Functional Compliance Lead

We’re looking for a Functional Compliance Lead to join our ERP (Business Systems) team at West Northamptonshire Council. This is a key role in a complex, multi-organisation environment where compliance, transparency, and audit readiness are vital. You’ll act as the subject matter expert on statutory, financial, and audit compliance within our shared ERP environment, ensuring our systems meet legislative and regulatory expectations.

Reporting to the Compliance & Improvement Manager, you’ll be responsible for compliance assurance, risk identification, audit preparation and responses, and system integrity. You’ll work closely with stakeholders across Finance, Audit, and IT, as well as providing technical support and leadership to Compliance Officers and Analysts.

This is a great opportunity for someone with strong ERP compliance knowledge, a practical understanding of financial control frameworks, and an analytical mindset who’s confident working with stakeholders and complex audit challenges. If you’re looking for a high-impact role in a collaborative team, this could be the right fit.

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

• Responsible for statutory, financial and audit compliance within the Business Systems team

• Interpreting financial regulations and ensuring ERP configurations align to audit standards

• Designing, testing, and implementing controls to protect data integrity, access, and traceability

• Responding to internal and external audit queries and ensuring timely, accurate evidence is provided

• Supporting system changes and upgrades by overseeing compliance testing and risk assessments

• Driving improvements to compliance workflows in collaboration with Finance, Audit, and IT

• Providing day-to-day support, guidance and escalation for Compliance Analysts and Officers

• Supporting onboarding of new entities/systems from a compliance and governance perspective

You’ll bring:

• Strong experience of compliance or audit workstreams within ERP or finance systems

• A deep understanding of financial controls, audit expectations and statutory frameworks

• Confidence working across functions and with stakeholders including auditors and IT

• The ability to interpret complex regulations and apply them in a system context

• Proactive problem-solving, with a mindset focused on improvement and assurance

• Ideally, professional qualifications (e.g. AAT, ACCA, CIPFA, CISA, ITIL) or significant equivalent experience

You’ll be comfortable working in a multi-stakeholder environment and motivated by the challenge of protecting system integrity and driving up compliance standards across a shared service landscape.

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.

Hear more from our Chief Executive, Anna Earnshaw, about what its like to work at West Northants Council.

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential.  We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.