Senior Finance Business Partner

Technical / Professional Skills:
1. Government Finance – Working.
• Government Finance Guidance - Standards as set out within guidance documents including handbooks, advisory documentation, accounting treatment handbooks specifically for government organisations, such as the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM), Consolidated Budgeting Guidance (CBG), the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) etc.
• Government Financial Management - Management of financial matters, allowing government organisations to be more efficient, more resilient, and make better decisions, supporting organisations delivering on Value for Money Responsibilities.
• Government Financial Reporting - Activity related to the application of the FReM and other statutory reporting requirements, including technical accounting guidance for the preparation of financial statements.
• Understanding of Accounting Officer Responsibilities - The accounting officer responsibilities outlined in the SPFM, understanding of Accounting Officer tests and use to manage resources and finances across government.
• Supporting the PAC Agenda - Understanding and application of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) process, clarity on roles and responsibilities. Awareness of their remit and how it applies across your organisation and government finance.
• Understanding the Role of Audit Scotland - Understanding the role and remit of both Internal and External audit processes.
• Understanding Taxation - Accurate recording of transactions and treatment of financial records in accordance with relevant taxation law.
2. Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing – Practitioner.
• Understanding of Budget Guidance - Clear on budget process including required inputs, outputs, performance indicators and timescales for preparation to ensure that the organisation fulfils its statutory and regulatory obligations according to Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, professional accounting standards and other standards as necessary.
• Budget Management - Work closely with the business to manage and prepare the budget submissions, support monitoring, conducting analysis and updating assumptions, including taking a forward view to support planning of activities.
• Understanding of Forecasting - Knowledge of the forecasting mechanisms including frequency of preparation and depth of detail in collaboration with stakeholders adhering to deadlines.
• Understanding Costing - Process of recording costs with the correct accounting treatment with associated drivers in the production, analysis and use of information for decision-making in the organisation. Using cost centre analysis to determine under/overspend. Working with stakeholders to drive decision making.
3. Strategy – Practitioner.
• Strategic Financial Analysis - Identifying and analysing options and assessing their feasibility and operational effects. Providing the intelligence to support strategic financial planning. Ensuring that business solutions are aligned with strategy, business goals, and user needs.
• Strategic Financial Insight - This is the process of articulating the organisation's Financial strategy, sense of identity and direction, why the organisation exists, for whom and what the stakeholders require from a financial perspective. Utilising the strategic analysis to support making informed decisions about future direction and develop finance strategies that align with goals and objectives.
4. Risk - Working.
• Risk Management - The ability to collaborate effectively with stakeholders to identify, analyse, manage and report on risks.
• Using Risk Management to Influence Performance - The ability to work with those responsible for performance to identify risks and their potential impact, in order to influence decisions, support delivery of objectives and improve outcomes.
• Delivery and Oversight of the Risk Management Framework - The ability to communicate and effectively embed Risk Management Frameworks, including ensuring that policies, processes and supporting data are up to date and subject to regular review.
• Understanding the Risk of Fraud - The ability to understand an organisation's structure, role(s) and external context in order to provide appropriate advice and build a strong risk culture at all levels.
• Management of a Risk Function - The ability to lead a risk function with a clear vision for organisational risk management as an essential part of good governance and delivery of organisational objectives, including the use of risk appetite statements

You can find out more about the skills required, here: Finance Profession Capability Framework.xlsx

Experience
1. Highly effective leadership, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate and collaborate effectively with a range of staff and stakeholders.

Find out more about Success Profiles.

Apply online, providing a CV and supporting statement (of no more than 1500 words) providing evidence of how you meet the behaviours, experience and technical skills listed in the Success Profile above. Both the CV and the supporting statement provided will be assessed against the criteria for the role.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and (Presentation). Assessments are scheduled for w/c (TBC) however this may be subject to change.

Recruitment Principles
As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.