Strategic Finance Advisor

Job summary

Are you a natural communicator with the ability to tailor your communication approach to suit your audience? Are you able to build strong relationships that will enable you to influence and challenge at all levels?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Strategic Finance Advisor to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!

Strategic Finance Remediation is a small, high-performing team within the Buildings Fire and Resilience Group, leading one of the government’s most critical programmes: fixing unsafe cladding and making homes safe for thousands of residents. Our team embeds strong financial management across the remediation portfolio, enabling effective long-term planning and ensuring decisions are robust and evidence-based.

We are looking for an exceptional individual to join us to help us deliver a multi-billion pound portfolio that truly impacts lives. This is not a conventional finance role, you will need to combine numerical expertise with strong written and communication skills, and thrive in a fast moving, ambiguous environment. Some tasks are structured, but many are not, so agility is important, as often you will be pivoting between tasks such as management reporting, drafting ministerial papers, and engaging with key stakeholders such as HM Treasury and Homes England. Energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to work at pace to help resolve real world issues are just as important as technical ability. You will join and be supported by a small, friendly, and collaborative team that works closely together to deliver results. This role reports directly to the Head of Strategic Finance.

Job description

As the Strategic Finance Advisor your responsibilities will include:

• Consolidate a range of financial datasets to produce both in-year and multi-year insights at portfolio level. Utilising this data to prepare reports and narrative for relevant Boards, delivering timely insights that articulate the financial narrative and support informed decision making.
• Contribute to robust financial forecasting and commitment planning at portfolio level, ensuring projections align with departmental budget priorities and fiscal rules.
• Manage ad hoc financial returns, including quarterly Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) returns to National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).
• Champion continuous improvement in financial management by designing efficient reporting processes and driving the consolidation of budgets and business planning at the portfolio level.
• Prepare high quality briefings for senior leaders and Ministers, supporting strategic finance discussions and decisions.
• Lead responses to ad hoc enquiries, including Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests, delivering timely and accurate solutions.
• Provide strategic finance expertise into key projects within the portfolio to ensure decisions are financially sound and adhere to robust governance standards. For example supporting the development and refresh of key remediation business cases, including the Remediation Full Business Case as required, maintaining alignment with strategic objectives and governance standards.
• Build strong collaborative relationships across the remediation portfolio working closely with delivery teams, strategy, performance, policy, and finance colleagues to drive alignment and support business objectives.
• Maintain a comprehensive team directory, ensuring accuracy and a clear audit trail of key financial figures for transparency and accountability.
• Provide flexible support across the strategic finance team, deputising for colleagues as required and covering absences. Take ownership of ad hoc duties within the wider team to ensure continuity and delivery of priorities.

Person specification

• Interest in Strategic Finance - Have a strong interest in strategic financial management; a CCAB or CIMA qualification is desirable.
• Strategic Advisory Experience – Proven ability to provide high-level advice and analysis on financial impact, performance, and risk to senior stakeholders. Able to act as a critical friend, constructively challenging financial management and delivery where appropriate.
• Numerical and Analytical Skills – Highly numerate with experience in interpreting and presenting complex financial data clearly and effectively and tailored to different audiences.
• Excellent Communication Skills – Strong written and verbal skills, capable of producing clear, impactful briefings and reports for Ministers and senior officials, and contributing key messages across a range of materials for diverse audiences.
• Stakeholder Engagement – Skilled at building and maintaining strong relationships across the Department and with external stakeholders, using diplomacy, problem solving, and a proactive “can-do” approach.
• Independent and Proactive Working – Able to work confidently and passionately on high profile areas, ensuring timely and high quality delivery of outputs.
• Adaptability and Resilience – Comfortable working at pace, managing competing priorities and shifting deliverables in a dynamic environment.
• Motivation and Learning Agility – Highly motivated, enthusiastic self-starter with a willingness to learn and adapt quickly. Embraces new technologies, including AI enabled tools, to enhance communication, collaboration, and insight generation across teams.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,076, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £13,058 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths , Technical

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page

In your CV and covering letter, please include:
a. why you are interested in the role;
b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace.
• Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a written exercise - further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 26/01.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 09/02 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

Allowances

For qualified chartered accountants an additional accounting allowance of £4,000pa will also be paid. In order to receive this allowance, you must be fully qualified and in a qualifying post as agreed by the Finance Head of Profession.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

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.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

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 : Claire Shakespeare
• Email : Claire.shakespeare@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk