MI5, MI6 & GCHQ, known as the UK Intelligence Agencies (UKIC), are responsible for protecting the UK from threats to national security including terrorism, espionage and cyber-crime. To help us combat these complex and evolving threats we are currently looking for a Chief Financial Officer to lead the process of a significant business change to establish a single corporate services function to deliver finance, commercial, HR and internal audit services.

The Role
This is an exciting opportunity to join UKIC and make a lasting and positive impact in the delivery of a single finance function defined by modern and efficient financial services. As the Chief Financial Officer you will be a key member of the UKIC finance leadership team reporting directly to the Deputy Director and Director of Finance.
•    You will help shape, drive and lead a new single finance operations team, spanning MI5, MI6 & GCHQ that support us in our mission to protect the safety, security and prosperity of the UK.
•    You will play a vital role bringing MI5, MI6 & GCHQ together as one joint financial service where you will be delivering a significant change to how financial services in this sector are run.
•    You will need to be not just a technical financial specialist but one who can use their communication and leadership skills to bring people and teams together and deliver business benefit.
•    You’ll lead the team through a truly exciting and unique period of change, so you’ll possess the ability to unify, motivate and support diverse teams through the transformation process and contribute to the vision of making it a great place to work.
•    As the strategic lead on all aspects of financial accounting you will help shape and provide the vision of the financial accounting strategy. This will include the management and development of teams that provide financial policy(including tax) advice, produce UKIC wide resource accounts, providing accounts payable, accounts receivable, banking and cash management services and ensuring that a financial control framework is in place and operating effectively.
This role also requires you to be a proven post qualified financial CCAB/CIMA accountant with experience, ideally within a large public body and coupled with this to have experience of leading teams through business change.

Key Responsibilities
•    Work with UKIC (and its partners) finance leadership team, and the wider finance team, to design and implement the UKIC financial accounting services directly supporting mission benefit. You will apply your professional expertise to develop, deliver and drive optimised finance policies, services and processes which are harmonised, simplified and based on recognised best practice and new Fusion functionality.
•    Build and lead the financial accounting teams, working with Finance Director and Deputy Directors and the wider leadership team, effectively contributing to the vision of making the single Financial Operations team a great place to work.
•    Design and implement an effective financial control framework that provides assurance to the Retained Directors and key stakeholders, including the National Audit Office. This includes control over fraud prevention and detection.


The Person
We are looking for an individual with strong communication skills and who enjoys working as part of a team. You must be able to demonstrate some autonomy and confidence as you will be required to work unsupervised and driving sometimes on your own for sustained periods of time.  You will have a flexible approach and adapt quickly to changing requirements.

Skills and experience
•    Qualified CCAB/CIMA accountant with experience of settling key accounting policies, reviewing and approve key financial reports, taking accountability for key financial transactions and resolving key issues of propriety.
•    Have a proven track record of delivering large scale transformation in an organisation.
•    Knowledge of and practical experience at a senior level of leading transformation and business change.
•    An excellent communicator capable of leading and inspiring large multi-disciplined groups.
•    You must have previous experience of delivering Enterprise Resource Planning.

Recruitment Process

The first thing we will ask you to do is complete our pre-screening questions to find out if you meet our initial criteria. If you do meet these criteria we will then ask you to begin an application.

You will need to create a log in and provide your full name, email address and a memorable password. Once you have successfully created a personal account, you will be required to complete an initial registration form, providing contact details and equal opportunities monitoring information.

You will then be invited to complete an online application form. The recruitment team will sift applications and successful applicants will be invited to a Telephone Interview. If successful at the telephone interview, you will be asked to attend an assessment centre consisting of a short presentation exercise and a competency based face to face interview to further explore your skills and motivation for the role. More details will follow should you be successful at previous stages.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress onto the vetting stage of the process. This includes attending a security interview with a vetting officer. You should read about the vetting process and satisfy yourself that you meet the criteria outlined in the vetting pages of the ‘How to Apply’ section prior to submitting your application.

Giving misleading information or omitting or concealing information during the recruitment and vetting process is viewed very seriously. You should ensure that you follow the guidance from when you apply.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to being a ‘Disability Confident Leader’ we offer an interview to all candidates with a disability who meet our minimum criteria for the role that they are applying for. This is known as the Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

Eligibility Questions - You will be asked a series of questions relating to this vacancy. If you meet the criteria here you will be directed to the initial application form. On successful completion of this stage, you will be invited to interview.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, you must meet our residency criteria. You must be a born or naturalised British citizen and one of your parents must be a British citizen or have substantial ties to the UK.
UKIC is committed to reflecting both equal opportunities and the society we protect and particularly welcome applications from women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates.
Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for nine out of the last 10 years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. You will nonetheless be considered if you have, for example, served overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of Her Majesty's Government, studied abroad, or lived overseas with your parents. You can apply at the age of 17 years and 6 months, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday.

Discretion

Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. 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.  Further information on our eligibility criteria can be found on the ‘How to Apply’ section.