Finance Business Partner

Atomic Weapons Establishment; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 37,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9-day fortnight

270 hours annual leave

Pension scheme 9-13%

Career development funding

Employee assistance programme

Life assurance 4x salary

Discounts on everyday spending

Special leave policy

Job summary

Atomic Weapons Establishment is recruiting a Finance Business Partner in Reading with hybrid working. The role provides financial insight to the Business Partner Manager and Service Delivery Unit, supporting budgeting, forecasting and cost control.

You will apply data-driven analysis, build relationships with budget holders, and help drive strong financial performance across the organisation.

Qualifications

• Good standard of general education with a business/finance qualification or equivalent or proven experience.
• Stakeholder management skills with ability to collaborate at all levels.
• Analytical mindset with strong Excel capability.

Responsibilities

• Carry out variance analysis and provide insights for forecasts and budgets.
• Support cost reporting, trend analysis and decision-making through financial data.
• Maintain high standards of data quality and integrity across systems.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Analytical

Excel

Education

Business/finance qualification

Job description

Finance Business Partner Location: Reading Area, with free onsite parking. Package: £36,710 - £50,000 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience). Working Pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight, with every other Friday as a non-working day.

This role is eligible for hybrid working, meaning employees typically spend three days on site in a long week and two days on site in a short week. We support flexible working where possible, including part‑time and varied working hours, so please let us know if you would like us to consider an alternative working arrangement when you apply.

Ready to play your part? At AWE, it’s not just a job, it’s far more than that. Our shared purpose is to help keep the nation safe. Could this role be the opportunity for you to play your part? As a key member of our Finance Business Partnering team, the Finance Business Partner Specialist plays a vital role in delivering high‑quality financial insight and expertise. You’ll provide trusted, expert advice to the Business Partner Manager and the wider Service Delivery Unit, helping to shape informed decision‑making and drive strong financial performance across AWE.

Key Accountabilities

• Complying with appropriate procedures, processes and systems to ensure the quality and consistency of data.
• Supporting the preparation, monitoring and control of forecasts and budgets for specified areas, including change control.
• Support system interrogation and financial performance measurement of actual expenditure.
• Provide input to cost reports, including trend analysis and early warnings as necessary.
• Maintain and promote high personal standards in environment, safety, health, security and quality and be a great team player.

Key Responsibilities

• Carry out variance analysis and cost monitoring against a range of financial measures and expense categories and provide input to narrative for impact and recovery statements.
• Building effective stakeholder engagement maintaining relationships with customer budget holders and wider stakeholders.
• Providing information and reports at appropriate level budget holder meetings.
• Providing information to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements.
• Provide cost information for the financial case on business cases.
• Continuously improve quality of service proactively identifying opportunities through engaging with the local teams, prioritising changes that will add the most value.
• Being open to challenge and new ideas, sharing of knowledge and experience, encouraging others through building a supportive team environment.
• Support the development of a Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) and other change requirements.
• Assist and support the preparation of cost studies utilising historical data.
• Providing data for benchmarking information to meet specific needs.
• The Company may require you to fulfil any other reasonable duties aligned to your position from time to time in line with business needs.

Who are we looking for?

• Good standard of general education, including business / finance qualification or equivalent or proven level of experience.
• Stakeholder management skills with ability to collaborate at all levels.
• Analytical.
• Highly skilled in Microsoft Excel, with strong working knowledge of the wider Microsoft Office suite.

Work hard, be rewarded:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to shine during our recruitment process. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.

If you’re looking for a role with excitement, intrigue and something that really makes a difference then now is the time to join AWE.

We are at the start of a once in a generation – possibly two generations – programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We will do this while continuing to deliver the Trident programme as well as managing ambitious state‑of‑the‑art capital and construction projects – some of which have never been done before.

Find out more on our website.

Service Leavers, Veterans and Reservists – we are an Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award Employer. Visit the Service Leavers page to find out more.