Management Reporting Excellence Manager

Job summary

Introduction

The Management Reporting function plays a central role in delivering high-quality, accurate, and insightful financial information across the Defra group. By transforming data into meaningful analysis, we enable senior leaders, corporate boards, and budget holders to make well‑informed decisions that support value for money, operational grip, and strategic outcomes. The Management Reporting Excellence (MRE) team sits at the heart of this mission, driving consistency, customer experience and continuous improvement across the group’s reporting services.

Job Purpose

The G7 Management Reporting Excellence Manager provides strategic leadership of a cross‑Defra management reporting service, ensuring high‑quality, consistent, timely, and user‑focused outputs across Core Defra and multiple Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs).

They lead a multi‑skilled team that delivers a process‑driven, continuously improving management reporting service, with emphasis on customer experience, standardisation, digital enablement, and effective collaboration with Finance Business Partners (FBPs), Financial Control, and wider Finance functions.

The postholder also has strategic oversight of the Finance Assist Query Management Tool, ensuring it delivers a streamlined, accessible and efficient route into Finance, supporting consistent workflows and high-quality service across the Directorate.

The role owns a portfolio of five critical service areas – Customer Experience; Reporting; Forecasting & Risks/Opportunities; Budgets & Recharges; and Continuous Improvement – ensuring alignment with the Director of Management Reporting & Analysis, the GCS Vision, and the needs of senior stakeholders.

Job description

Tasks

• Provide effective leadership including effective management and development of the Management Accountants. This will include setting objectives, actively and effectively communicating, managing performance, and creating an inclusive environment where people feel valued, respected, safe to challenge and where contribution is recognised.
• Lead the delivery of a high‑quality, consistent and user‑focused management reporting service across Core Defra and multiple ALBs, ensuring reporting outputs are timely, accurate and aligned to senior stakeholder needs.
• Provide strategic oversight of management reporting processes, ensuring reporting standards, templates, methodologies and data presentation approaches are continually refined to support clear, compelling and decision‑ready outputs.
• Ensure the team delivers intelligent analysis, drawing out key themes, linkages and dependencies across financial information, and provide clear narrative, insight and interpretation for senior leaders.
• Maintain awareness of the overall financial position across the supported business areas, ensuring key issues, risks and opportunities are highlighted early and effectively communicated to Finance Business Partners and senior stakeholders.
• Oversee the governance of month‑end processes, ensuring timelines are understood, quality standards are met, and operational delivery teams are supported to produce accurate and consistent outputs.
• Provide strategic leadership of the Finance Assist Query Management Tool, ensuring it acts as an effective single route into Finance and supports efficient workflows, visibility of demand, and improved customer experience.
• Manage a range of portfolios – Customer Experience; Reporting; Forecasting & Risk/Opportunities; Budgets & Recharges; and Continuous Improvement – ensuring delivery through teams, promoting involvement, and building knowledge across the Defra group.
• Lead the delivery of a continuous improvement culture, driving process optimisation, simplification, automation, digital adoption and the development of more consistent, user‑friendly services in line with GCS ambitions.
• Develop and maintain a detailed understanding of the management reporting audience, commissioning solutions that meet user needs and evolve in line with organisational priorities, maintaining regular feedback loops and service reviews.
• Ensure service metrics, KPIs and quality assurance frameworks are monitored and regularly reviewed, using insights to inform service development and ensure high performance across the MRE team.
• Work collaboratively with cross‑finance colleagues, including Financial Control, Strategic Finance and Business Intelligence, to ensure alignment of processes, data flows, reporting standards and customer experience.

Key Relationships

• Senior Civil Service budget holders
• Finance Business Partnering G6/G7 Leads
• Management Reporting G7 Partnering Lead
• Business Intelligence and data specialists
• Strategic Finance and Financial Operations colleagues
• ALB finance teams and cross‑departmental partners

Person specification

Interpersonal Skills

• Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills to provide a comprehensive, high quality finance service to partners
• Confidently and credibly communicate and challenge financial information with senior managers and decision-makers
• Develop collaborative relationships with key stakeholders e.g. Finance Business Partners, Compliance and Financial Accounts and senior budget holders (partners)
• Good leadership skills with the ability to effectively lead multiple virtual teams

Behaviours

For details of Behaviours read the Success Profiles guidance on GOV.UK.

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Professional Skills

Expert

· Data Analysis and Interpretation

· Finance Skills

Practitioner

· Advising, briefing and drafting Skills

· Strategic analysis and insight

· Good presentation skills

· Understanding of International Accounting Standards

· Understanding of Government Accounts

Typical qualifications & professional memberships

Essential:

• Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent, or
• Working towards qualification, and
• Financial experience over an extended period of time

Qualifications

You are qualified or pursuing a qualification with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent with a substantial track record of success in a finance leadership role in a fast-moving finance area in a highly complex, customer focused organisation.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

• A presentation or scenario based assessment
• Technical scenario based assessment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,375, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £16,331 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.

As part of the application process, the candidate will be asked to complete a CV, Personal Statement (previous skills and experience) and 250 words on the Behaviour "Communicating and Influencing".

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The candidate's CV needs to demonstrate they have undertaken similar roles and activities as shown in the job specification.

The candidate is also required to provide a 750 word max personal statement, which should detail their experience and suitability for the role, as well as have undertaken similar roles and activities as shown in the job specification.

Sift

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Interview

Candidate successful at sift stage will be invited to a video assessment/interview (1hour 20mins) that will consist of a presentation and an interview of Behaviours and Technical questions.

Your interview will be conducted by video.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Reserve List

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

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to DEFRA 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 defrarecruitment.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.

Accessibility

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

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

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.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Phillip Murthwaite-Bedding
• Email : phillip.murthwaite-bedding@defra.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here