Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Councils

Service Area: Finance

Title: Chief Accountant

Grade: Head of Service

Salary: £52,496 - £57,452 plus £5k Market Supplement.

Hours: 37 hours a week

Contract: Permanent

Base: Lewes and Eastbourne

Two Councils One Team

Over the past couple of years Eastbourne Borough and Lewes District have come together creating a progressive partnership: two sovereign councils each with a unique identity and a shared vision of the future. Through joining our workforce and fostering a modern, collaborative culture, we are serving our residents in a more customer focussed and cost-effective way.

This process of joint transformation has seen the two councils move to a single shared officer team, helping to protect services in a time of reducing budgets, realising savings, and  ensuring a modern, high quality and resilient professional team.  At the same time the strategic profile of both organisations within the region is set to grow.

As part of this programme, we have already recruited a number of exciting new senior opportunities in Finance to continue our momentum and shape a new joint service and we are now looking to appoint to a pivotal role within the Technical Accounting team.

The Role

We are looking to appoint a committed, self-motivated and flexible financial professional to support the Deputy Chief Finance Officer in the provision of a comprehensive wide range of financial activities, including co-ordinating the closure of accounts, managing the Council’s capital programme strategies and financing, ensuring strong financial governance, monitoring of business rates income and collection fund accounting.  The successful candidates will also oversee the day to day activities of the technical accounting team covering systems maintenance, treasury management in terms of borrowing and investment, insurance and income management.  There will also be an opportunity to lead various projects and initiatives to ensure the continuous improvement of the service.

Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate will be a CCAB qualified accountant with significant experience in a local authority finance environment. You will be able to demonstrate experience in the preparation of statutory accounts, together with strong technical accounting skills and a good working knowledge of the local authority financial codes of practice. You should have a proven track record of undertaking complex financial analysis and possess the ability to communicate this information in an understandable manner.  You'll be leading a team consisting of qualified and part qualified accountants, requiring strong leadership from you with experience of staff management at a senior level being a key requisite.

Overall, you will bring a track record of success in a public sector finance role; strong all round communication and management skills; credibility; a high level of technical expertise; and an openness to innovation and new ways of delivering services.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone about the role, please contact Ola Owolabi, Deputy Chief Finance Officer on 01323 415083  or Ola.Owolabi@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk.

Closing date: midday on 8^th January 2020