Senior Financial Accountant

Transport Scotland is the national transport agency for Scotland and is accountable to Parliament and the public through Scottish Ministers, with a budget of around £3.5 billion per year. Transport is a vital feature of the Scottish Government's focus on increasing sustainable economic growth, and transport investments and policies have major impacts on the economy, people, and the environment.  For more information visit http://www.transport.gov.scot/.

Structure of the team:

We are recruiting for a Senior Financial Accountant within Transport Scotland’s Finance and Corporate Services (FCS) Directorate.  This is one of nine directorates within the agency and the FCS consists of three distinct functions – Corporate Services, Transport Scotland Finance and Transport Portfolio Finance.

Reporting into the Head of Financial Accounting and Reporting, you will work at the heart of finance, providing statutory reporting and technical accounting advice for Transport Scotland.  This is a rewarding post for a qualified finance professional to play a key role in supporting Scotland’s Transport services, initiatives infrastructure and policy. 

You will be responsible for:

• Leading on the production of the Annual Report and Accounts coordinating with stakeholders to ensure accordance with agreed timescales and appropriate regulations and guidance including SPFM, the FReM and IFRS.
• Supporting robust financial management of the agency’s budgets and providing accurate, timely and appropriate financial and management information to the Transport Scotland Senior Management Team, Scottish Government Finance and Ministers.
• Technical accounting advice to support the business in areas such as asset valuations, non-current assets, VAT and lease treatments. Ensuring financial transactions are compliant with relevant accounting and financial regulations. 
• Lead a small team, inspiring and motivating them to be fully engaged in their work, encouraging learning and development and ensuring wellbeing needs are met.
• Supporting a robust financial control environment, including fraud and risk mitigation, taking proactive action to maintain effective controls and addressing internal audit findings.
• Building and maintaining key relationships, in particular developing trust and rapport. This includes managing expectation of senior managers and stakeholders.
• Contribute to the Finance team’s continuous improvement work stream and readiness in anticipation of the new Scottish Government Shared Service systems provision, in partnership with SG teams, cross government partners and the wider Transport Scotland Directorates and stakeholders.

Competencies

Leading Others

Financial Management

Communications & Engagement

Analysis and Use of Evidence

Essential Qualification

The successful candidate must be fully CCAB qualified with up-to-date CPD

Essential Criteria
1. Strong finance experience, with the ability to provide high quality advice to a wide range of Civil Servants and stakeholders, with the ability to communicate and explain complex financial concepts to non-accountants.

2. Highly effective management, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate and collaborate effectively with a range of staff and stakeholders.

3. Strong background in financial accounting, finance business partnering or management accounting and experience of both supporting and challenging partners.

4. The ability to think and act strategically and make links across policy and organisational boundaries to achieve positive outcomes.

Minimum Time in Post
You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade. 

You must discuss your intention to apply with your current line manager to help ensure release dates can be agreed.

Location
This post is based in either Glasgow or Edinburgh, with hybrid working in line with current Transport Scotland policies. You will be expected to be office based twice per week, pro rata.

The post is a full time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.

Additional Information
To apply please fully complete the application and submit evidence based examples to demonstrate your knowledge/skills (300 words). Remember, your answers should be clear, concise and reflect what actions you undertook. You may want to use the STAR(R) approach to respond to each criterion.

Important Information regarding Interviews

Candidates will be required to sit a numeracy and comprehension/reasoning test as part of the assessment process if successful at sift stage

Interviews  may be conducted in a virtual/remote setting. All applicants must ensure that they have a suitable space to complete the virtual interview via MS Teams and ensure that Wi-Fi/Broadband capacity will be sufficient to carry both audio and video feeds to undertake the interview.

For information on this post please contact Hiring Manager, Gillian Steele by email at Gillian.Steele@transport.gov.scot 

The Scottish Government is a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot

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