Associate Director, Financial Partnering, Planning & Analysis

ACCA Careers; Tees Valley; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The DBS is recruiting an Associate Director, Financial Partnering, Planning and Analysis. You will lead the FPP&A and Management Accounting functions, delivering budgeting, forecasting, and performance management as a key partner to senior leaders.

Working within the Home Office family, you will align financial strategy with organisational priorities, influence strategic decisions, and drive financial transformation to maximise value for money across DBS.

Qualifications

• Strong strategic thinking and planning skills for change management.
• Excellent relationship management and influencing capabilities.
• Proven leadership of a finance team delivering partner-led services.

Responsibilities

• Lead and integrate FPP&A and Management Accounting, budgeting, forecasting and in-year performance.
• Provide authoritative financial insight to senior management and drive strategic decision-making.
• Drive financial planning and modelling to support commercial decisions and investment proposals.
• Develop and maintain the DBS financial strategy and mid-term plan.
• Lead and develop the FPP&A teams to deliver robust financial information.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder management

People management

Communication skills

Financial analysis

Education

CCAB/CIMA qualification

Tools

Financial modelling

Budgeting & forecasting

ERP systems

Job description

Location

This role is available on a remote, hybrid or office basis. Initially, all DBS employees' contracts are office-based at one of our two sites (Liverpool and Darlington). Employees can apply for remote or hybrid work from day one. If approved, the arrangement will start after six months for transfers from Home Office or after completing probation for new joiners. Requests will be considered based on business needs and role requirements. Informal hybrid working arrangements are also available from day one, subject to business needs and role requirements and will be discussed further following any job offer.

About The Job

About The Department

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working from two sites, which are Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We function within a framework of legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.

Our Strategy

Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services, is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness, influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.

Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS

DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific equality objectives for DBS.

Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of good practice in EDI.

Job Description

The post of Associate Director, Financial Partnering, Planning and Analysis is primarily responsible for leading the FPP&A team, encompassing finance business partnering, management accounting, financial planning and strategy, efficiency, and financial transformation. As a key member of the Finance leadership team, you will work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure customer/stakeholder needs are met, along with public accountability expectations, legislation and professional standards.

As the DBS is a member of the Home Office family, you will work closely with other members of the Home Office Finance community. Building relationships with people in Home Office will be key to ensuring DBS and Home Office expectations, systems and processes are aligned.

You will play a key role in the implementation and embedding of the revised Finance structure, designed to enable the continued development of the function to become a true partner to the organisation, influencing and supporting strategic decision making, with the capacity and capability to support the delivery of their strategy.

Corporate Duties

• Lead and integrate FPP&A and Management Accounting functions, establishing a single, robust framework for budgeting, forecasting and in-year performance management, ensuring senior leaders have a clear view of financial position, risks and opportunities.
• Provide authoritative financial insight and challenge at senior levels, owning the quality of management information and analysis, and ensuring it drives strategic decision-making, prioritisation and effective use of public resources.
• Drive strategic business partnering and financial performance, leading engagement with Directors and budget holders to strengthen financial control, improve forecasting accuracy, and align resource allocation to organisational priorities and outcomes
• Responsible for reporting the financial position to provide insight and analysis of the key issues and risks and opportunities to senior management, providing the full picture.
• Lead the development of the DBS Financial Strategy, including a mid-term financial plan which supports the organisation overarching strategy and captures impacts and benefits of investment proposals.
• Review fee levels, ensuring the development and adoption of an appropriate product costing methodology, and lead the process to propose and secure approval for changes as required (based on projections of demand and costs), including working with Home Office and HM Treasury to secure the legislative changes.
• Develop the FPP&A function to support and challenge budget holders and managers to ensure they effectively use resources to meet demand, performance targets and business plan priorities.
• Build capability in financial modelling, to enable the team to support the commercial team in building, analysing and validating commercial financial models.
• Provide commercial financial advice to support DBS and its Commercial function in managing commercial relationships and maximising value for money.
• Ensure credible budgets and forecasts are developed that withstand scrutiny by Executive Team, the Board and its committees, Directorate Management teams, and other governance forums as appropriate.

Continuous Improvement / Efficiency / Transformation

• Co-lead the development and delivery of a Finance Transformation roadmap that positions Finance as a strategic business partner, driving value creation across the organisation.
• Champion continuous improvement by identifying and implementing process efficiencies, new technologies and digital solutions that simplify operations, enhance self-service capabilities and improve customer outcomes.
• Work collaboratively across functions to optimise end-to-end business processes, support transformation initiatives and build robust business cases for change, ensuring benefits are realised and measured.
• Foster a culture of efficiency and operational excellence through effective performance measurement, strong financial controls and the ongoing monitoring of organisational and financial performance.

Other Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and develop the FPP&A teams, providing direction and influence that ensures the teams have the required capacity, capability, resilience, processes and systems to deliver their objectives.
• Interacting with senior leadership team members and senior members of staff from across the organisation, as well as partners such as the Home Office.
• Undertake corporate duties including deputising for the Executive Director for Finance and Commercial and/or representing the function, including at Executive Team, its committees, and in meetings with external stakeholders.
• Provide expert financial advice at a strategic level, including on complex financial matters
• Providing robust financial advice, support and analysis to support strategic decision-making. Influencing the development of strategies and adding value by ensuring that financial advice is integrated into their decision making.
• Constructively challenging the use of resources in meeting demand, performance measures and business plan priorities. Proactively supporting budget managers and holders to find solutions, ensuring maximum benefit is achieved and the right balance between economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
• Providing financial advice and modelling to support the annual pay review process.

Person specification

The successful applicant will need to be able to demonstrate the below ability and experience:

Essential Criteria

Ability

• Strategic thinking, planning and analysis skills, with the ability to develop creative solutions to support the management of change and mitigate associated risks.
• Excellent relationship management, influencing, facilitation and presentation skills.
• An expert people manager with the ability to build, lead, coach and retain a cohesive and high performing team.
• Presence and credibility to work with the Executive Team and senior colleagues across the organisation.
• Highly organised and able to plan and manage a broad portfolio of activities.
• Resilience in challenging circumstances: ability to work under pressure, remaining calm but decisive.
• Highly effective communicator in person, in writing and in electronic media.

Experience

• Strong stakeholder management.
• Ability to resolve problems and present appropriate business solutions and recommendations.
• Leading and developing a finance team with broad responsibilities in a changing environment of comparable scale or complexity.
• Expert finance business partnering skills.
• Financial planning and modelling skills, with experience developing/analysing commercial models and providing commercial finance advice.
• Development and maintenance of financial strategy and a mid-term financial plan.
• Developing financial frameworks and procedures.
• Proven relevant experience of working within a change/transformation role

Professional Qualification/Membership

• A fully qualified member of a CCAB accounting body or CIMA

Desirable Criteria

Experience of operating in a regulatory agency or non-departmental public body (NDPB)