Air Finance Corporate Governance Lead

As the Air Finance Corporate Governance Lead you will play a critical role within the Air Finance Leadership Team and all aspects of financial governance along with management responsibilities for a large and diverse Corporate Governance Team. You will be the lead on providing Air Top Level Budget (TLB) Business Units and Stations advice and guidance on all subject matters within relevant Joint Service Publications (JSPs), ensuring coherence to Managing Public Money (MPM) and highlighting novel or contentious issues for any new initiatives that wish to be bought forward.

You will support the Audit and Risk Committee by managing the production of the Annual Assurance Report and be the Lead on all Legal Matters; providing briefs of legal compensation cases for Director of Resources (DRes) to consider.

A key aspect of the role is the Public Accounts Compliance Review (PACR), you will support your team to ensure that the PACR Programme is met and to feedback on a quarterly basis to the Audit Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC) on concerns and actions.

Risk and Fraud management are critical to Air Command and you will ensure that Risks and Fraud are managed with clear policy and guidance promulgated across the TLB for it to be managed and reported to inform decision making.

In addition to above you will be the Lead contact for the RAF Museum which includes attending Finance Committee meetings and ensuring the Museum’s Grant in Aid is paid and will lead the Team with regards to the continuation of Air Finance Transformation including Continuous Improvement, moving forward on new ways of working and realigning processes.

This post is advertised at 37 hours per week.

As the Air Finance Corporate Governance Lead you will undertake a variety of diverse tasks enabling the business to exercise its duties whilst being mindful of the impacts in particular with regards to Managing Public Money requirements. You will play a critical role within the Air Finance Leadership Team and be a key interface between Air Finance and Air Business areas.

Key Activities include the following;

Providing services as the Subject Matter Expert

• Ensuring all business areas have adequate support, monitoring against the agreed service provision and checking that the boundaries of responsibilities are clear and being maintained.
• Understanding future requirements, anticipating, and planning for peaks in activity or changes in requirements, considering and adopting the appropriate mitigation, as required.
• Providing advice and guidance to their team, Finance Workforce and Business areas on all aspects of Financial Governance and Control as a recognised expert, including advising whether planned approaches are appropriate.
• Attending the Audit and Risk Committee updating members on risk, Defence Internal Audit (DIA), Agreed Management Actions (AMAs), and providing a PACR update.
• Supporting the Audit and Risk Committee by ensuring the required information is input into the Annual Assurance Report and documenting key decisions and managing actions to ensure completion.
• Clearly explaining the rationale for processes, ensuring that complex aspects are understood by all stakeholders and that benefits are highlighted to support compliance and meeting the required standards.
• Approving proposals with regards to Public Subsidies, Official Hospitality (OH), Working Functions (WFs), Sponsorship and Travel requests within delegated authority on behalf of DRes and Head of Finance (Hd Fin).
• Managing the Internal Controls and Assurance Framework reporting, liaising with control owners within the finance workforce identifying where there is potential for additional or improved controls.
• Managing the team in the effective provision of services to the Finance workforce and the Business including: 
  Provision of advice and guidance on subject matters covered within Joint Service Publication (JSP) 462 ensuring coherence to Managing Public Money (MPM) and novel or contentious issues are highlighted.
  Provision of guidance on Fraud Policy, ensuring alignment with Fraud Defence.
  Provision of guidance and undertaking calculations in relation to both Grants and Grants in Aid.
  Documenting the financial delegations within the finance workforce and Budget Holder delegations within the Business areas.
  Completion of the PACR Visit Annual Programme.
  Undertaking management of ePC and monitoring use of other Non-Contract Procurement (NCP) methods ensuring that these are utilised appropriately.

Stakeholder engagement and collaboration

• Engaging and collaboratively working with Internal/External Stakeholders where necessary to achieve desired outcomes.
• Engaging with key stakeholders to ensure the effective communication and management of information.
• Engaging with Strategic Head Office, providing input and keeping informed of policy updates, understanding the impact that this has on both your team and reporting requirements and ensuring coherence with their expectations.
• Managing the engagement with other Financial Governance and Controls teams to problem solve common issues.

Continuous improvement

• Dedicating time for continuation of Air Finance Transformation including Continuous Improvement, moving forward on new ways of working and realigning processes.
• Dedicating time to sharing best practice and lessons learnt, encouraging your team to collaborate across MOD to solve common issues, ensuring adherence to MOD standards.
• Seeking feedback on the services provided, testing, and evaluating their effectiveness, whilst assessing the level of effort to deliver against the benefit received.
• Continuously strive to improve the service provision, promptly addressing issues and ensuring that processes or ways of working are adapted, and customers are informed where there is an impact.
• Ensure misinterpretation of guidance is shared in a timely manner with team members to promote embedding any lesson(s) learnt.
• Managing the input and support to change programmes, where there is an impact to how your team will provide their services.

Managing your team within Financial Governance and Control

• Management of team members, empowering, motivating and coaching to enable effective delivery.
• Supporting individual’s personal development, careers and developing leadership skills within their team. Ensuring you and the team make time to develop themselves and their peers.
• Being open to challenge and new ideas, sharing of knowledge and experience, encouraging others through building a supportive team environment.

To be successful in this senior role, you will be expected to undertake the following specific tasks:

• Strong leadership skills, and the ability to motivate and develop a large and diverse team.
• Promoting consistent excellence in the team’s output whilst balancing working at pace to manage a full workload with conflicting short and long-term priorities.
• Able to credibly influence the business by providing advice and guidance, ensuring coherence to Managing Public Money (MPM) and highlighting novel or contentious issues for any new initiatives that wish to be bought forward, making an impact at senior levels through excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including building and maintaining networks and relationships across Air Command and other TLBs.
• Leading and influencing a collaborative approach to problem solving across the department. Objectively considering several options and scenarios through multiple lenses, to achieve effective outcomes.
• Building and maintaining technical knowledge of good practice across Finance and Air Command. Using this knowledge to drive a dedication to continuous improvement and delivering outputs.
• Being adaptable and willing to review priorities to meet the current and future needs of the business and the teams.
• Strong interpersonal skills with a track record of working with a wide range of senior people.
• Evidence of stakeholder management and engagement skills.
• A flexible approach to work is crucial to ensuring team outputs are produced to time and quality.

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Flexible working
• Training and personal development opportunities
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• 25 days paid annual leave rising to 30 days on completion of 5 years’ service
• In addition to 8 public holidays per year you will also receive leave for HM The King’s birthday
• A highly competitive Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Subsidised membership to a fitness suite and lunchtime/evening Military led fitness classes
• Café and shop on site

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Please note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Any move to MOD 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/.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

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Job contact :

• Name : Sharri-Ann Sedman
• Email : Sharri-ann.sedman642@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk