Senior Finance Business Partner

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Job Description

Base salary: £54500 pa to c.£68150 pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer a flexible benefits fund of 20% which is paid on top of the base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives, and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish, and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

As a Senior Finance Business Partner, you will drive accountability and focus on cost control throughout the directorates you support. You will provide oversight, control, and direction to your team (if applicable) and ensure appropriate Finance support to promote effective decision-making and performance management of Direct and Indirect Costs.

About the role:

• Supporting the bidding for the Directorate into the Government-wide Spending Review process working with non-financially trained Directorate senior executives and in close liaison with the central HS2 finance team and parent Department.
• Embedding and driving a cost control and productivity-focused culture across the Directorate, supporting a uniform approach wherever possible and showing a deep understanding of the HS2 Business Case, Framework Agreement, and Development Agreement.
• Supporting business performance management, leveraging a deep understanding of the business and HS2 as a whole, enabling senior executives to better manage their budgets within the rules set by HM Treasury's Consolidated Budgeting Guidance and in line with the requirements of the Government's Functional Standard for Finance (GovS 006).
• Managing a diverse range of stakeholder relationships with competing priorities.
• Identifying & delivering tactical performance interventions (incl. productivity initiatives) across the directorates.
• Interpreting & drawing forward focused insights from management reports developed by the central finance team to enable effective communication with senior business leaders inside the Directorate, across HS2 as an integrated whole, and back into the parent Department.
• Oversee the month-end financial close, preparing accounts, completing monthly analytics, providing enhanced variance analysis, and reviewing and assuring reporting packs.
• Supporting the business through the annual business planning and budgeting exercise, working closely with senior, non-financially trained executives and the central HS2 finance team.
• Providing quarterly re-forecasts for the business area, working closely with non-financially trained senior executives for submission to the HS2 Executive.
• Reviewing and challenging all funding requests to ensure they represent value for money, are affordable, and are not novel, contentious, or repercussive in accordance with HM Treasury's Managing Public Money.
• Submitting cash flows for the business area to support funding requirements from the DfT and foreign exchange hedging activities.
• Identifying and implementing process improvements that will support full project delivery.
• Driving the adoption of consistent reporting methodologies and financial processes, in conjunction with other teams and more broadly HS2 Finance Business Partnering, Commercial and Programme Control teams.
• Providing an effective business partner service to the business, undertaking reviews and challenges on forecasts and reported variances bringing any significant variances to the attention of your line manager, the Deputy CFO, and Executive Directors with recommendations for corrective actions.
• Developing an empowered business finance team with increasing knowledge, skills & experience to make the necessary impact in the business.
• Supporting the function in other duties as necessary that may be required.
• Sharing best practice with the wider Business Finance team.
• Actively promoting and embedding Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work, and supporting and complying with all organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures on EDI.

About you:

Skills:

• Communication skills: ability to interpret and communicate complex financial issues to non-financial colleagues and to secure compliance with Managing Public Money.
• Stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage, communicate and develop consensus with both internal and external stakeholders up to Executive level.
• Influencing skills: ability to influence key decisions.
• Ability to critically review and challenge forecasts, assessing them for their affordability, value for money, timing, and impact on programme delivery.
• Ability to use ERP systems, utilising data analytics software and complex Excel models.
• Ability to ensure effective financial controls within a major project.
• Ability to manage teams and resolve issues to appropriate deadlines.

Knowledge:

• Qualified Accountant with experience of operating in a complex environment.
• Knowledge of Government accounting requirements (DEL/AME funding) to ensure compliance of business plans within delegated authority.
• Knowledge of accounting systems and the ability to develop and manage off-system analyses and records.
• Commercial awareness.

Type of experience:

• Experience of operating in a matrix environment which may include infrastructure projects.
• Experience of driving output focused, activity-based budgets and forecasts.
• Supporting the process for development of the annual business plan and budget setting processes within funding caps set by the Spending Review.
• Experience engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders and partner functions (such as planning, procurement, contract management, and HR teams) to ensure a holistic view taken to the required capabilities and resources needed to effectively deliver plans.
• Experience of managing teams and resolving issues to agreed deadlines.
• Qualified Accountant with experience of operating in a complex environment which may include infrastructure projects.
• Managing a team of finance business partners and potentially project accountants providing finance business partnering to less complex programme teams with a budget less than £1bn per annum, or to the HS2 executive team to support HS2 Ltd spend and decision-making.

The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity, and Respect.

It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures on EDI.

As HS2 Ltd do not hold a sponsorship license from the Home Office, we are not able to provide sponsorship to any applicant. Applicants must already have the Right to Work in the UK at the time of application and our process involves a Right to Work validation prior to the interview stage.

Any offers made to applicants will be subject to satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks which include Nationality & Immigration Status, employment references, DBS, Financial and Education checks.

We ask for a variety of detail in your online application; however, we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review.

About Us

High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK's new high-speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain's major population centres, boost the economy, and create thousands of jobs.

HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff - living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity, and Leadership.

HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others' health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our 'Safe at Heart' programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives, and achieves their full potential.