Finance Business Partner

Dstl’s Finance team delivers essential expertise to an organisation which delivers vital Science and Technology research and advice to Government Defence and Security. If you are qualified, experienced and want to join our high performing and well-motivated team then we want to hear from you.

You will be a qualified and dedicated finance professional with experience of working with non-finance colleagues to steer and influence the business and drive and implement improvements to the way we work and the value we bring to the business.

You will ensure the Division Head, and their management team, have the appropriate financial information and support to enable decision-making in order to deftly conduct their roles. You will provide financial direction and mentorship for planning and implementation of the divisions’ activities and support continuous improvement. You will also be the line manager for a local finance team.

We offer a modern working environment, interesting work and the opportunity to make a real difference to the role of finance in a business which is vital to the future Defence and Security needs of the nation.

Our Finance team has in the past, won the Ministry of Defence (MOD) team of the year and now we’re ready to build on this success as our organisation moves into an exciting new phase.

Dstl recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion as people from diverse backgrounds bring fresh ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive working environment in which each employee fulfils their potential and maximises their contribution.

We particularly welcome female and ethnic minority applicants and those from the LGBTQI community, as they are under-represented within Dstl at these levels.

The Business Partner role is flexible and diverse meaning you could be involved in a variety of activities.

These are some of the key areas you’ll be focusing on:

• Providing professional contribution on behalf of the finance function to one or more directorates that is timely, accurate and adds value, ensuring that strategic intent is maintained.
• Enabling informed and effective financial and business decision-making by ensuring that financial support provided by yourself and management accounting team is timely, accessible and of good quality.
• Continuously improving service delivery through feedback from our customers.
• Providing support in the preparation of budgets and forecasts including authoritative financial advice on the impacts of changing requirements and targets.
• Delivering required financial and other management information to corporate centre in line with published timetables and ad hoc requirements.
• Building and maintaining relationships with internal and external customers and partners.
• Providing quality oversight and assurance of financial information, actively encouraging innovation and improvement both within the finance community and with wider influence.
• Identifying and support improvements to business processes, considering organisation effectiveness and not just short term savings.
• Improve financial awareness of Senior Management, leadership roles and project managers within Dstl and MOD.
• Ensuring knowledge flow through the organisation and to ensure professional finance discipline.
• Deliver appropriate awareness training to non-finance staff in key leadership and management roles.
• Maintain an effective, engaged, motivated and balanced team.
• Ensuring the finance team maintains its objectivity, impartiality, independence and integrity in adhering to professional code of ethics, applicable accounting and reporting standards and other corporate policy/guidelines.

For more information please see the Job Profile attached below.

We are looking for someone who can:

• The ability to influence the strategic direction and decisions of our divisional leadership community;
• Confidence and skills to provide line management, technical and professional leadership to the finance members in their team;
• Enthusiasm for working with colleagues from other disciplines to support and advise local business unit management teams;
• The power to effectively communicate and present financial issues, impacts and opportunities to your area of the business.

Qualifications:

Essential:

• Qualified through CIMA or other CCAB body.

Important Information:

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years.

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving

Dstl’s full range of great benefits can be found in the information pack which includes:

• Financial: An excellent pension scheme starting from 26% employer contribution (find out more here). In Year Rewarding Achievement bonuses and thank you vouchers. Rental deposit scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Flexible working: Options include alternative working patterns such as; compressed hours (e.g. working a 4 day week/ 9 day fortnight), job shares and annualised hours (agreed number of hours per annum paid monthly i.e. working term-time only).
• Working hours: Flexibility around your working day (e.g. start time, finish time). Ability to bank hours in a 12 month reference period including the ability to accrue and use 3 days per calendar month.
• Where you work: Depending on your role, blended working may be available including remote working to suit you and your team. This can be discussed at interview.
• Annual leave: 25 days pro rata (rising to 30 after 5 years) plus 8 public holidays with the ability to buy/sell 5 additional days per annum.
• Family: Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay, an additional 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid
• Learning and Development: Dstl encourages and supports charterships, accreditations and provides employees access to fully funded apprenticeships up to level 7 (Masters Degree). Dstl will pay for 2 memberships with relevant bodies/institutions. Employees also have access to Civil Service Learning.
• Facilities: Onsite parking, EV Charging points, restaurants, cafés and gyms.

The information pack can be found attached to the job specification on Civil Service Jobs. 

Remove the remote working in we know the role is full time onsite.

Our Diversity Networks

We have a number of support networks to ensure all employees feel supported at work. These include the following:

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Network
• Race, Faith and Culture Network
• Parents and Carer Support Network
• Alternative Working Network
• Gender Equality Network
• New Starters Network
• Enabled Network, for people with visible and non-visible disabilities.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Job contact :

• Name : Dstl Recruitment Team
• Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk