Finance and Systems Senior Assurance Officer

As a principal keyholder of HMRC’s finance systems, we ensure that all changes meet our standards, summarised in five key guardrails, and provide assurance to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) that these standards are upheld. We provide expert advice and support on accounting treatments, financial controls, and risk management to programmes throughout the end-to-end (E2E) change lifecycle, ensuring that all financial aspects of change are robust, compliant, and well-governed.

You will work in a fast-paced environment, building relationships, and providing specialist financial advice and support to assist in driving forward effective transformation of HMRC’s finance systems and processes. You will specify finance requirements for change initiatives and ensure they are delivered.

This will allow HMRC to account for, receive and pay out money in accordance with strategy and Accounting Standards. This role gives an outstanding opportunity to develop key leadership, assurance and collaboration skills.

Our vacancy sits in one of the FA Teams, which forms part of Finance Systems Strategy and Change in Risk, Control & Financial Accountant (RCFA). Our team plays a key role in HMRC Transformation by ensuring excellent financial management and control throughout the HMRC Change process by accrediting changes to financial systems and processes. You will work closely with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure that we design the systems and processes to support the delivery of change through key milestones by effectively managing risks, caveats, High Level requirements and produce monthly progress reports through development and production of KPI’s along with looking at ways of innovating our process.

Job description
Lead all aspects of financial accreditation of the portfolio of projects/programmes assigned to you, ensuring high level requirements are met by the Change programme.
Engage with SMEs, across several finance and specialist areas to ensure change requirements are delivered and tested to our standards.
Provide expert advice and become a 'critical friend' with key HMRC Change Delivery programmes, whilst acting in a sensitive and diplomatic manner.
Ensuring that the financial journey delivered by the project is safe, secure, auditable and allows HMRC accounts to be produced accurately.
Communicate with senior management using appropriate styles, methods and timing, to maximise understanding and impact.
Acting as a mentor or line manager to more junior financial accreditation team members as the need arises.
You will join a welcoming and accomplished team of accreditors, who have a wide knowledge of tax and finance accounting systems and processes.

Successful candidates will undertake a bespoke training programme enabling you to:

Represent Finance in a project change environment, introducing and driving forward our requirements.
Influence the financial accreditation process as the team adapts to the pace of HMRC Change and the way we deliver Financial Accreditation.
Develop the skills needed to build co-operative partnerships with project and programme teams to ensure finance requirements are understood and developed.
Critically you'll then be assuring the subsequent changes made to ensure that they align with internal and external standards.

We do this throughout the project lifecycle process, providing accreditation and assurance for changes to HMRCs financial systems and processes.

Person specification
Responsibilities:

Being a finance project stakeholder ensuring finance requirements are delivered by the project team to attain a safe, secure and auditable financial journey.
Experienced in managing risks, issues and prioritising your own work so that you manage multiple deadlines.
Experienced in analysing information, summarising and using judgement on recommendations.
Ensuring that changes made to Finance systems and processes meet Finance strategy.
Working with an expert team of accreditors, to continually build capability that will ensure efficient delivery that meets the future demands of HMRC.
Important: The role can require frequent travel including overnight stays, sometimes at short notice.

Essential Criteria

Good understanding of accounting principles and standards.
Experience of working in a finance, project, audit or assurance role.
A strong team player and independent analytical problem solver who builds effective working relationships, identifies solutions, and takes ownership to see tasks through to completion.
Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage effectively at all levels and explain technical concepts clearly and concisely.
Experience of managing multiple deadlines and competing priorities from multiple sources.
Experience of analysing information, summarising and using judgement to make recommendations.
Ability to line manage and supervise the work of another member of the team.
Desirable Criteria

Ability to demonstrate either project management, audit or assurance skills.
Experience of working on transformation programmes, in a project change environment or working knowledge of one or more areas of taxation.