Clerical/Higher Executive Officer

Brook Street; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A recruitment agency is seeking a Compliance Team member for a temporary role in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The successful candidate will support financial compliance tasks and must have a financial background. This full-time job offers £17.39 per hour and includes training. Applicants need strong stakeholder management skills and proficiency in Microsoft products. Opportunity for veterans and individuals with disabilities is guaranteed as part of their commitment to equality.

Benefits

Paid holidays

Pension scheme

Support for veterans

Qualifications

• Ability to adapt to changing priorities in the organization.
• Experience in building effective relationships across teams.
• Ability to analyze various data sets for informed decision-making.
• Experience in using financial and reporting applications.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to compliance activities focusing on financial compliance.
• Run reports to support HR investigations.
• Manage invoices and provide support on procurement processes.
• Monitor team mailboxes and allocate queries.

Skills

Flexibility

Stakeholder relationship building

Data management

Training and support experience

Analytical skills

Time management

Excellent written and verbal skills

Detail-oriented

Education

Full working knowledge of Microsoft products

Tools

SharePoint

Oracle

Job description

Role Overview

Up to £17.39 per hour + Paid holidays and pension scheme. Temporary Public Sector Senior Administration Role suitable for someone with a financial background and looking for or has leadership experience. Temporary contract till the middle of September 2026, or for 12 months from start date. Brook Street are currently recruiting for a Compliance Team member, Higher Executive Officer level, to work for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA, based in either Peterborough, Newcastle Upon Tyne or Reading. Full-time role working 37 hours per week, Monday-Friday, 9 - 5, can be flexible to a certain degree. Office based for the training, then moving on to 3 days a week in the office. This could increase, as required, for further training or if the business needs dictates. Possible travel between sites. No parking on any of the sites. Location- Lancaster House, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Quay House, Peterborough or Northgate House, Reading. Rate of pay £17.39/hr. Temporary contract till mid-September 2026.

About The Role

This role sits in the Financial Compliance Team delivering compliance activities across a number of entities within the Defra Group. This includes Single Operating Platform (SOP) expense claims, Government Procurement Card (GPC) expenditure, as well as against key government framework contracts including train spend and temporary staff costs. Ensuring compliance with internal and external policies eg HMRC tax rules and reporting and HM Treasury's (HMT) Managing Public Money (MPM). It enables identification of cases of potential fraud, error, reputational damage and risk to the business, including risk management of transaction data published under the Government's transparency agenda.

This role is to support the existing financial compliance team as backfill, to allow multiple team members to undertake process owner and subject matter expert roles across several synergy works streams for Source to Pay, GPC and Expenses. The backfill will ensure business as usual services across the group, as well as supporting the Finance P2P priority project for synergy enablement.

Main responsibilities

• Contributing to and implementing compliance activity, focusing on financial compliance, detecting fraud and error as well as managing business risk.
• Providing support and guidance on policy and system processes
• Running ad hoc reports requested by the wider business to support HR investigations
• Freedom of Information requests and Management Information reporting
• Data management to support use of audit tool
• Quarterly Fraud and Error reporting on behalf of Environment Agency and Defra
• Supporting Transparency reporting on Government Procurement Card spend over £500 and invoiced spend over £25k
• Managing Invoices on Hold, providing advice and guidance to requisitioners to resolve Invoices on Hold queries.
• Review negative balances on account
• Manage inactive cardholder process for Environment Agency and Defra RBS file management for Environment Agency, Defra and Rural Payments Agency, and Covert Card programme
• Liaising as required with employees and subject matter experts to investigate and resolve queries
• Provide guidance and instruction to the business area and/or individuals, including Travel and Subsistence (T&S) claims as well as other business expenses
• Managing overpayments and seeking reimbursement
• Ensure the consistent and fair application of the departmental policies within the team's remit
• Respond to queries from Core Defra staff in relation to the travel and subsistence policy and the government procurement card policy
• Identify and report suspicious transactions
• Support staff to complete their expense claims or card reconciliations in an accurate and timely manner
• Support the processing of new procurement card applications
• Making changes to procurement card controls in line with the agreed policy
• Supporting staff to raise requisitions to purchase goods or services
• Providing advice to staff on our Purchase to Pay systems, processes and policies
• Performing assurance checks on supplier maintenance forms
• Support our housekeeping process on invoices, purchase orders, and suppliers
• Under the government's transparency agenda, prepare various transparency data sets for first review and liaise with stakeholders and customers to resolve any queries and discrepancies, ready for publication on GOV.UK
• Monitoring team mailboxes and allocate queries appropriately

Skills and Qualifications

• Ability to work flexibly and adapt to changing priorities to meet the current and future needs of the organisation
• Ability to build, develop and maintain strong effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders both internal and external
• Collaborative relationships with a range of customers and teams
• Ability to work confidently with information sharing and data, using a systematic approach to recording and storing on a shared system
• Experience of training and supporting others on policies, procedures, practices and techniques equipping them with the knowledge and skills to deliver their work effectively
• Experience of using a range of financial and reporting applications and other IT packages such as SharePoint and Oracle.
• Experience of analysing a variety of data sets to inform decision making
• Be able to work independently and as part of a team
• Effective time management, with experience of working to tight deadlines
• Excellent written and verbal skills
• Attention to detail and use own initiative

Full training will be given but you must have full working knowledge of Microsoft products, especially Excel.

Candidates applying must be able to pass a clear Basic DBS check and provide proof of Right to Work in the UK. You will also need to provide either reference details and/or evidence for education etc for the last 3 years.

The interviews will take place via Teams and you will be expected to demonstrate how your skills match those required and answer one or two competency-based questions, see behaviours below.

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

So, if you are looking for a glimpse into the world of the Public Sector, then this could be the opportunity for you.

Please apply online with your current CV in WORD format. Due to the high number of applications we receive it may not be possible to respond to all applications

Brook Street is proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant and as such, we guarantee to interview all candidates who are veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel, and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy.

As a Disability Confident Leader, and holder of the Gold Award status from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme, Brook Street, as a supplier to the Public Sector Resourcing Framework (PSR), will offer you a guaranteed interview with a PSR Sourcer.

Should you identify as a candidate with a disability and/or as a veteran or spouse/partner of military personnel and meet all the essential criteria for the role, we encourage you to reach out to us via the Brook Street website. Here you will find a link to register your interest and state the role that you are interested in. We are committed to engaging with you.

In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses/partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, Brook Street will interview the best candidates from within that group.

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