Finance Manager
From $59,028/yr
Department Finance, Audit and Procurement Location(s) Cheltenham, London Job description Salary: London: £59,028 or £62,895 (dependent on experience) Cheltenham: £56,962 or £60,998 (dependent on experience) Flexible working: due to its sensitive nature this role is office-based and home-working will not be possible. We value a good work-life balance and offer part-time (minimum 4 days), compressed hours, and flexibility around start and finish times. Full time hours are 36 or 37 hours, depending on location. About us MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security. The role Our finance teams keep our internal spending on-track, which makes them critical to our work. The Finance Manager role is very varied, and we currently have opportunities across several office-based teams. During the recruitment process, we’ll get to know you and assess which area best reflects your strengths and interests. Financial Analysis One area you could join is our Financial Analysis team. They provide key insights that guide decision making across the organisation. As a Finance Manager here, you’ll lead a team and produce monthly financial reports that meet the needs of budget holders. You’ll prepare, interpret and present in-year financial information and hold regular review meetings with business areas so they feel fully informed. Because you care about getting things right, you’ll ensure our financial information is always accurate. You’ll keep strong data controls, advise on the correct treatment of complex transactions and make sure assets and leases are properly accounted for. You’ll provide thoughtful financial analysis, helping colleagues understand variances, risks and mitigation, and you’ll conduct deep dives and financial modelling when issues need more attention. At year-end, you’ll bring everything together, leading the provision of evidence for the National Audit Office and supporting the breakdown of budgets for the new financial year. Your leadership will shape the team’s experience and performance. You’ll motivate people to bring their best, ensure month-end activity runs smoothly and balance workloads in a way that supports both wellbeing and excellent service. Using your coaching skills, you’ll help the team grow in confidence and capability. Strategic Finance You might instead join our Strategic Finance team. They support the agencies through major financial decisions and governance. In this role, you’ll lead the processes and products that support planning for fiscal events, working closely with your counterpart in the His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) Spending Team and building a strong understanding of the bigger delivery landscape. You’ll regularly work with senior stakeholders, helping them complete key tasks with quick turnarounds and keeping the wider programme running smoothly. In Strategic Finance, you’ll bring together contributions from across the organisation, help resolve issues and ensure everything is ready for major financial milestones. You’ll build relationships across MI5 and with HMT, prepare and deliver products for the Spending Review and other fiscal events, and represent your area where needed. You’ll take ownership of key strategic work, translate financial data into clear, meaningful insights, and guide other finance functions on HMT priorities. You’ll also prepare briefings for senior civil servants and ministers, provide timely analysis and presentations, respond to ad-hoc enquiries, and support your team through warm, confident leadership. There are many different areas in the finance function you could join or explore during your career with us. Find out more about these roles on our Finance careers page. About you You’ll be a fully qualified Chartered accountant, with experience of not only managing a team, but motivating them to bring their best. You’ll also bring demonstratable finance experience from a public sector environment. Organised, positive, and eager to learn, you value teamwork, innovation and making an impact. You work professionally and collaboratively, enjoy solving problems as part of a team, and are skilled at building strong relationships and negotiating with key stakeholders. All your skills will be underpinned by a passion for finance and aptitude for figures and spreadsheets. If, after considering our requirements, you feel your current skills don’t align with this role, don’t worry, we have a range of other opportunities coming up. These include: Trainee Finance Officer Scheme: ideal for those just starting their finance career, with no prior qualifications or experience in a financial setting Payments and Banking: open to candidates with five GCSEs (grade 4/C or above, including English and Maths), or equivalent Level 2 qualifications Finance Officer: for candidates with proven financial experience and who are working towards Level 4 AAT, or who hold a 2:1 or higher in a finance/accounting degree that’s accredited by a financial body like ACCA or CIMA Financial Accountant (currently live): for part-qualified ACCA/CIMA (or equivalent) candidates with proven experience in a similar role in the public sector, ideally working towards a CCAB or CIMA qualification, with some supervisory experience To be notified of any upcoming opportunities in our Finance team, we recommend you sign up to job alerts on our website. Training and development From the moment you join us, you’ll be fully supported with guidance from your line manager and other experienced staff, along with access to internal communities, support networks, and mentors. If you’re successful in your application, we’ll ask that you remain within the Finance Capability for a minimum of five years. Rewards and benefits You’ll receive a starting salary of £59,028 or £62,895 in London and in Cheltenham you’ll receive a starting salary of £56,962 or £60,998, plus other benefits including: 25 days’ annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme a dedicated development budget an interest-free season ticket loan an excellent pension scheme a cycle to work scheme facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (depending on your location) paid parental and adoption leave Equal opportunities At MI5, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds. Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.We’re Disability Confident MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions' Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are: 1. passing the eligibility stage 2. being a fully qualified Chartered accountant 3. experience of managing a team and motivating others to deliver their best 4. experience working within a finance team in a public sector role 5. a strong motivation for applying to work for MI5 as a Finance Manager There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer. What to expect Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here’s a brief overview of each stage, in order: 1. initially, we’ll ask you to complete our pre-screening questions to find out if you meet our criteria. If you do, we’ll invite you to begin an application 2. you’ll need to create an account and complete an online registration form, providing contact details and equal opportunities information 3. you’ll then be invited to complete an online application form 4. if successful at this stage, you may then be invited to a final interview, which will include competency and technical questions and further exploration of your motivation to work for the UK’s Intelligence Services. We recognise that the end of the financial year is an extremely busy time and for this reason we will not commence interviews until mid-April. Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6-9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer. Before you apply To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria. This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process. Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage. Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely. These roles are based in London or Cheltenham so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating to London into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment. Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. Right to withdraw statement: Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
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