Service Manager - Finance

Job summary

We are running an outreach session on 26th February to provide more information about the Neo Centre Office (NCO). You can sign up here - https://forms.office.com/e/wfGL4pe16a?origin=lprLink

At DSIT we’re all about improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Government’s 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving people’s lives. Whether it’s researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Find Out More

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application and interview process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://forms.office.com/e/Jae3B4w7xm

You can also follow our LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/dsitcareers/

Job description

The Matrix Programme is a transformation initiative involving 7 Government Departments (listed at the end). It is a unique cross-government collaboration that will unlock simpler, better, and more joined up working by bringing together the systems, processes, and ways of working for key government functions.

Over the coming months we’ll be preparing to roll out Neo, our powerful new HR and Finance technology and service for the Matrix cluster - driving a more modern, digital government. The first Departments will go live in June 2026. Neo is a cloud-based system, powered by Workday that will replace legacy HR and finance technology and offline processes across multiple Government Departments and associated Arm’s-Length Bodies. Designed to streamline administrative activities and promote intuitive self-service, Neo is enabling time back to focus on what we value the most – serving the public. Moreover, Neo’s adoption means we are harnessing the power of shared technology at scale.

This unified way of working delivers better, more accurate data - eliminating errors, creating one trusted source of truth and accurate reporting. Neo is more than just a new system; it’s enabling us to be data-led, to work smarter, respond faster and deliver services that truly meet the needs of the public.

The Neo Centre Office (NCO) is the strategic service management function for the Neo Service. Hosted within Integrated Corporate Services (ICS), its purpose is to monitor, direct, and advise on the delivery of the Neo service, ensuring it operates efficiently and meets performance expectations. It provides central oversight, enabling consistent service quality, timely issue resolution, and continuous improvement. By acting as a governance and coordination hub, the function ensures alignment with strategic objectives, fosters stakeholder confidence, and supports the seamless delivery of Neo across all relevant departments.

Whilst the NCO will be hosted within ICS, some roles are temporarily aligned to the programme (hosted within Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)) until all departments are fully onboarded. Whilst the NCO will have employees hosted across both ICS and DSIT, it operates as one unified team and plays a vital role within the ICS organisation.

The Departments forming the Matrix Programme include Cabinet Office (CO), Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Department for Education (DfE) and His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT).

The Role

Responsible for the overall ownership and accountability of a specific service or set of services, ensuring they meet the agreed-upon business requirements and deliver value to customers. In addition to service ownership, the Global Process Owner (GPO) is accountable for process convergence and integrity across the Neo/ICS model including the underpinning enabling services capabilities, as well as the efficiency roadmap. They act as a critical bridge between departments, the NCO, and suppliers—driving efficiency, protecting standardisation and scalability while ensuring departmental needs are met. The GPO works closely with departments, technology teams, and shared service providers to ensure services are delivered on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards, while maintaining alignment with the broader process architecture and strategic goals.

This Service Manager role will have a specialism in Finance:

• Finance Operations (Source to Contract, Purchase to Pay, Order to Cash, Cash Management, Expenses, Grants Administration, Financial Consolidation)
• Decision Support (Planning Budgeting & Forecasting, Project Accounting, R2R Management Reporting)
• Report and Control (Record to Report, Non-Current Assets, Tax)
• Customer Experience

Please note, this role is being recruited to in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). During 2027, it is expected that this role will move department into Integrated Corporate Services (ICS), which is hosted by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ). The move between departments will be managed via the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSoP) for staff transfers in the public sector.

Key Responsibilities

Service delivery oversight:

• Monitor service performance against Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and user satisfaction metrics.
• Ensure suppliers are delivering services in line with contractual obligations and agreed service levels.
• Escalate operational issues to the GPO and support resolution through structured governance processes.
• Track service consumption and demand to inform funding models, charging mechanisms, and capacity planning.

Service documentation & taxonomy management:

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date service documentation, including process maps, service descriptions, and taxonomy updates.
• Ensure changes resulting from governance, change management, or departmental feedback are reflected in service artefacts.
• Work with the GPO and service designers to ensure documentation aligns with the ICS operating model and Neo standards.
  

User engagement & feedback:

• Collect, analyse, and report on user feedback to identify service gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Support the GPO in translating departmental needs into service catalogue updates and prioritised enhancements.
• Facilitate user engagement activities such as surveys, workshops and feedback loops.

Continuous improvement & innovation:

• Analyse Management Information (MI), performance data, and user insights to identify trends and opportunities for service improvement.
• Work with suppliers and internal teams to implement enhancements, automation, and innovation initiatives.
• Contribute to benefits realisation by tracking service outcomes and supporting value delivery assessments.
  

Supplier assurance & risk management:

• Support the GPO in assuring that suppliers have robust issue, risk, change and release management processes.
  
• Participate in supplier governance forums and contribute to performance reviews and improvement planning.
  
• Maintain awareness of service risks and contribute to mitigation strategies and contingency planning.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience in managing day-to-day service delivery in complex, multi-supplier environments.
• Ability to monitor performance against SLAs and KPIs and escalate issues appropriately, understanding of supplier assurance practices, including issues and risk management, change control, and performance reporting.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, team player, with a track record of working across departments and suppliers.
• Understanding of service governance structures and risks management practices, relevant policies, procedures, and regulatory frameworks within the chosen specialism.
• Strong analytical skills with experience interpreting service performance data, user feedback, identifying trends, translating user needs into actionable improvements.
• Experience using process modelling and optimisation tools (e.g. Microsoft Visio, Celonis, ARIS, Signavio, or similar) and analytics tools.
• Relevant professional qualifications or certifications in finance: either ACCA, CIMA, or similar.

Desirable Criteria

• Lean Six Sigma, Design Thinking/ Lean UX, ITIL v4 foundation would be beneficial.
• Experience supporting large-scale change programmes, including service redesign, process optimisation, or system implementation.

Qualifications

Relevant professional qualifications or certifications in finance: either ACCA, CIMA, or similar. If you have any queries regarding eligibility, please contact the contact email address for candidates listed on the job advert.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Financial Analysis and Strategy. Please see framework link here

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,415, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £11,708 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

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, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement.

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

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 750 words) to explain how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed however these will not be considered in the assessment of your application except in circumstances where there are a high number and calibre of candidates.

Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement only.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour, technical and strength-based questions.

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

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

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

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

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

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.

Feedback

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.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 : Matrix Resourcing Team
• Email : matrixresourcing@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DSITrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk . If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)