Finance Assistant

Job summary

Do you have strong financial expertise and a passion for public service? If so, we want to hear from you.

The Finance & Procurement department is an essential team within Food Standards Scotland (FSS) which supports the organisation to deliver its statutory obligations and corporate priorities.

The Financial Assistant (FA) role is part of Finance & Procurement department and sits within the Financial Accounting team. The role will mainly be focused in Accounts payable, working as part of a team, supporting other colleagues and providing cover for other FAs in their absence.

Job description

• You will be the main point of contact for all invoicing, credit notes and related queries for FSS suppliers, ensuring invoices are reviewed and processed promptly, meeting specified SG targets.
• Working closely with the Management Accounting Team to ensure goods and services are receipted against the correct Purchase Orders (POs), within the Oracle Finance System.
• Collate and enter supplier invoices into the Oracle finance system, ensuring correct purchase order matching and resolving any disputed invoices.
• Developing and maintaining good working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders to deliver.
• Support the Assistant Financial Accountant t in the day‑to‑day management of FSS expenditure by developing a comprehensive understanding of team activities and financial processes.

Person specification

Success Profile:

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.

Experience:

• Proficient in using IT packages such as Excel and Word.

Behaviours:

• Communicating and influencing - Level 1
• Making Effective Decisions - Level 1
• Working together - Level 1
• Delivering at Pace - Level 1

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,174, Scottish Government contributes £8,741 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.Expected Timeline: (subject to change)
Interview - w/c 27 April 2026
Location - Microsoft Teams

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.

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

Job contact :

• Name : Gail Young
• Email : Gail.Young@fss.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot