Finance Business Partner (3288)

Job summary

Would you like a rewarding role in Finance, building on your budgeting and customer engagement skills?

The Scottish Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) administers around £1.5 billion of student funding annually on behalf of the Scottish Government and manages an organisational budget of approximately £22 million. As part of the Finance Directorate, the Finance and Business Partner role plays a pivotal part in supporting strong financial stewardship and strategic delivery within a complex public sector environment.

Working at the heart of programme and operational delivery, you will provide high‑quality financial reporting, analysis and advice, partnering closely with budget holders, Project Managers and senior stakeholders. This is an excellent opportunity to develop a career in the Civil Service, work towards a professional accountancy qualification, and gain broad exposure to budgeting, forecasting, project costing and stakeholder engagement during a period of significant organisational transformation.

Job description

• Deliver high quality monthly financial reporting to agreed timescales, providing accurate, relevant and insightful management information to support decision making.

• Provide clear financial advice and support to budget holders and senior stakeholders, building effective working relationships across SAAS and with colleagues in the wider Scottish Government.
• Contribute to corporate financial exercises in line with the annual timetable, including budget setting, forecasting and year end processes, ensuring robust working papers, clear audit trails and readiness for audit scrutiny.
• Support the integrity of the financial ledger through reconciliations, journal processing and regular review of financial data, ensuring accuracy and compliance with governance requirements.
• Review and challenge budget monitoring returns and forecasts, ensuring that assumptions are robust, explanations are evidence based and financial risks are clearly articulated.
• Contribute to maintaining strong financial control across the Agency, ensuring accounting and reporting processes are well documented, compliant and aligned to the Scottish Public Finance Manual.
• Work flexibly across resource and capital activity, including digital and transformation programmes, adapting quickly to shifting priorities in a fast paced environment.

Person specification

Professional / Technical Skills:

• Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing - Practitioner
• Government finance - Working

Experience:

• Demonstrated strong analytical capability, using a range of financial and data tools to interrogate complex information, identify trends and variances, and translate these into clear, evidence-based options and recommendations.

Behaviours:

• Working Together – Level 3

• Delivering at pace – Level 3

• Making Effective Decisions – Level 3

Qualifications

You should be part CCAB qualified (or equivalent)* or have an extensive financial expertise and be willing to work towards attaining such professional qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing - Practitioner
• Government finance - Working

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,767, Scottish Government contributes £11,520 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, Experience and Technical skills.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and Presentation.

Assessments are scheduled for w/c 18 May 2026 however this may be subject to change.

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 : Damien Klepacki
• Email : Damian.Klepacki@gov.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot