Senior Finance Business Partner

Senior Finance Business Partner

The Bank of England is the UK’s central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its c.4,000 people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

Department Overview

The Finance & Performance Directorate plays a critical role in protecting the Bank’s financial position and reputation. The overall purpose of the Directorate is to contribute to the successful execution of the Bank’s aims and objectives by ensuring it has an appropriate financial platform for its broader responsibilities, and for the challenges facing an organisation of more than 4,000 staff, with annual expenditure of circa £700mn.

The Finance & Performance Directorate has four main Divisions, Financial Reporting & Control, Financial Analytics & Insight, the Corporate Investment Portfolio Office and Finance Strategy.

The Finance Business Partner team and provides leadership on financial performance management across the organisation. Key outcomes for the team include strategic finance, management accounting, performance reporting and investment appraisal.

Job description

It’s a fast paced people manager role within the Finance Business Partners Division where you will l have exposure to the Senior Leadership of the Bank, as well as Executive Director level partnering.

As a valued member of partnering management team, we are collectively responsible for supporting the business to effectively run their finances working closely with area leadership teams, investment business owners and the wider finance teams This includes such things as:

• Budgeting and multi-year planning processes
• Forecasting
• Reporting financial performance
• Investment appraisals
• Ensuring value for money

This is a people management role. You will have day-to-day management of at least one team member. You will help develop the team through sharing information effectively, coaching and role modelling the Bank’s behaviours of acting inclusively, driving growth and delivering outcomes.

Number of direct reports: 1-2

Key areas of responsibility

Drive strategic financial planning including multi-year planning for the business areas and ensure all plans and forecasts accurately reflect business strategy

Become a trusted adviser providing financial insight for the area’s partnered to support delivery of objectives- be the go to person for the business and the CFO!

Provide insightful reporting and analysis for Executive Directors and their team to support informed and effective decision making

Collaborate with the business area to prepare budgets and forecasts, reviewing and challenging the projected costs ensuring they are on a sound basis and deliver value for money

Work with business customers and other finance teams to help identify and implement efficiency savings

Monitor actual and forecast spend against budget/plans and of early warning indicators and cost performance measures for reporting.

With your team, prepare and present accurate and timely monthly performance information

Management of investment finances and act as the main point person for project managers, business owners and wider Finance teams.

Support the business appraisal process for investment decisions ensuring that they represent value for money and include sound financial planning assumptions

Lead on ad-hoc activities, including process optimisation as required

Role Requirements

The successful candidate will be a commercially minded and experienced accountant with a strong interest in working the public sector. The role holder will have a deep understanding of business partnering and the financial control aspects for programmes and projects.

• Qualified Accountant with post qualification working experience.
• Great ways of communicating, from report writing to building and growing relationships!
• Can credibly present sophisticated issues and influence senior leadership thinking
• Capable of anticipating risks and what is likely to emerge, spot opportunities and change approach accordingly
• Prior experience of managing and leading a budget process
• Ability to analyse big data sets skills covering data visualisation techniques that identify the key ‘so what’s?!’ and subsequent recommendations
• Advanced excel and relational database software.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to excel in a fast-paced environment with multiple requirements and ongoing change.

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Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve.

At the Bank of England we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we’re working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it’s by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we’ll continue to make the best decisions for the public.

We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We’ve also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they’re needed.

For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.

Finally, we’re proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme. You can find more information on what this means here. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

Salary and Benefits Information

This specific role offers a base salary of circa £61,100 - £75,870 per annum (depending on skills and experience) on a full-time basis. We encourage flexible working, and job share arrangements.

In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

• A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
• A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
• A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. (Note that from April 2023 and for the Benefits year 2023/24, this will increase to 8%)
• 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
• Private medical insurance and income protection.

National Security Vetting Process

Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank’s Privacy Notice at Privacy and the Bank of England | Bank of England.

The Application Process

Important: Please ensure that you complete the ‘work history’ section and answer ALL the application questions fully. All candidate applications are anonymised to ensure that our hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information, including your CV, when reviewing your application details at the screening stage. It’s therefore really important that you fill out the work history and application form questions, as your answers will form a critical part of the initial selection process.

The closing date for applications is 23rd April 2023.

The assessment process will comprise of two stages