Finance Business Partner Bristol, England
Bristol City Council
Full Time
Bristol, England
62478 - 69206 GBP ANNUAL Today
Job description
Full Time, Permanent
At Bristol City Council we are excited to be bringing to the market several finance roles.
These opportunities reflect a period of review and change, with transformation happening across the Council and reflective within the finance function. We have seen a strengthening of the Council’s finance resource with the appointment of two new Heads of Service, to drive forward a structure with increased strategic finance resources. A key aspect of this change is to embed a business partnering approach across our financial management team and these roles are pivotal in enabling us to provide strategic advice and ensure budget holder engagement.
As a core part of the senior finance team, our finance business partners lead on the delivery of high-quality financial advice, bringing commercial and financial expertise to the Council. You will lead the finance support to your directorate, taking a full and proactive approach in delivering financial & management services to our Directors and Budget Holders and building strong professional working relationships.
Transformation and project support will be a key element to this role, with strong negotiation and influencing skills enabling you to provide strategic financial advice and steer on decision pathways.
You will be collaborating and challenging stakeholders across the organisation to ensure effective financial grip and control, including risk management, across the Council. You will represent finance at internal and external senior leadership meetings and provide financial and commercial advice to support strategic and operational decision making, analyse new and existing business initiatives, challenge assumptions, highlight risks and opportunities, and improve systems and analytical tools to support evidence-based decision making.
You will have management responsibility for the directorate aligned financial management team and have opportunity to collaborate and lead on areas of improvement and efficiency.
We are specifically seeking Finance Business Partners to align to the following directorate portfolios at the current time, although also welcome general interest at this level for future opportunities:
Growth & Regeneration – The directorate drives the city’s growth agenda on economic development and regeneration. You will be involved in a number of high-profile major transformation and development projects, covering enterprise zone transformation and city centre revitalisation, as well as sustainable and inclusive economic growth projects including air quality improvements climate change initiatives and corporate landlord.
Children’s & Education – The directorate covering children & family services, education and skills and safer communities. You will be leading in a number of key stakeholder groups, including the schools’ forum, engagement with the Department for Education (DfE) on the Delivering Better Value in SEND (DBV) programme and leading across PFI arrangements to our traded services.
Resources – The directorate provides the core corporate functions across the Council, including Finance, HR & OD, Legal and Democratic services and Policy, Strategy and Digital. You would be the lead interface between the Council and the Councils shareholder company’s and be involved in our corporate landlord functions.
What do I need to Apply?
You will hold a CCAB (or equivalent) qualification with post qualification experience and evidence of continuing professional development, an innovative problem solver with sharp financial and commercial acumen.
You will have business partnering experience in providing commercial and business advice to senior management in a variety of service settings, leading on financial aspect of transformation projects and ideally capital programmes, supporting the long-term vision within the constraints of short, medium and long-term financial resources.
You will have experience of working in complex and diverse organisations and can understand the operational context within which local government operates and how to apply the dynamics of working within a political environment with resource constraints.
You will have demonstrable abilities to manage team performance effectively and to hold team members to account. You will need to develop, support and lead the relevant finance team and ensure they are continuously developed.
While prior experience of working in Local Government and with the relevant services is preferred, we welcome applications with transferable skills and appropriate experience outside of the Local Government setting.
Why Bristol City Council?
Working for Bristol City Council is about more than just a job. We’re not about building profits to make money for someone else, we’re about supporting the development of our City, improving life chances and outcomes for our population. We’re clearly focused on making a difference to the people and the communities across the City.
Excellent finance teams underpin the service provision we deliver as a Council, the decisions we make and the value for money that we achieve. We are a core City Unitary Authority with a wide breadth of services and a variety of significant projects and transformation programmes underway, so working here will give you engaging and diverse responsibilities, whichever the right role is for you.
At both organisational and departmental level we are enthusiastic about supporting succession planning, career development opportunity from within and are keen to grow our senior leaders of the future. At Bristol City Council, we go that extra mile for our people; we offer a work environment which is fast moving and supportive, giving you the chance to use your skills and develop new ones within a high-profile organisation. So, if you are looking for a role where you can both make your mark and add value while working to develop professionally, we would very much welcome your application to our finance team.
We positively encourage productive, flexible working and we provide you with the technology you need to work from a variety of locations. The finance service has adopted a blended working policy which will allow you to spend a proportion of your time working remotely. There will be an expectation for you to attend the office according to business need, this is an evolving balance although currently our team have a mixed approach with a minimum of 1-2 days a month being based at City Hall.
Join us and you’ll receive an excellent rewards package including flexible working and flexitime, membership of the Local Government Pension scheme, and a generous annual leave allowance. In addition, you’ll be working in a supportive environment where you’ll have the chance to make Bristol a better place and contribute to its future.
How to Apply
To apply please submit your CV and a Supporting Statement which demonstrates by practical example how you meet each of the essential criteria listed in the attached Person Specification. If you have a preference as to which service area you’d like to apply for then please state this in your Supporting Statement.
To apply please submit your CV and a Supporting Statement which demonstrates by practical example how you meet each of the essential criteria listed in the attached Person Specification. If you have a preference as to which service area you’d like to apply for then please state this in your Supporting Statement.
Please find attached the Job Description and Person Specification which will provide you with a clear overview of the role.
Please note that these roles are subject to a standard DBS check.
If you have any job specific queries, please contact Sarah Chodkiewicz on: [email protected]
Please note we also have Finance Manager opportunities.
At Bristol City Council, we value having a workforce as diverse as the City we serve. We therefore welcome, develop and promote people from all sections of the community, and we particularly encourage applicants from women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, disabled and LGBTQ+ candidates who are currently under-represented within our service area. Appointments will be made on merit.
Bristol City Council
www.bristol.gov.uk
Bristol, United Kingdom
Nicola Yates
Unknown / Non-Applicable
1001 to 5000 Employees
Company - Public
Municipal Agencies
1959
