Deputy Director, Financial Operations and Control

The role can be based in any UKHSA location (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham) although regular travel to London will be required.

The UK Health Security Agency presents the opportunity to work at the forefront of public health, protecting the nation from current health threats and other acute and longer-term public health issues too.

 

Our Finance Directorate’s aim is to provide UKHSA with efficient, effective, and economic financial services to enable the organisation to achieve its strategic goals, as well as taking the lead on numerous general activities. We are looking for a Deputy Director, Financial Operations and Control to join our Finance Senior Leadership Team. In this role you will be responsible for leading our Financial Operations and Control functions covering Financial Accounting (including statutory reporting and auditing), Counter Fraud, Cash, Asset, and Tax Management, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable.

As Deputy Director, Financial Operations and Control, you will lead these services and play a critical role in being the organisation’s primary resource for financial reporting, financial compliance, and transactional processing. As a member of Finance’s Senior Leadership Team, you will be responsible for advising Directors and other senior staff to foster a culture of sound financial probity and compliance.

You will lead the delivery of a professional counter fraud service tackling the thread of fraud, bribery, and corruption. In addition to this, you will lead our Finance transaction processing function ensuring it possesses the capability to optimise financial control and is able to conduct cost recognition, balance sheet control and cashflow (including banking) required to deliver the organisation’s complex objectives.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading on matters related to financial operations and control
• Representing the Finance Director at meetings and events both within and external to UKHSA
• Developing and supporting the implementation of financial procedures, strategies, policies and solutions to help the organisation and its leaders operate a ‘best practice’ delivery of its financial controls
• Devising, agreeing, and implementing measurable service level agreements between Directorates and the Financial operations and control department, which reflect the business needs of each Directorate; to include:
  • Responding to customer surveys
  • Internal Audit and other key performance indicators
• Providing expert financial service advice to Directors and other senior management staff and to ensure the provision of all traditional financial accounting and transactional processing; to include:
  • Provision of guidance and interpretation of UKHSA financial policy, including the continuous improvement of such policies as aligned to best practice
  • Provision of specialist financial advice including VAT reporting and returns
  • Delivery of year-end audit and accounts, including managing the annual timetable with National Audit Office and Department of Health and Social Care
  • All balance sheet reporting and reconciliation
  • Cashflow and bank
  • Fixed assets
  • Government Procurement Cards
  • Liaison with HMRC
  • Losses and special payments register
  • Lease cars
  • Accounts Payable: processing and payment of invoices, (including query resolution) BACS runs / Foreign Payments, agreement of balances, payment of employee expenses
  • Accounts Receivable: chasing of debts – commercial and government, liaison with the business over debts, processing payments and matching to customer accounts; agreement of balances
• Ensuring that non-finance staff across the organisation have access to and receive adequate training on financial matters
• Responding to relevant audit reports as appropriate and as agreed
• Leading, motivating and managing all FOC staff; ensuring that all staff have a job description and annual objectives and that their performance is regularly appraised
• Acting as budget holder for the FOC Financial Operations and Control team within the Finance Directorate
• Taking responsibility for personal development for self and staff under direct line management, ensuring that all team members have a real voice in the development of the service to customers

Essential Criteria

• A qualified accountant (CCAB or CIMA) with significant post-qualification experience and evidence of continuing professional development.
• Thorough understanding of financial accounting principles and expert in annual accounting processes and audits.
• Proven track record at a senior level in Finance in a complex financial environment, including significant experience at senior management level.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with proven impact in large organisations/across systems and ability to defend and explain exceptionally complicated financial issues to a variety of audiences.
• Excellent analytical skills to enable the maintenance of very complex spreadsheets and database models and ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options.
• Well-developed problem-solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands – able to take decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action.
• Strategic thinking – ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise.
• Ability to plan and organise numerous activities concurrently both long and short-term, requiring formulating and adjusting plans to reflect changing circumstances.
• Able to achieve results in a matrix environment with some staff not directly answerable to the post-holder, and operating across a wide number of locations
• Previously responsible for a budget, involved in budget setting and working knowledge of financial processes
• Ability to work autonomously across the full range of activities
• An ability to maintain confidentiality and trust
• Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
• Commitment to continuing professional development

Alongside your salary of £75,000, UK Health Security Agency contributes
£20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 average employer contribution of 27%

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.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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Job contact :

• Name : Donald Shepherd
• Email : donald.shepherd@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : SCS.MDRecruitment@ukhsa.gov.uk