Head of Finance

Job summary

We’re a public body of around 200 people, with our headquarters in central Reading. The TRA carries out investigations into unfair trading practices and recommends measures to the Secretary of State. We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced individual to lead the TRA’s Finance function, which is integral to support the organisation to deliver its Strategic Objectives, acting as an influential leader to both the TRA’s corporate function and across the wider organisation.

The Head of Finance:

• Safeguards public money by driving strong stewardship, governance, assurance and internal controls across the TRA — ensuring propriety, regularity, value for money, transparency, effective audit support, and full accountability to the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) and Parliament, including delivery of the annual accounts.
• Leads the TRA’s financial strategy and provides specialist advice, overseeing strategic financial planning, spending review inputs, budgeting, reporting and financial risk management. Provides clear, timely insight on cost drivers, trends and risks to support sound decisions and long‑term sustainability.
• Manages and develops a high‑performing Finance Team, ensuring excellent financial operations — accurate accounting, budgeting, forecasting, cash management and robust controls — aligned to Government Functional Standards, Treasury guidance and Cabinet Office controls.
• Acts as a senior leader across the TRA, shaping culture, influencing organisation‑wide decisions and role‑modelling TRA values to create an inclusive, supportive and empowering workplace.

Job description

Key Accountabilities

The post-holder will:

Lead the Organisation’s Financial Planning & Reporting

• Lead financial strategy and planning — develop and deliver TRA’s financial strategy, Spending Review inputs, annual budgets and in‑year management to ensure strong financial performance against allocated budgets.

Support Decision Making through Insightful Advice

• Provide clear, strategic financial advice to Executive Committee and budget holders— translate complex and evolving financial data, trends and risks into simple, actionable insight for informed decision‑making and effective resource allocation.
• Deliver robust financial analysis — produce high‑quality modelling and finance cases that support investment decisions, business cases and long‑term sustainability.

Safeguard Public Funds and Parliamentary Accountability

• Embed strong compliance and governance — promote adherence to financial regulations, Managing Public Money, Government Functional Standards and other public‑sector requirements, supporting budget holders to understand and uphold them.
• Strengthen internal controls and manage risk — maintain effective financial controls and proactively manage finance, accounting and fraud risks.
• Ensure high‑quality financial reporting — lead production of the annual accounts and secure an unqualified NAO audit opinion, working closely with colleagues on the Annual Report and Accounts.

Build & Maintain Relationships for Successful Delivery

• Collaborate across the TRA and with external partners, supporting and upskilling colleagues, listening to feedback and continuously improving financial processes and decision‑making capability. Build strong stakeholder relationships with senior leaders, ARAC, the Board, GIAA, NAO, DBT, shared services and the wider government finance community.

Manage and lead the Finance Team

• Lead and develop the Finance Team — support, manage and grow a team of five, ensuring delivery of high‑quality, trusted financial services.
• Set direction and enable improvement — provide clarity of purpose, manage delivery risks, ensure good segregation of duties and encourage innovation and continuous improvement.
• Build capability — develop the skills and capacity needed to run an effective finance function within the required compliance and control framework.
• Oversee shared services and partnerships — jointly manage UKSBS service delivery with the Head of People and maintain the operational relationship with DBT Finance.

Person specification

Personal Attributes & Skills

As Head of Finance, you will be able to demonstrate strong skills:

• Collaborating and partnering, working collectively across the TRA and with external stakeholders.
• Listening, adapting and improving, drawing on feedback to strengthen processes and outcomes.
• Seeing the bigger picture, focusing on key drivers, interdependencies and risks.
• Building capability and confidence, upskilling colleagues, reinforcing a compliance‑led culture and applying flexibility to find pragmatic, well‑governed solutions.

Essential Experience:

• CCAB body (or CIMA) fully qualified accountant.
  If your membership has lapsed but you have previously fully qualified as an accountant, we will consider your application if you clearly state that, and the reasons for your qualification having lapsed. Note that any offer of employment with the TRA would be conditional on renewing your membership in line with your accountancy body requirements.
• Have demonstrable experience of ensuring strong financial controls in a public body, demonstrating expert knowledge of the financial and accounting environment and standards required.
• Have produced, or significantly input to producing, a set of annual financial accounts for a public body, externally audited with an unqualified opinion.
• Have managed a finance team and motivated and developed the team and self to be high performing.
• Have experience in providing financial management and accounting information to senior management, Boards and audit committees/ARACs to influence decision making and assurance.

Preferred Experience (but not essential):

Experience of working in the sponsoring relationship of an arm’s length body or in the Finance Team of an arm’s length body.

Qualifications

CCAB body (or CIMA) fully qualified accountant.
If your membership has lapsed but you have previously fully qualified as an accountant, we will consider your application if you clearly state that, and the reasons for your qualification having lapsed. Note that any offer of employment with the TRA would be conditional on renewing your membership in line with your accountancy body requirements.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,822, Trade Remedies Authority contributes £20,227 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Please refer to the candidate pack attached for further information.

Useful Information for Existing Civil Servants:

Existing Civil Servants should note that working for the TRA, you will be employed as a public servant. This means:

This vacancy is for a position in the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). TRA employees are not Civil Servants. Individuals applying for this role from the Civil Service are advised to review terms prior to accepting the offer. Key terms are outlined in the benefits section of this advert (these are not exhaustive). Individuals can also discuss with hiring managers and the TRA People Team on resourcing.enquiries@traderemedies.gov.uk.

Your continuity of service for employment protection will start on the day you join us. We are not an employer of the Crown and therefore cannot recognise previous employment with the Civil Service for the purpose of qualifying for Employment Rights. An employee must have 2 years’ length of service with TRA before Employment Rights are recognised.

If you are a member of the Civil Service Pension scheme, your membership and reckonable service will continue with us, providing there is no break between your Civil Service employment and your employment as a public servant with TRA.

We will recognise the annual leave you have built up, up to a maximum of 30 days, and the sick pay entitlement taking account of your length of service in the Civil Service.

If you choose to re-join the Civil Service at any point in the future, this will be according to the policies of the department you are joining following your resignation from TRA. You may also wish to be aware that under Exception 5 of the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles, the re-employment of a former Civil Servant is possible within a maximum of five years of leaving the Civil Service, subject to qualifying criteria being met and depending on the policies of the department you are joining.

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, Strengths and Experience.

To Apply:

Stage 1 – CV and supporting statement.

1. Your up-to-date CV (no more than 3 x A4 pages)
2. A supporting statement of no more than 750 words demonstrating how you align with the essential criteria for the role.

Applications will receive one combined score based on the personal statement and CV. Where all essential criteria are met, the highest scoring applications will be shortlisted for Stage 2 of the assessment. We expect to interview around 6 candidates.Please note if more than 20 applications are received, an initial sift of your personal statement, focusing on your leading experience of ensuring strong financial controls in a public body and demonstrating expert knowledge of the financial and accounting environment and required standards, will take place.

Stage 2- Engagement Panel and Interview

This stage of the assessment will consist of the following parts, which should help you to get a better understanding of the TRA, as well as us assess you for the skills, experience and behaviours we’re looking for:

1. A 45-minute online engagement panel. You’ll be asked to give a presentation followed by an open discussion, being with a small group of fellow senior managers who you’d collaborate and partner with day-to-day, plus some Finance Team representatives. The presentation topic is: “How I would build my understanding of the TRA’s finances, business needs, risks and opportunities for efficiency”.

This session will not be scored.

2. An interview (expect approximately 1hr) in person at our office in Reading, for which we’d give you a fuller briefing in advance. It would include your presentation from the stakeholder engagement session plus any follow-on areas of probing raised by that session.

The behaviours to be assessed in the interview are leadership, seeing the big picture, making effective decisions and managing a quality service. This will be followed by two strength-based questions; however, due to he nature of these questions you will receive no further details on them prior to the interview.

Your responses in the interview will be scored.

Timeline:

Advert closes: 23 March 2026

Sift commencing: 25 March 2026

Staff Engagement Exercise: 13-14 April 2026

Interviews: 16-17 April 2026

The staff engagements panel will be held online via Microsoft Teams. The Interview will be held in person in our Reading office. You will be provided with further details if you are selected for interview.

The director of Corporate Services Steve O’Donoghue is offering the opportunity for an informal chat before applying. Please email Angelica Wright- Angelica.Wright@traderemedies.gov.uk if you would like to arrange this.

Further Information

We are Inclusive

We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request adjustments.

Near Miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be offered a post at the grade below the one advertised.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to TRA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via TRArecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

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

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

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

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 : Steve O’Donoghue
• Email : Steven.O'Donoghue@traderemedies.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment is on merit based on fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles, which can be found at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/20…. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, please contact: resourcing.enquiries@traderemedies.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission (at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/civilserv…).

Attachments

Candidate Pack (3) Opens in new window (pdf, 368kB)