Financial Controller

NHS England; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in the United Kingdom seeks a finance professional to manage financial operations within the New Hospital Programme. This role involves budgeting, stakeholder engagement, and ensuring compliance with financial policies. Applicants should have relevant professional qualifications and demonstrate experience in leading teams and financial management. The organization promotes a flexible work environment and supports diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Accredited Living Wage Employer

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience of leading financial operations, including budget setting.
• Experience managing teams of approximately 6 FTE or similar.
• Evidence of delivering programmes/projects on time and within budget.

Responsibilities

• Ensure NHP's finances are managed appropriately in the short, medium and long-term.
• Establish effective financial management including ownership of workstream budgets.
• Work closely with the Finance Business Partnering team.

Skills

Leadership

Budget management

Team motivation

Analytical thinking

Education

Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g., CCAB, CIMA, CIPFA)

Job description

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive - and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third‑party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Job overview

The New Hospital Programme is more than building hospitals, it’s a once in a generation opportunity to shape the future of healthcare in England. We’re delivering over 40 new hospitals that will be modern, sustainable and built around the needs of patients and staff. We’re looking for people who care about purpose, who thrive in complex environments and who want to help deliver change at scale for future generations.

Main duties of the job

The NHP Finance Directorate supports and enables the delivery of NHP’s strategic objectives by ensuring that NHP’s finances are managed appropriately in the short, medium and long‑term, ensuring there are robust controls in place to manage risk, proactive stakeholder engagement and effective financial management (including ownership of workstream budgets and agreeing capital envelopes).

The NHP Finance Strategy & Operations team is a supportive and well established team looking for a high performing, adaptable finance professional who thrives in a fast paced environment and can establish themselves quickly.

The postholder will be working closely with the Finance Business Partnering team and other workstreams within the programme across NHS England and the Department of Health & Social Care.

For more information on the NHP programme.

Due to ongoing organisational change and developments, aspects of this role may be subject to change.

By applying for this position, you acknowledge and understand that NHS England is currently undergoing a consultation process to finalise its structure, which may impact this role.

Working for our organisation

The NHS England board have set out the top‑level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high‑quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by:

• Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities.
• Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential.
• Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
• Delivering value for money.

If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in‑person.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

If you are successful at interview, we will run an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) in the Electronic Staff Record system (ESR). This transfer gathers valuable information from a previous or current NHS employer to support the onboarding process, including statutory and mandatory competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You will have the opportunity throughout the recruitment process to inform us if you do not consent.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g., CCAB, CIMA, CIPFA)
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable experience of leading financial operations, including budget setting and management of significant budgets.
• Experience in managing and motivating teams (c.6 FTE or similar) and building effective cross‑functional relationships.
• Evidence of planning and delivering programmes/projects on time and within budget.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to operate in a highly political and sensitive environment.
• Highly developed ability to interpret complex financial and policy information, identify risks, and provide solutions

Our commitments to you

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro‑divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments.

We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. Whilst we appreciate that you may have had support with your application (e.g., using AI technology or guidance from a trusted individual), it’s important that the information contained within your application reflects your own knowledge, skill, and experience and we trust that you apply on that basis.

If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.

Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

Please note that we cannot offer visa sponsorship for any of our vacancies.

To comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, individuals employed or contracted by NHS England may be required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check, dependent on the role.

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.

If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third‑party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [e-mail] or 0300 330 1369. You can view our Privacy Notice here .

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Documents to download

• Job description (PDF , 256.6 KB)
• Occupational Functional Requirements Form (PDF , 69.8 KB)
• NHSE - Verification of ID and RTW Guide (PDF , 306.6 KB)
• Guide to Completing Your Application (DOCX , 42.7 KB)
• Note for Existing NHS Employees applying for Fixed Term vacancies (DOCX , 26.2 KB)
• Redundancy Clawback (PDF , 16.7 KB)