The Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) is a new shared corporate service, launched in July 2023. It provides corporate services (HR, Finance, Digital, Commercial, Security and Estates) across the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).

Our team of just over 300 professionals will be leading the way in how these functions will be delivered in the future. Our ambition is to be the leading provider of integrated corporate services for government and set the standard for quality, efficiency, and innovation in our field. 

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.

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You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/

This is an exciting time to join the Operations Directorate as Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) continues to grow. The Operations Directorate encompasses two professional functions, security and property (estates).

Our security team is responsible for keeping our people, our buildings and our information safe from an evolving threat profile in line with government security standards. Our estates team manages the DESNZ/DSIT estate to meet commitments to the Future Workplace and Places for Growth agenda, works closely with the Government Property Agency to ensure the provision of all operational requirements within our estate including facilities management, catering, courier, postal services etc.

The team is also responsible for delivering the DESNZ/DSIT sustainability strategy. This role will sit within the Director's Office team which cuts across and supports both security and estates teams. We are looking for the successful candidate to lead on finance activity within ICS Operations, which has a total budget of £68m. This includes working with budget holders and key stakeholders across ICS, customer departments and beyond, plus management of one member of staff; a Finance & Business Support HEO.

The post holder will ensure robust processes to support accurate financial monitoring and reporting and maintain strong relationships with senior and wider stakeholders, bringing insight and influence through effective communication. This is an evolving role so responsibilities may be expanded and changed to match the strengths of the post holder. It is a great opportunity to grow the directorate financial management function and to champion continuous improvement in processes, systems, approaches and outcomes.

• Working with ICS Operations - budget holders, ICS Finance, Government Property Agency (GPA) and customer departments to build accurate and timely forecasts for the directorate, with an understanding of key variances.
• Acting as the focal point for Operations - financial information, attending challenge sessions with ICS Finance Business Partner team.
• Working closely with GPA to improve reporting against forecasts, and to ensure that reporting provided enables accurate and timely recharging by ICS to customer departments.
• Improving and standardising Operations' reporting, adding value via analysis, identifying priority areas and assisting with strategic decision making.
• Accurately reporting forecast, actuals and budget information to provide the Operations Directorate, wider ICS team and customer departments with a true reflection of costs by relevant deadlines. This includes highlighting key risks and developing confidence reporting/risk tolerances to trigger early warning reporting to customer departments
• Being responsible for the submission of Operations forecasts, business planning and similar commissions requiring financial input
• Managing basic accounting of operations budget including journals, forecasting and spend monitoring of bespoke work
• Establishing a profile of staffing levels and track progress of recruitment
• Line management of a Finance and Business Support HEO
• Dealing with ad-hoc activity and acting as a champion for continuous improvement
  
  

Essential criteria 

• Fully qualified by CCAB or CIMA
• Excellent Microsoft Excel, data analysis and interpretation skills
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to process and present data, explaining complex financial issues in a clear and succinct way
• A self-starter with the confidence to develop ideas and lead implementation
• Flexibility to pivot to different challenges when the situation demands
• Ability to build strong relationships across organisations with different requirements and to constructively challenge and influence at all levels.
  
  

Desirable criteria 

• Knowledge and/or understanding of Power BI is desirable
  
  

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
  
  

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.
  
  

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.

Job contact

• Name: Katherine Walton
• Email: [email protected]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email: [email protected]