Senior Finance Business Partner

The salary for this role is 48376. Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week however we actively support requests for flexible working. 

This role is to be based at the following site; Culham Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Senior Finance Business Partner you will play a pivotal role in supporting the delivery of major programme and/or Business Unit (BU) objectives. As a valued member of the Senior Management Teams (SMT) for the UKAEAs major programme areas you will provide financial support in a range of activities covering strategy planning & analysis accounting reporting bids and costing support and adhoc project work. Depending on the programme area you may directly manage direct reports with the associated line management responsibilities. Whether managing a small finance team providing financial input into the 5 Year planning process a new business case or closing the monthly accounts a strategic outlook accuracy timeliness collaboration and understanding of performance essential in this important & highprofile role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Act as the key Finance Partner for the programme area or business unit; be the key point of contact for all finance related matters of programme or business unit delivery.
• Work closely with the programme or business unit senior management team to ensure that programme or business unit objectives are delivered and to provide challenge around financial performance
• Review and analyse performance producing reports and commentary for the monthly management accounts individual project managers and business unit management to enable monitoring of profitability against budget reasons for major variances and risks and opportunities.
• Ensure financial reports and associated supporting information is provided to agreed timelines for major grants.
• Ensure provision of consistent high quality financial information reinforced by high quality insight and financial advice supporting the programme / business unit to deliver the right financial outcomes and to help drive sustainable performance improvement
• Lead and manage a small finance team where applicable including mentoring training supervision and performance reviews etc. in line with the UKAEA line management guidelines.
• Provide financial leadership and coaching to wider project team members as required particularly those that are supporting the management of financial performance through forecasting or monitoring and control activities such as for timesheets and procurement.
• Work with the Head of Financial Accounts to ensure accurate recognition of expenditure & revenue in accordance with UKAEA financial policy & where appropriate
• Work closely with the designated senior management team & business unit to ensure the successful delivery of the business strategic planning budgeting and forecast processes
• Build effective working relationships with senior managers and stakeholders to enable the creation of robust programme or business unit budgets and periodic forecasts at project and at a consolidated business unit level.
• Support the maintenance of a robust control environment including responsibility for relevant balance sheet accounts appropriate to the business area such as prepayments accruals work in progress income in advance are fully reconciled with adequate supporting documentation available for audit purposes.
• Act as key point of contact for programme audits & ensure all audit requirements are met.
• FollowUp on internal audit actions and ensure they are closed out to agreed timescales
• Support finance wide initiatives such as testing of new reports & upgrades and other ad hoc work.
• Support the overall capability within finance by leading on initiatives and procedures which improve processes to support and manage programmes and / or enhance the technical capability of junior team members through training and coaching.

Qualifications :

Essential:

• A qualified accountant (ACA ACCA CIMA) or qualified by experience
• Experience of working closely with senior business managers & teams in a business partner capacity
• Experience of managing multimillionpound government or commercial projects and associated accounting costing and forecasting activities understanding of project controls and management processes.
• Understand the principles of revenue recognition and accounting for grant funding
• Experience of audits of major contracts or grants
• Ability to manage a multifunding environment and associated financial reporting
• Highly proficient in Excel (pivot tables lookups sumif formulas etc)
• Able to work on occasion to challenging timescales while still ensuring accuracy

Desirable:

• Experience of an ERP accounting system; experience of using Unit 4 (Agresso) would be an advantage
• Experience of report writing in ERP systems or working alongside systems developers to specify and develop reports would be very relevant
• Balance sheet review / reconciliation experience

Additional Information :

A full list of our benefits can be found here ; 

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from underrepresented groups particularly from women in STEM people from Black British Caribbean and African Pakistani and Bangladeshi British and other ethnic minority backgrounds people with disabilities and neurotypical individuals. Our Executive team supported by our Head of Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications. 

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks:;If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.