Chief Financial Officer


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Details

Reference number

327562

Salary

£90,000
If you’re an existing Civil Servant, your salary will be agreed in line with the Civil Service pay rules in place on the date of your appointment. Staff applying on promotion within the Civil Service will usually be appointed to the pay band minimum or within 10% of existing salary. Individuals appointed on level transfer will retain their existing salary.
A
Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Commercial
Corporate Finance
Finance
Senior leadership

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

The role will be based at our offices at 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5BS, in central London, however please note that we are due to move to Canary Wharf in 2024. This role will require some presence in our London office – there is currently an expectation that SCS will attend the office more than 60% over a calendar month. Please also be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas.

Job summary

The SFO is a specialist investigating and prosecuting authority that tackles the top-level of serious or complex fraud, bribery, and corruption in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is independent in making decisions about its cases. This includes whether or not to open an investigation or to prosecute a case. It is a civil service organisation that operates within the framework of government accounting and the Green Book. It is subject to government spending reviews.

The Chief Financial Officer is a pivotal role in the leadership of the Serious Fraud Office responsible for strategic engagement with HMT, the other organisations within the AGO remit and with a wide range of law enforcement agencies. The successful candidate will operate as a key collaborative member of the Senior Leadership team across the organisation, ensuring delivery of high quality services to the organisation by the finance, commercial and facilities teams. 

You will lead your teams strategic advice to the Executive Committee (Director of the SFO, Chief Capability Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel) and to your peers in the Senior Leadership Team. You will ensure there is effective planning and management of the SFO’s current resources to enable the Department to deliver its objectives within its financial settlement and provide value for money in all that it does. You will also be experienced in providing strategic resource planning advice helping to shape our annual business plans and longer terms strategies.

Job description

The key responsibilities for the Chief Financial Officer are as follows:

  • As the Chief Financial Officer you will be a member of the SFO Board and have executive responsibility for the effective functioning of the Audit Risk and Assurance Committee.
  • You will advise the Accounting Officer and the additional Accounting Officer in line with Managing Public Money , so that public money is safeguarded at all times and used appropriately, economically, efficiently and effectively in equal measure.
  • You will provide advice on the SFO’s three year strategic plan, annual business plan and budget setting and forecasting. You will ensure the provision of high quality ad hoc and monthly management information to enable strategic insight and support robust executive decision making. You will work with senior leaders across the organisation to ensure the most effective use of its budget. 
  • You will co-lead, with the Head of Strategy, the production of the annual report and accounts,  ensuring that the financial aspects of the report meet NAO requirements,  are produced to a high quality and on a timely basis 
  • You will be responsible for delivering a high-quality Finance Business Partnering service throughout the SFO at all levels, combining robust information and analysis to provide insight and constructive challenge, effectively support strategic innovation, seeking to achieve efficiencies and sound business decisions across all Divisions.

For more information about the role and for a full list of key responsibilities, please see attached Candidate Pack

Person specification

See above and attached Candidate Pack.
Alongside your salary of £90,000, Serious Fraud Office contributes
£24,300 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Option to join the Civil Service pension scheme. For further details, click here http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/pensions 

Generous annual leave provision of 25 days increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after five years’ service plus an additional day in recognition of the King’s Birthday and the option to buy or sell up to five days’ leave per year.

Discretionary performance-related bonus scheme.

Interest-free season travel ticket, bicycle loan and cycle to work scheme.

Access to the Rental Deposit Salary Advance Scheme which assists employees in meeting the costs of deposits for privately rented homes.

Opportunities for learning and development.

Flexible working arrangements and family-friendly policies.

Voucher for eye care and discounted spectacles.

Access to a range of discounts through membership of the Civil Service Sports and Social Club, CSSC Sports and Leisure. http://www.cssc.co.uk/

Maternity and paternity leave provision over and above the statutory entitlements.

Access to My CPS Rewards Gateway. My CPS Rewards offers staff a range of rewards and savings including:

  • Discounts with high street retailers
  • Savings on grocery shopping at a range of supermarkets
  • Special salary sacrifice and recognition schemes
  • Reloadable gift cards and e-cards
  • Instant vouchers

Any move to the Serious Fraud Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Selection process details

Civil Service recruitment processes are regulated by the Civil Service Commission, and we follow clear guidelines to ensure that our recruitment is fair and open.  

We expect the process for this role to be as follows:

  • A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts.
  • A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 2 A4 pages) explaining how you consider your skills, qualifications and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with references clearly linked to the essential criteria on page 9 of the candidate pack. If applying as a job-share, you will need to indicate in your application that you are doing so.
  • An in person Staff Focus Group, on 24 January 2024, which involves shortlisted candidates facilitating a discussion with a selection of staff from the SFO on a given topic and then responding to staff questions. This exercise will not result in a pass or fail mark, staff feedback from this exercise will inform questioning at the formal interview panel. Job-share applicants will undertake separate Staff Focus Group exercises. The topic will be provided to candidates in advance.
  • Final Interview w/c 29 January 2024. A face to face interview exploring experience and behaviours in more depth. The panel will be chaired by Michelle Crotty, Chief Capability Officer. Other panel members at the interview will include Alistair Cook, Director of Finance at the City of London Corporation and City of London Police and Leah Sparks, Director of Finance at Department Science, Innovation and Technology. Job-share candidates will be expected to do separate Final Interviews

The closing date for CVs and Statements of Suitability is 23:55pm Friday 15 December 2023. 

Applications received after this time will not be considered.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration
is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them
to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through
building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above.
This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.
Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and
conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your
personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any
absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you
to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
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.
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
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 : Elizabeth Campion
  • Email : elizabethcampion@pageexecutive.com

Recruitment team

  • Email : Jessicacameron@pageexecutive.com

Further information

For external competitions there is no appeal against the selection decision. However, individuals have a right to appeal if they feel that the principle of appointment on merit through fair and open competition and the Civil Service Commissioners’ recruitment principles have not been met. Individuals who want to appeal should do this by setting out their grounds for appeal in an email for the attention of Head of HR Operations to HumanResources@sfo.gov.uk. If, after an internal appeal, you still believe that the Civil Service Commissioners’ Principles have not been met, then you can contact the Commission directly: Complaints should be sent in writing to: Civil Service Commission, Room G08 ,1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ. Email info@csc.gov.uk

Attachments

SFO CFO Candidate Pack v6 Opens in new window (pdf, 891kB)
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