Senior Financial Accountant

TN United Kingdom; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Financial Accountant to join their Finance and Corporate Services Directorate. This pivotal role involves leading the production of the Annual Report and providing essential technical accounting advice to support Scotland's transport initiatives. The ideal candidate will be a fully CCAB qualified finance professional with a strong background in financial accounting and management. You will play a crucial role in ensuring compliance with regulations while fostering a collaborative environment. This exciting opportunity offers a chance to make a significant impact in the public sector, contributing to sustainable economic growth and effective financial management.

Qualifications

• Fully CCAB qualified with strong finance experience.
• Ability to communicate complex financial concepts effectively.

Responsibilities

• Lead the production of the Annual Report and Accounts.
• Provide technical accounting advice and support financial management.
• Inspire and motivate a small team while ensuring effective controls.

Skills

CCAB qualification

financial accounting

management accounting

communication skills

interpersonal skills

strategic thinking

Education

CCAB qualification

Job description

Transport Scotland is the national transport agency for Scotland and is accountable to Parliament and the public through Scottish Ministers, with a budget of around £3.5 billion per year. Transport is a vital feature of the Scottish Government's focus on increasing sustainable economic growth, and transport investments and policies have major impacts on the economy, people, and the environment.

Structure of the team:

We are recruiting for a Senior Financial Accountant within Transport Scotland’s Finance and Corporate Services (FCS) Directorate. This is one of nine directorates within the agency and the FCS consists of three distinct functions – Corporate Services, Transport Scotland Finance and Transport Portfolio Finance.

Reporting into the Head of Financial Accounting and Reporting, you will work at the heart of finance, providing statutory reporting and technical accounting advice for Transport Scotland. This is a rewarding post for a qualified finance professional to play a key role in supporting Scotland’s Transport services, initiatives infrastructure and policy.

Responsibilities:

• Leading on the production of the Annual Report and Accounts coordinating with stakeholders to ensure accordance with agreed timescales and appropriate regulations and guidance including SPFM, the FReM and IFRS.
• Supporting robust financial management of the agency’s budgets and providing accurate, timely and appropriate financial and management information to the Transport Scotland Senior Management Team, Scottish Government Finance and Ministers.
• Providing technical accounting advice to support the business in areas such as asset valuations, non-current assets, VAT and lease treatments. Ensuring financial transactions are compliant with relevant accounting and financial regulations.
• Leading a small team, inspiring and motivating them to be fully engaged in their work, encouraging learning and development and ensuring wellbeing needs are met.
• Supporting a robust financial control environment, including fraud and risk mitigation, taking proactive action to maintain effective controls and addressing internal audit findings.
• Building and maintaining key relationships, in particular developing trust and rapport. This includes managing expectation of senior managers and stakeholders.
• Contributing to the Finance team’s continuous improvement work stream and readiness in anticipation of the new Scottish Government Shared Service systems provision, in partnership with SG teams, cross government partners and the wider Transport Scotland Directorates and stakeholders.

Essential Criteria & Qualifications:

• The successful candidate must be fully CCAB qualified with up-to-date CPD.
• Strong finance experience, with the ability to provide high quality advice to a wide range of Civil Servants and stakeholders, with the ability to communicate and explain complex financial concepts to non-accountants.
• Highly effective management, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate and collaborate effectively with a range of staff and stakeholders.
• Strong background in financial accounting, finance business partnering or management accounting and experience of both supporting and challenging partners.
• The ability to think and act strategically and make links across policy and organisational boundaries to achieve positive outcomes.

Minimum Time in Post:
You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade. You must discuss your intention to apply with your current line manager to help ensure release dates can be agreed.

Location:
This post is based in either Glasgow or Edinburgh, with hybrid working in line with current Transport Scotland policies. You will be expected to be office based twice per week, pro rata.

The post is a full time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.