SEO Hostile State Threat and SEO Counter Violent Extremist Organisations

Ministry of Defence; London; On-site; GBP 41,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

A government department in London is seeking a finance professional to manage operational funding, deliver financial scrutiny, and advise on financial matters. The ideal candidate will have a finance qualification and strong interpersonal skills. This role involves liaising with military personnel and ensuring compliance with financial governance.

Benefits

Civil Service pension with generous employer contribution

Flexible working options

Enhanced annual leave

Free gym access

Qualifications

• Recent finance experience over an extended period of time.
• Demonstration of excellent interpersonal skills dealing with people at all ranks.

Responsibilities

• Manage operational funding in respect of PJHQ/MAB operations.
• Deliver financial scrutiny of expenditure proposals.
• Act as a Finance Business Partner to gather business information.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Strong IT skills

Education

Finance qualification e.g. AAT or CCAB/CIMA

Tools

PB&F finance systems

Job description

About the job
Job summary

The Finance Military Operations (FinMilOps) team delivers a TLB finance service that is responsible for providing financial advice, business intelligence, support, and assurance for all aspects of the UKStratCom military operational spend against budgets. This includes the provision of advice on financial matters across PJHQ and MAB Operations, reaching into Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Business Management functions, and working as part of the UKStratCom Unified Finance Function.

The Hostile State Threat and Counter Violent Extremist Organisations business-facing Ops SEO roles are responsible for building strong relationships and understanding UKStratCom military operations spend for a defined subset of Chief Joint Operations (CJO) or DMAB-owned operations. Working as part of the wider operations team, the post holders will have an increasingly strong understanding of the business, its stakeholders and deliverables. The post holders will provide advice to operational desks and/or report upwards to ensure financial activity is undertaken in a manner cognisant of available resource, in line with the principles of value for money and sound financial judgement, and with consideration for speed of relevance and operational security (Op Sec).

The roles involve gathering and communicating financial data and other information clearly and provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight, and business solutions to the operations team. Exercising sound judgement to provide advice, influencing Business areas to make informed decisions, and translating and adding insight to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements, whilst preserving operational security.

This will include ensuring appropriate financial and accounting systems and procedures are maintained, and delivering financial scrutiny of expenditure, liaising with other Finance Business Partners (FBPs) to ensure financial information and risks are communicated upwards in a timely way. The roles will also deliver in-year management (IYM) and forecasting. The post holders will problem solve and enable operations at the speed of relevance, preserving operational security.

The roles are accountable to the G7 Ops lead and will each manage one HEO and be Counter Signing Officer for one EO. The roles will require collaborative working with operational commanders and theatre staff, core FBP teams, FinMilOps core service teams and business management units.

Post holders will have responsibility for continuous improvement: improving quality of service by proactively identifying opportunities, prioritising changes that will add the most value, and providing relevant financial coaching and training to the business.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

Manage operational funding in respect of PJHQ/MAB operations and any other contingent operations arising which are assigned:

• Provide routine reports on the state of financial healthfor all operations.
• Scrutinise to ensure the accounts and forecastprovides a true & fairreflection of activity conducted within the period.
• Assist in ensuring outturn is within the specified limits approved by HMT through Strat Fin.
• Ensuring that appropriate financial and accounting systems and procedures are maintained and are functioning properly.
• Contribute to the monthly IYM forecast; ensuring input into TM1 the updated Planning Budgeting and Forecasting (PB&F) system meets with the monthly timetable; is robust and that variances over 5% are explained.
• Review and advise on risks identified as part of the forecast process ensuring that they are relevant and are adjusted to reflect changes as appropriate.
• Keep underreview resource-relatedrisk at eachlocation to ensure that sustainment/remediation requirements are identified early and can beaddressed as soon as possible to ensure value for money.
• Liaise with the deployed Finance Team to obtain necessary information to enable production of an accurate forecast outturn each month
• Ensuring compliance with MoD and FinMilOps Fin Services specific assurance and governance controls.
• Maintain arrangements for assuring and reporting spend delegated to Commanders in specific regions in relation to low value procurement and T&S.
• Conduct assurance visits and checks when necessary.

Deliver financial scrutiny of expenditure proposals by:

• Ensuring financial scrutiny of expenditure proposals is carried out against the basic criteria of minimum military requirement, propriety, regularity, affordability, and value for money and is compliant with MOD policy and guidelines.
• Assess spend proposals against expenditure plans to ensure that unplanned spend can be accommodated within allocated limits of liability.
• Gather initial evidence for fraud investigationsand investigate anomalies.
• Ensurethat proper records are kept and that a clear audit trail, including financial appraisals, is maintained for all decisions.

Delivering your area of responsibility

• Management of team members, empowering, motivating and coaching to enable effective delivery.
• Supporting individual’s personal development and careers, ensuring you and the team make time to develop themselves and their peers.
• Being open to challenge and new ideas, sharing of knowledge and experience, encouraging others through building a supportive team environment.
• Ensuring the team are getting the basics right at the first attempt.
• Developing and embedding the use of standardised processes to deliver a consistent output to customers.
• Exercising sound judgement and interpretative ability, and application of innovative thought to derive novel solutions.
• Seeking advice, referring upwards as required, where problems are particularly complex or have wider implications.

Stakeholder engagement

• Act as a Finance Business Partner and gather business information from all Operations, ensuring reporting mechanisms are established and working correctlyto informfinancial planning and in-year management.
• Form part of the Operations Team (OT) responsible for the day-to-day management of Operations in the region or unit. Provide advice to Ops staff and subordinate organisations to ensure activity is conducted in a manner that is cognisant of available resource, in line with the principles of value for money and sound financial governance.
• Engagewith Operational Commandersand Theatre Staff to ensure activities areexecutedwithinthe extantfinancial planandconsistent with departmental policy.
• Periodically review MoUs/Technical Agreements with other Nations to ensure that agreed services are being provided and charging mechanisms are in place.

Continuous improvement

• Dedicating time to sharing best practice and ideas for refining standardised processes and procedures.
• Seeking feedback on the services provided, and continuously striving to improve the service provision. Promptly address any key issues that arise ensuring that processes or ways of working are adapted accordingly, and customers are informed where there is an impact.
• Managing issues highlighted during internal or external audit, engaging relevant stakeholders to enable corrective action. Promptly addressing any misinterpretation of guidance, sharing with team members to promote embedding the lesson(s) learnt.

Person specification

Essential

• Finance qualification e.g. AAT or Certificate Level CCAB/CIMA – either working towards or qualified
• Recent finance experience over an extended period of time
• Demonstration of excellent interpersonal skills and experience of dealing withpeople at all ranks and grades
• Strong IT skills
• DV Holder or subject to successful DV process
• Successful applicants will be expected to be in West Brompton on a regular basis. Given the nature of operational requirements, access to classified IT systems and attendance at in person meetings will necessitate time in the office of at least 60% of the week and potentially more as required by business needs.

Desirable

• Working knowledge of PB&F and CP&F finance systems.
• Experience of dealing with military personnel of all ranks and their pay and claims systems.

Qualifications
Finance qualification e.g. AAT or Certificate Level CCAB/CIMA – either working towards or qualified
Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £44,590, Ministry of Defence contributes £12,917 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits for MOD civil servants include, but are not limited to:

• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days paid annual leave rising to 30 days on completion of 5 years’ service
• In addition to 8 public holidays per year you will also receive leave for HM The King’s birthday
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Special Paid Leave to volunteer up to 5 days a year
• Eligibility for employee discount services
• Free gym access
• Café and shop on site

Learning & Development

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• Professional and Personal Development of skills
• Access to a range of training courses through Civil Service Learning, some free or paid by MOD

Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 18th August 2025

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.