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Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature– Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places– Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing– Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature– Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

The Role

The Principal Finance Officer role sits within the Landscape Recovery team in Operations. Landscape Recovery (LR) is one of three Environmental Land Management schemes, alongside Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship. It supports landowners and managers to deliver large-scale, transformational change for nature, bringing together multiple partners to restore landscapes over the long term. Following a two-year development phase, projects submit detailed delivery plans that must pass through a rigorous assurance process before securing 20+ years of public investment.

Job description

We are looking for a Principal Finance Officer who will provide leadership and oversight of the finance workstream. They will lead on financial approaches for the programme, including payment models, processes and financial management, ensuring these are effective, proportionate and support delivery at scale. Working closely with the wider Landscape Recovery partnership (Defra, Environment Agency, Forestry Commission) and colleagues across Natural England, they will help ensure strong financial controls and clear processes are in place, and that financial considerations are embedded in programme design and decision-making.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Provide leadership and oversight of the Landscape Recovery Finance function across Development and Implementation, setting direction and ensuring delivery aligns with programme priorities.
• Provide technical and functional leadership for the finance team, building capability to enable high-quality delivery.
• Build and maintain strong relationships across NE, Defra and delivery partners, enabling collaborative working and knowledge sharing.
• Oversee financial processes, systems and controls, ensuring these are fit for purpose and meet Natural England and Defra requirements.
• Monitor assurance timelines to ensure forecasts reflect a realistic position, identifying budget risks and providing mitigation recommendations to various boards.
• Lead development and continuous improvement of finance processes and products, working with colleagues and delivery partners to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of delivery.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Strong financial management experience, including budgeting, forecasting and financial control.
• Experience of working in a government, grant funding or programme environment.
• Strong leadership skills, with the ability to functionally lead a dispersed team to deliver programme outcomes.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including use of appropriate language and techniques to clearly present complex information and risk positions.
• Ability to use financial information to support decision-making and manage risk.
• Experience of developing or implementing financial processes, systems or payment approaches and business cases.
• Professional financial qualification.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only.

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Personal Effectiveness
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Work Delivery

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

As with all roles in NE, these roles require office attendance of a minimum of 20% of the working time – one day per week for those who work full time, subject to any reasonable adjustments and/or existing contractual homeworking.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Description

• Strong financial management experience, including budgeting, forecasting and financial control. (Essential)
  • Experience of working in a government, grant funding or programme environment. (Essential)
  • Strong leadership skills, with the ability to functionally lead a dispersed team to deliver programme outcomes. (Essential)
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including use of appropriate language and techniques to clearly present complex information and risk positions. (Essential)
  • Ability to use financial information to support decision-making and manage risk. (Essential)
  • Experience of developing or implementing financial processes, systems or payment approaches and business cases. (Desirable)
  • Professional financial qualification. (Desirable)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description

• Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and the organisation you represent and inspire others to act. (Expert)
  • Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence. (Expert)
  • Act with integrity, addressing challenging issues and managing conflict through being open and objective. (Practitioner)

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

Description

• Listen to and understand our diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and the organisation you represent. (Expert)
  • Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver the organisation you represent’s vision, mission and aims. (Expert)

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Expert)
  • Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures. (Practitioner)
  • Review budget performance and maintain accurate forecasts so that your financial submissions and commentaries are complete. (Practitioner)

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,100, Natural England contributes £16,252 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

Please refer to Job Description

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

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 : Chris Davis
• Email : chris.davis@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 0208 026 7390

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6662-6662-Principal-Finance-Officer/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v2.9 Opens in new window (docx, 548kB)