Deputy Finance Director, MSHQ

Ministry of Defence

United Kingdom

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Finance

Flexible

£90,000 per year

Job summary

The Deputy Finance Director is a senior Finance leader at the centre of decision-making within the Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ), operating across a c.£30bn Defence portfolio. This is not a traditional finance role. It is about understanding what sits behind the numbers and clearly explaining the “so what” to senior military leaders making complex, high‑stakes decisions. The postholder turns financial data into clear, practical insight, helping leaders understand choices, risks and consequences across capability, readiness and investment. In a high‑demand environment with competing priorities, the role brings consistency, pace and strong judgement to ensure decisions are grounded in robust financial understanding and deliver value for money. Working across multiple Commands, often without direct line management, the Deputy Finance Director operates through influence to shape outcomes at the highest level. The role strengthens budgetary control, risk management and the quality of financial analysis, ensuring leaders have a clear and consistent view of performance across a complex organisation. As a key member of the Finance senior leadership team, the postholder provides trusted advice and constructive challenge to CDS, VCDS and other senior stakeholders, shaping strategy, planning and investment decisions. They also play a visible leadership role in strengthening governance, stewardship and financial discipline across MSHQ and wider Defence. The role starts with a small team and will build a new Finance function supporting around 500–600 personnel. The postholder will set direction, establish standards and shape how Finance operates within MSHQ, with scope to influence the future finance operating model and wider transformation.

Nick Gordon, the Vacancy Holder, will be offering an online Q&A session on Wednesday 24th June at 11:00 to provide an overview of the role and welcome any questions you may have. Candidates can access the meeting by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. If you have any issues accessing the session, please contact: People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

Job description

Key responsibilities include

Leading financial strategy and shaping inputs to planning and investment decisions
Overseeing in‑year financial management, forecasting and longer‑term planning
Ensuring strong governance, approvals and compliance with Managing Public Money standards
Acting as a trusted adviser to senior leaders, using clear analysis and constructive challenge to shape decisions
Creating, leading and developing a high‑performing finance team to drive improvements in financial insight, systems and processes
Strengthening alignment across Defence
Deputising for the Finance Director at senior forums

Person specification

Candidates must demonstrate and evidence:

Ability to translate financial complexity into clear decisions
Experience interpreting complex financial data and explaining the “so what” to senior leaders, linking spend to capability, readiness, risk and delivery outcomes.
Strong budget management, financial control and risk management
Experience managing large budgets, delivering accurate forecasting, maintaining effective cost control and managing financial risk in complex and fast‑paced environments.
Application of strategic finance to shape priorities and decisions
Evidence of influencing investment, planning and resource decisions by setting out clear options, impacts and consequences.
Ability to deliver consistent, high-quality financial analysis and insight
Evidence of improving the quality, consistency and clarity of financial reporting and analysis to support decision-making.
Experience of driving improvement and transformation in Finance
Evidence of improving financial processes, systems or ways of working, using innovation to strengthen how finance operates and supports the organisation.
Senior leadership, innovation and building capability
Experience leading through ambiguity to establish or develop a finance function, driving innovation in how finance operates as a service and improving systems, insight and ways of working.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent or working towards qualification.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £90,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £26,073 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process no later than 23:55 on Sunday 28th June and will involve providing the two documents which are weighted equally:

A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) providing tangible examples that clearly evidence how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact People-CivHR-SCSCandidateSupport@mod.gov.uk.

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 meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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.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

Salary range

£90,000 per year