Senior Management Accountant

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
Find Out More, Are you a high-calibre finance professional looking for a new challenge as a Senior Management Accountant? This pivotal position in our Strategic Finance and Management Accounts team requires expertise in managing complex financial data, providing financial management and insights, and gaining credibility with stakeholders at all levels within Finance and the wider business.
Join us at an exciting time as Management Accounts is critical to supporting the Department to deliver its objectives and in building finance capability across the business. You'll be part of a team that fosters data excellence and enables strategic analysis and insights. Opportunities to support change activities will broaden your skills and experience in a delivery-focused team with significant business-facing activities.
Management Accounts oversees the month-end finance process, produces reports for senior leaders, and manages in-year budgeting and forecasting. We offer a supportive environment for career growth and development., You will be responsible for reporting the financial position at strategic level to provide insight and highlight the key issues, risks and opportunities, with the ability to convey a message and "tell the story" around financial information.

- Maintain a strong understanding of the overall financial position. Provide incisive variance explanations of and clear summaries/interpretations for senior management
- Provide expert advice and challenge to teams on financial matters, helping them to live within their delegated budgets and deliver value for money.
- Challenging consolidated forecasts through finance checkpoint meetings with FBP teams underpinned by strong analysis and an understanding of the Departments broad policy and delivery remit.
- Provide high quality information and advice to support prioritisation decisions within the Department.
- Provide narrative for management reports using compelling and persuasive language to influence and challenge.
- Provide intelligent analysis of complex financial information, drawing out common themes and understanding linkages/dependencies
- Providing assurance, integrity, and consistency in the quality of reported information to stakeholders.
- Promoting a culture of continuous improvement and undertaking collaborative activity to improve service and data quality within the function.
- Work to raise the level of financial awareness and capability across the Department.
- Lead and develop finance professionals., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Communicating and Influencing
+ Delivering at Pace
+ Changing and Improving
+ Making Effective Decisions
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
+ Communicating and Influencing, Please use your personal statement (in no more than 500 words) to demonstrate your experience within a financial position, working with others, communicating and Influencing.
Please note - the CV incorporated into the application form is for information purposes only and will not be scored.
Applications will be sifted on behavioural statement and personal statement.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behavioural statement - Communicating and Influencing.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour and strength-based questions.
Sift and interview dates
Expected Timeline subject to change
Sift dates: w/c 11/11/2024
Interview dates: w/c 25/11/2024
Interview Location: MS Teams.
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants' section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location-based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero 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 https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e., working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.
DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify., A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Skills and experience required for the role include:
- Ability to provide insightful analysis on complex issues, develop solutions, and communicate effectively to a variety of audiences.
- Evidence of delivering at pace under challenging circumstances.
- Ability to work well as part of a team, motivate and inspire others.
- Ability to build trusting relationships with stakeholders and influence them with impact and professional credibility.
- Being able to effectively challenge stakeholders to optimise financial data and insights for senior stakeholders.
- Strong skills in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Experience with data visualisation tools such as QlikView or PowerBI would be advantageous.
- Experience of presenting financial messages to non-financial people.
- Experience of managing people.
- Financial systems experience, including Oracle and Enterprise Management systems.
- Candidates should be full or part qualified. Where candidates are part qualified, they should be committed to finalising their qualification.
These skills and experiences are essential for effectively managing financial data, providing insights, and supporting strategic decision-making within the organisation.

Desirable criteria
- Evidence of success in understanding and using central government finance policies and protocols, such as Managing Public Money, Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, and the Government Financial Reporting Manual., Candidates should be full or part qualified with CIMA or a recognised CCAB accountancy body.

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Do you want to work at the forefront of current policy making decisions? Do you want to have an impact on the UK and beyond? If yes, then a career at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) could be for you.
Here at DESNZ we are delivering our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower, with clean electricity by 2030 and accelerating the UK’s journey to net zero.
Our work is helping ensure clean energy for all, keep bills down and seize the opportunities to lead the world in new green industries, taking back control of our energy with Great British Energy and encouraging greater energy efficiency across the UK. The work of the department has never been more timely or relevant, and by joining us you will be part of making that difference.
Our work is varied, interesting and most importantly it's impactful. Our DESNZ Values are interwoven into everything we do; we are bold, we are collaborative, we are inclusive, and we learn. As a department we are committed to these values to build a culture where everyone can thrive

Alongside your salary of £52,985, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £15,349 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
+ A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
+ Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
+ A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
+ An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
+ Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
+ A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.
+ Accountancy Allowance up to £4,495 pa.
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home-based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.