstances and only when agreed in advance.

Indicative Timeline

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. If you are unable to meet these timeframes, please let us know by contacting scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Please ensure you quote the job title and reference number in your email.

Interviews will be held in person in London. Candidates are asked to note the timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process. The anticipated timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date: 23:55, Tuesday 7th April 2026

Shortlist Announcement: Friday 10th April 2026

Assessments: Friday 17th April 2026

Interviews: w/c 27th April 2026

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment
• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/

Attachments

453226 -Deputy Director, Finance Business Partner FINAL CIP Opens in new window (pdf, 960kB)453226 - Deputy Director, Finance Business Partner - Accessibility Pack Opens in new window (docx, 217kB)