Strategic Finance Lead

Crown Prosecution Service; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A governmental legal agency is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead to manage financial strategy and investment appraisals. You’ll represent the agency at corporate levels, supporting collaboration across government departments. The ideal candidate will be AAT Level 4 qualified or equivalent and have recent experience in finance roles. This position involves reviewing financial implications of policies, ensuring budget effectiveness, and delivering insights to enhance decision-making. Strong interpersonal and analytical skills are essential for success in this fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified to AAT Level 4 or equivalent and actively working towards qualification.
• Recent experience in a Project Accountant, Finance Business Partner or Strategic Finance Role.
• Good understanding of Investment Appraisal techniques.

Responsibilities

• Review cross-government policy proposals for financial implications.
• Represent CPS at external meetings and manage contractual interests.
• Deliver standards in Investment Appraisal for CPS projects.
• Assess affordability and value for money of new policy measures.

Skills

Investment Appraisal techniques

Interpersonal skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Education

AAT Level 4 or Part Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent

Job description

Location

Please note that this post can be based in any location within England and Wales, where a CPS office is located. Whilst it’s an expectation of the role to travel to CPS locations as per business needs, CPSis disability confident employer and all reasonable adjustments will be considered in line with Equality Act of 2010.

About the job

In the role of Strategic Finance Lead, you will operate at the crossroads of financial strategy, planning, policy, and operations. Collaborating closely with colleagues throughout the CPS, you will play a crucial role in supporting the Head of Financial Planning to drive the CPS’s financial strategy, by fostering relationships with Other Government Departments, overseeing financial planning, and leading investment appraisal activities.

Job summary

As the Strategic Finance Lead, you will represent the CPS at a corporate level, championing a collaborative approach with Other Government Departments and external partners. Your responsibilities will include working with CPS Policy & Strategy teams and other government departments to assess and reflect the implications of policy changes in the CPS Medium Term Financial Plan. You will also manage the CPS’s interests within the One HMG contracts and the FCDO relationship, ensuring robust stewardship of public funds, effective budget use, and fair treatment across the organisation.

You will empower CPS teams and business case authors to enhance the quality of financial and economic appraisals for business cases, offering expert advice and constructive feedback to business case authors and the Portfolio Management Office.

By providing strategic financial support and guidance, you will be instrumental in steering the business towards sound decision-making. This will involve delivering insightful financial analysis, driving commercial awareness, offering constructive challenge, and ensuring strong financial governance, control, and alignment throughout the CPS.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role.There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 before starting in this role. The start date is expected to be 8-12 weeks after the application deadline.

You must complete and pass your Civil Service tests by 11:55pm on Wednesday 10th December 2025 to be able to complete an application for this role.

As part of this role, you may be expected to undertake direct line management responsibilities.

Your roles and responsibilities

• Review cross-government policy proposals to assess and manage financial implications for CPS.
• Represent CPS corporately at external meetings, including One HMG, advocating a joined-up approach, and managing CPS’s contractual interests.
• Build effective relationships with other government departments and CPS functional leads to ensure cost-effective achievement of corporate objectives.
• Champion effective strategic decision-making and risk management to ensure strong financial performance across business as usual, projects, and programmes.
• Deliver high service standards in Investment Appraisal, evaluating financial implications of projects and programmes for CPS as a whole and highlighting risk.
• Assess affordability and value for money of new policy measures, ensuring financial impacts inform decisions under tight deadlines.
• Ensure financial and economic cases for endorsement are comprehensive, reflect lifecycle costs, align with strategic priorities, and are affordable.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply the successful candidate will have:

• Qualified to AAT Level 4 or Part Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent and actively working towards qualification with exams scheduled
• Recent experience in a Project Accountant, Finance Business Partner or Strategic Finance Role.
• Good understanding of Investment Appraisal techniques.
• Good level of knowledge of Management Public Money & Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders.
• Good communicator, with the ability to explain financial information to senior business leaders and decision-makers.
• Good analytical skills with the ability to transform financial data into meaningful insight.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

For more information and to apply, please visit our website via the apply button below.