268289 Finance Data Lead

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* Please note, you will need to merge your personal statement and CV into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and personal statement. If you experience any technical issues, please contact [email protected].

Job summary

In line with the wider vision for a Modern Civil Service, DLUHC is embarking on a period of significant change in the way it delivers its corporate services – intending to seize the full potential of data and technology.

We have recently launched a Transformation Programme and are looking to expand our resources and skillset  to enable us to achieve our objectives over the next two years. This programme will work across our Finance, HR and Commercial directorates, as well as two of our ALBS: the Planning Inspectorate, and Valuation Tribunal Service.

As part of this programme of improvements, in DLUHC Finance, we are creating a new data function, which will look at the financial data that we hold (primarily on our SAP system) – the aims of this function are wide:

To catalogue, analyse and understand better the data we hold

To identify data owners and principles to control use

To audit, understand and help better organise our data

To join up with other data owners and analysts across the Department and beyond to see how we can better share information

To improve data quality

To leverage technological improvements (working closely with our systems teams and a wider programme of change) to create automation and efficiencies

To join up with our reporting improvement plans

This function will also be responsible for responding to requests for information and ad hoc financial reporting, as well as taking a lead on reporting on grants made by the department.

Job description

This role will sit within the Finance directorate, as part of the Financial Reporting and Systems division and Process Improvement (PI) Team. You will report to the Head of Process Improvement and will potentially have line management responsibility.

The PI team sits within the Finance directorate and operates as an interface between our SAP technical teams in the Business Solutions Team, and business stakeholders and users, primarily in Finance, HR and Commercial, but also across the Department more generally. The new data function within this team will enhance our role in bringing together data held by different parts of finance and creating better processes and controls around that data.

Your responsibilities will include:

Helping to design and set up new data function and identifying priorities, key users and stakeholders

Developing a data catalogue, showing what data is held where

Getting to grips with the way data is structured in SAP to ensure a thorough understanding of the different types of data

Developing a policy around data ownership and best practice for answering ad hoc information requests.

Manipulating data to respond to queries, preparing reports using excel or other appropriate tools.

Reporting to Cabinet Office on grant expenditure

Creating and maintaining project documentation, such as plans, specifications, risk register, issues log, etc, delegating appropriately

Proactively identifying improvement opportunities by utilising your knowledge and experience and applying your analytical skills to problem solving

Person specification

You will be a proactive individual, with a can do approach, used to working at pace, and taking responsibility for their work with little supervision. You will adapt well when circumstances or priorities change, operate as a good team player, and able to persuade and influence others to bring everyone along together on the change journey. We’d like you to have experience working in Finance or in a data role where you are used to using systems to extract information and are comfortable working with a lot of data.

Essential: The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:  

A good eye for detail, high level of accuracy and ability to spot inconsistencies

Good communication skills, written and verbal

An ability to recognise change as an opportunity to deliver efficiency and innovation, acting as an agent for change when you identify the chance to drive and add value

The ability to think strategically about the bigger picture.

Skills to collate and organise a wide variety of information from various sources

Desirable: We’d also like you to have these additional skills and experience, but they are not essential:

Experience of delivering change that is specifically related to corporate processes and ERP systems

Working in a reporting or data driven role.

Application Process

CV & Cover Letter:

Please provide up to a 500 word statement of suitability, describing how you meet the criteria we have described under “Person specification”, including your experience and skills relevant to the kind of work you could be doing.

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

Behaviours

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

Delivering at Pace

Changing and Improving

Communicating and Influencing

Seeing the Big Picture

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%

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours.

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role. 

We are for everyone 

CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

Please remove references to your: 

name/title

educational institutions

age

gender

email address

postal address

phone number

nationality/immigration status

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing: 

Experience - Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of experience, technical, behaviour, ability and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  Candidates will be required to deliver a presentation at interview, more details will be given at that stage.

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Strength: Yes

Behaviours: Delivering at Pace, Changing and Improving, Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the Big Picture

Technical: yes

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Grade 7 salary 

The salary for this role is £54,632 (Hemel Hempstead) or £49,697 (National). 

For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. 

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to DLUHC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

Location 

Hemel Hempstead

Wolverhampton

Darlington

Sift and Interview dates 

sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 27th of February with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact [email protected] to be removed from the reserve list. 

Fixed Term Details

For external candidates– you will be offered a 23 months fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.  

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 23 months loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful. 

For DLUHC employees  - you will retain your existing contract 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned.The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals

nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

nationals of the Republic of Ireland

nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service

relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service

certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name :Hannah Cahill

Email :[email protected].