Financial Operations Manager

The Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister and the Cabinet in delivering the government’s manifesto commitments and objectives. The Cabinet office is both a “corporate centre” for government and a policy department in its own right that challenges, supports, leads and provides services to other Ministerial Departments. The Cabinet Office currently employs staff who are in a variety of roles across the UK.

Cabinet Office Finance is responsible for all aspects of the Cabinet Office’s finances and is a multidisciplinary team that brings together finance, commercial and other corporate functions under the leadership of the Cabinet Office Chief Financial Officer.

The Finance Operations Team is part of a larger Financial Control & Operations Team, which sits within the Strategy, Finance and Performance Directorate. The team is responsible for delivering and enforcing the purchase to pay processes of the Department.

We are looking for individuals who are enthusiastic, self-starters who will thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic work environment. The role will provide lots of opportunity for both personal and professional development in an innovative organisation at the heart of Government.

The Finance Operations Manager role is responsible for the day to day management of the Department’s purchase to pay processes or, in more simple terms, facilitating the efficient and prompt payment of the Department’s suppliers. 

The team is responsible for ensuring compliance, developing strategies, policies and processes governing P2P; ensuring they remain fit for purpose and meet Cabinet Office needs. This central expertise supports various business areas within the Department; delivering services to an ever-changing business and making the best use of technologies to drive continuous improvement and customer service excellence. This role requires the post holder to lead the P2P team, regularly assess financial performance and compliance, support and develop colleagues across the business, and support the Head of Financial Operations. The post holder will play a key role in developing a deserved reputation for excellent customer service.

Your technical knowledge and ability to work constructively with wider Cabinet Office teams will make you a valued contributor to ensuring the P2P process is audit compliant, and driving through continuous improvements.

This post holder will need to establish and develop effective working relationships with a number of stakeholders, including the Finance Business Partners, Customers, Shared Service Centre (SSCL), Internal and External Audit.  

The role reports to the Grade 7 Head of Finance Operations.

Key Responsibilities

• The line management of 8 staff, including 5 Requisitioners and 3 Purchasing Business Partners.
• Drive continuous process efficiencies and improvements ensuring robust controls are in place.
• Support working with wider Cabinet Office finance teams, driving improvements and compliance in P2P
• Overseeing the processing of requisition requests. This includes ensuring that the requests contain the appropriate approvals and evidence before they are processed and that the requests are processed in a timely fashion.
• Ensuring that receipting requests are processed quickly and accurately and are supported by the appropriate evidence.
• Reviewing requests for the payment of invoices via the non-compliant route, ensuring that the appropriate approvals have been obtained before they are approved.
• Overseeing the management of the Finance ePCS mailbox, ensuring that requests submitted to it are dealt with promptly.
• Contributing to the management of the system utilised by the Department to issue virtual credit cards.
• Ensuring that staff in business units are contacted regularly about invoices on hold, aged purchase order accruals and unapproved ePCS transactions.
• Report to Senior Management and initiate process improvements or transaction investigations to drive improvements.
• Supporting the Head of Financial Control as required, including assisting with Year End financial tasks in a timely and organised manner. This may include coordinating with teams involved in year-end preparation, liaising with auditors and coordinating responses to audit queries.
• Supports other finance teams across the Cabinet Office.
• Build relationships with key staff across Finance and the business in order to maintain effectiveness and relevance in role.

The post holder may be required to undertake additional responsibilities as expected in relation to the role and grade.

Qualifications

Level 4 qualification with AAT, CCAB or CIMA or working towards qualification with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent with significant financial experience

Or significant financial experience and willing to obtain CCAB qualification (within a reasonable time).

Experience

Significant experience in a finance role.

Knowledge and skills

• Previous experience of managing junior staff.
• Ability to work flexibly and adapt to changing priorities, whilst adhering to strict deadlines. 
• Have an emerging track record of good leadership
• You will have strong excel and data analysis skills combined with a clear understanding of how this should be applied for the benefit of the organisation are needed to succeed in the role. 
• A deep understanding of your business area and how to make things happen, with a strong focus on customer service.
• Problem solving ability; to identify problems, provide solutions and implement them.
• You will have an eye for detail and continuous improvement, be motivated and able to redesign processes and approaches to drive improvement.
• Play a key role to upskill colleagues on policy, processes and systems.
• You will have the ability to gain high levels of credibility with senior colleagues and stakeholders, which will influence decision-making. They will be able to analyse and communicate complex financial information in a clear and understandable way to colleagues who are both financially and non-financially literate.
• Ability to effectively work as part of a team, and to take responsibility for your own area of work.
• Some experience of working outside of finance or with colleagues from non-financial areas (policy, commercial, projects, HR, IT)
• Experience of using the Cabinet Office’s SOP system, would be an advantage.

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Job contact :

• Name : Simon McCall
• Email : simon.mccall@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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