Senior Finance Business Partner

About the job

Key information

• Salary: Grade 10 (£37,280 – £41,771 per annum)
• Annual leave: 30 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Hours: Permanent, full time, 37 hours per week
• Hybrid working arrangement: Based at our modern, refurbished County Hall offices in Taunton, and the option to work flexibly from home.

What will I be doing?

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset, and you’ll be a key part of that by leading our financial planning, advising services, and ensuring robust budget preparation and monitoring. Your day-to-day work will involve:

• Leading financial strategy and medium-term financial planning, providing expert guidance on legislative changes and service impacts.
• Delivering high-quality financial advice to managers and budget holders, including analysis, forecasting and benchmarking.
• Overseeing the preparation, monitoring and reporting of Revenue and Capital budgets, ensuring accuracy and compliance with financial regulations.
• Managing the preparation of final accounts, statutory returns and audit requirements.
• Leading and developing a small team, supporting performance, workload management and continuous improvement.

What kind of experience or qualifications do I need?

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be, but it will really help if you have:

• Strong knowledge of financial regulations and how they apply within local government.
• Experience working in a finance environment, including complex accounting, business processes and statutory reporting.
• Confident user of Excel, with experience of more advanced formulas and functionality.
• Demonstrable ability to provide clear financial advice and support to managers and budget holders.
• Experience managing and motivating a team, with a track record of developing effective reporting and control processes.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

What is in it for me?

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

Supporting documents and information

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Kerry Hepple, Strategic Finance Business Partner – kerry.hepple@somerset.gov.uk

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button – we can’t wait to hear from you.

Apply on the Somerset Council website

Apply now