Deputy Director, Business Finance

Department for Business and Trade; Salford; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A UK government department is seeking a leader to set the strategic direction for access to finance policy. This role involves engaging with key stakeholders to deliver ministerial priorities and overseeing reforms for the British Business Bank. The ideal candidate will possess strong leadership skills, excellent judgment, and the ability to build effective relationships across various levels of government. This position offers a unique opportunity to influence economic growth across the country.

Qualifications

• Experience in policy development and financial landscape understanding is essential.
• Proven ability to lead teams and manage senior-level relationships.
• Demonstrated capability to advocate policy agendas effectively.

Responsibilities

• Set strategic direction for access to finance policy.
• Lead a team to reform the British Business Bank.
• Engage with stakeholders to drive government financing priorities.

Skills

Strong leadership

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Judgment in decision making

Collaboration

Job description

Overview

Setting strategic direction for the Department's approach to access to finance policy, including identifying and driving ministerial priorities and working with HMT to develop policy outside of the BBB to support businesses to start and scale.

• Sponsorship of the British Business Bank and active governance involvement, ensuring the team provides support and challenge and that the Bank understands its role in delivering the Government's objectives. This includes how the DBT sponsorship team agrees BBB priorities for the whole of Government.
• Deliver Ministers' priorities, for example leading on finance elements of the Small Business Strategy, Industrial Strategy and other relevant publications and announcements within DBT and across Whitehall.
• Drive wider access to finance policy by engaging with key cross-government stakeholders and advancing work on wider small business access to finance policy.
• Influence Other Government Departments (OGDs) on key areas of work, e.g. HMT on the emergent shape of the National Wealth Fund.
• Lead a team to develop and implement proposals to reform the British Business Bank (BBB), including supporting the delivery of the British Growth Partnership (BGP).
• Be responsible for setting their own team strategy and delivery plan, with appropriate performance milestones and metrics, and a monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Have full accountability for all baseline SCS mandatory requirements, such as mandatory training, office attendance, correspondence/PQ/FOI, diversity and equality.
• Develop effective working relationships with key senior stakeholders at the BBB, HMT, UK Government Investments, key delivery partners and relevant finance industry stakeholders and business.
• Work with BBB, HMT and UKGI to develop and implement proposed financial and governance reforms to align with the Financial Transactions Control Framework and operate independently.

• The role requires strong leadership, sound judgement to make complex decisions in a timely manner, and excellent stakeholder management skills with both the British Business Bank and across Government. It is important to understand the small business financial landscape. The postholder will provide leadership and strategic direction to the Business Finance team, and advocate for the policy agenda with internal and external stakeholders. Be an experienced and inspirational leader, able to empower, develop and inspire their teams to deliver, even under pressure.
• Be an effective communicator capable of handling and balancing a wide range of relationships internally and externally, and credible at very senior levels, including with Ministers, senior central government officials, local partners and other stakeholders.
• Be a collaborative leader who works in partnership to influence, motivate and deliver through others, responding rapidly to shifting demands in high-pressure environments. Disability Confident.

• About Disability Confident: A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria. In some recruitment situations, the employer may limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled people. For more details please go to the appropriate government guidance.

We have a clear mission - to grow the economy. Our role is to help businesses invest, grow and export to create jobs and opportunities right across the country. Click below to find out why you should join DBT's Senior Civil Service team: https://www.youtube.com/embed/W0yhNjUTsws?si=xIIMzsLehkRpRURh

The hiring manager for this position, Paula Crofts, will be hosting a virtual call for any interested applicants to discuss the role and answer any questions. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.

The core mission of DBT is to support economic growth. Access to finance is a key part of supporting economic growth and a key pillar of both the Small Business Plan and the Industrial Strategy. There have been key manifesto commitments around improving access to finance for start-ups and scale-ups as well as ministerial priorities to ensure fair access to finance across the UK. There is also a manifesto commitment to strengthen the operational independence of the British Business Bank and provide it with a stronger regional mandate. BBB has grown in importance and is one of the department's key policy levers, fundamental to delivering DBT's and wider government priorities and manifesto commitments. To deliver effectively, the BBB, guided by this DBT sponsorship team, will need to deliver a set of financial and governance reforms at pace. This will be complex work including collaboration between HMG and the DBT sponsorship team to deliver against priorities and long-term outcomes. In addition, the BBB will need to implement the outcomes of the SR process which includes a significant increase in their capital base as well as their need to operate under the new Financial Transactions Control Framework.