Job Description

The role of Head of Office to the Finance and Business Services Director is a fast paced and stretching role that provides plenty of opportunity for development.

You will gain exposure to strategic decision making across a range of functions at the most senior levels, and valuable experience of working with senior officials and high-level stakeholders. Working directly to the Director you will have unparalleled insight into the varied and complex issues that cross the Director’s desk and will play a pivotal role in the delivery of their strategic priorities.

Finance and Business Services covers diverse and complex issues across multiple functions ranging from Finance to Security. The Directorate enables the Department for International Trade to help businesses export, drive inward and outward investment, negotiate market access and trade deals, and champion free trade. 

• Providing business intelligence and advising the Director on departmental and Directorate business; understanding and determining the impact for the work of the Finance and Business Services team, putting forward proposals to achieve strategic objectives and delivering discrete cross cutting and high-profile projects on behalf of the Director
• Assessing the Director’s work priorities; responding to emails on their behalf when necessary; drawing urgent items to the Director’s attention and advising them on how to respond to requests, papers and otherwise to the deadlines set
• Identifying, clarifying, managing, and resolving issues relevant to the Directorate and the wider Department before they cross the Director’s desk
• Working closely with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders; building high quality relationships and representing the Director and Directorate as needed
• Proactively engaging with officials across the Directorate, wider Department and to ensure the Director is briefed on relevant issues and prepared for upcoming meetings; ensuring officials understand what is expected of them; monitoring progress on actions to ensure that they are on track; and reviewing notes and submissions for both quality and accuracy
• Acting as a proactive member of the Directorate Senior Leadership Team; collaborating with the senior leadership team on a range of activities, ensuring there is a clearly understood overview of the directorate agenda and priorities
• Delivering through others on corporate process for the Directorate, both routine and ad hoc; managing and monitoring budgets, leading on workforce planning, resolving any with recruitment or onboarding issues, maintaining directorate risk register, tracking audit actions, ensuring sound information management and strong business continuity plans are in place
• Motivating, managing and developing the team to continually improve the service to stakeholders

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent numerical, analytical, written and presentational skills including the ability to express complex information in simple forms and draft high-quality submissions for senior officials and ministers
• Excellent financial skills with strong analytical ability, with credibility across all aspects of the finance agenda
• Ability to use judgment, combined with the ingenuity and ability to spot and manage risk and bring solutions to problems
• Excellent organizational skills with a track record of delivering at pace in a busy environment juggling a range of priorities
• Proven track record of building positive and effective relationships with senior officials, ministers and other senior stakeholders and critically engaging with them to bring out the ‘so what’
• Strong influencing and interpersonal skills and the ability to deliver results through others
• CCAB qualified
• Experience in one of the Directorate’s other functions (Property, Fraud, Health and Safety, Security, Data Protection, Information Rights or Records Management)
• Strong Excel skills
• Proven experience working in a range of finance roles within a complex fast paced environment

You have excellent interpersonal skills and are able to use these skills to communicate clearly and effectively with stakeholders at all levels. You enjoy working closely with others, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to achieve a common outcome.

You thrive on making key decisions to resolve issues, and can communicate your findings to others in a professional and informative manner. Support in applying for our vacancies is available by joining a virtual Candidate Support Session. You must be CCAB qualified.