Head of Finance (Agency) (5081)

Job summary

The Head of Finance (Agency) is accountable for leading SAAS Agency Finance, Procurement, Fraud and Recovery functions, ensuring effective financial stewardship, operational delivery, robust financial governance and high quality performance reporting to the SAAS Executive Team and Board. This includes overseeing and delivering the SAAS Annual Report and Accounts, all elements of the statutory audit and leading annual budget processes and in year budget management support for the Agency with a focus on ensuring value for money.

You will provide excellent leadership, professional finance expertise and authoritative advice to support evidence based financial decision-making by the SAAS Senior Management Team, SAAS Board and Ministers.

As a member of the Senior Management Team, you will lead and represent the finance function, contribute to corporate strategy and organisational performance, and provide constructive challenge and support to the Executive Team/Board

The Head of Finance (Agency) is accountable for leading SAAS Agency Finance, Procurement, Fraud and Recovery functions, ensuring effective financial stewardship, operational delivery, robust financial governance and high quality performance reporting to the SAAS Executive Team and Board. This includes overseeing and delivering the SAAS Annual Report and Accounts, all elements of the statutory audit and leading annual budget processes and in year budget management support for the Agency with a focus on ensuring value for money.

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, we help higher and further education students find the right information, support and funding. SAAS manages an operating budget of approximately £15million and administers approximately £1.5 billion of student funding on behalf of Scottish Government.

The Head of Finance (Agency) role carries significant responsibility for financial stewardship, governance, control and assurance across Finance, Procurement, Fraud and Recoveries, you will work closely with the Head of Finance (Programme) role.

Job description

Responibilities

• Lead and manage a professional Finance function, creating an environment where colleagues develop their expertise, provide high-quality advice and deliver services that support effective organisational leadership.
• Champion continuous professional development, professional excellence and a culture of integrity, accountability and continuous improvement in systems and controls.
• Build trusted relationships with Scottish Government, auditors, regulators, oversight bodies and professional networks, recognising that effective financial stewardship depends upon collaboration, openness and constructive challenge.
• Provide high quality, professional technical accounting and budgeting advice, analysis and scrutiny of financial proposals to a range of stakeholders and contribute to future business strategies.
• Present complex financial information clearly both verbally and in writing to support organisational decision making, including providing advice on financial implications of policy developments within Scottish Government.
• Oversee the preparation and delivery of the Annual Report and Accounts and all associated tasks in accordance with the FReM and other accounting guidelines and regulations. Lead the statutory audit, engaging effectively with all aspects of the audit to deliver within agreed timeframes.
• Work with the Programme finance lead to provide a holistic, whole system approach to financial stewardship and continuous improvement of the Agency's financial management provision, ensuring robust financial controls, effective governance and sustainable financial planning support the delivery of organisational priorities.

Person specification

Qualifications
The successful candidate must be fully CCAB qualified with up-to-date CPD and relevant post qualified experience in an accountancy environment.Success Profiles
Success Profiles have been developed by the Professions and can be found in the Job Profile for the individual role.

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.

Technical / Professional Skills

• Financial Management and Reporting - (Level: Expert)
• Stakeholder Management and Communication - (Level: Expert)
• People Management and Operational Leadership - (Level: Expert)

You can find out more about the skills required here: Finance Profession Capability Framework

Experience

1. Strong technical financial accounting and governance skills, including the ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and succinctly to a wide range of audiences, including to non-finance colleagues.
2. Experience of implementing and managing effective, sustainable change, modifying and improving behaviours, systems and controls.
3. Strong planning and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage a diverse workload and team, including providing effective leadership to finance teams with direct line management of staff.
   

Behaviours

• Seeing the bigger picture (Level 4)
• Delivering at Pace (Level 4)
  

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here.

Qualifications

The successful candidate must be fully CCAB qualified with up-to-date CPD and relevant post qualified experience in an accountancy environment.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Financial Management and Reporting - (Level: Expert)
• Stakeholder Management and Communication - (Level: Expert)
• People Management and Operational Leadership - (Level: Expert)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £62,111, Scottish Government contributes £17,993 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• 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.Apply using the link below

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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 : Victoria Bowman
• Email : victoria.bowman@gov.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot