476647 – Finance Business Partnering Manager in Oxford

As the Finance Business Partnering Manager, you will be experienced in managing and leading a high‑performing team of Business Partnering Accountants and Assistant Business Partnering Accountants, supporting various services in a matrix management environment. You will collaborate and negotiate with stakeholders both within and outside of finance to manage resources, prioritise areas supported, and determine reporting frequency, and then make operational decisions on behalf of the department. A significant part of your role involves identifying and implementing efficiency opportunities within the team, leveraging technology, and standardising processes across the service. You will work closely with the wider finance service to ensure transactional activities are managed in the right place, data and reporting are optimised, and training meets priority needs. Additionally, you will facilitate the transfer of processes to other finance teams or services, upskill team members, and support the Finance Support Service to meet the needs of services. Ensuring robust processes and timetables are in place to support team resilience and activity planning is crucial. You will encourage group learning, share developments, celebrate individual achievements, and provide support for complex queries or decisions. Furthermore, you will personally offer support for services, projects, or complex tasks, contributing to the overall function’s capacity and handling work of Business Partnering Accountant complexity or greater. You will be responsible for the performance of team members, and overall quality of their work, although not responsible for quality assuring individual pieces of work.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Financial Leadership: Provide strategic direction and oversight for financial planning, monitoring, and reporting across service areas. Ensure alignment with the council’s medium‑term financial strategy and corporate priorities.
• Team Management and Development: Lead, manage, and develop a team of finance professionals. This includes setting objectives, monitoring and managing performance, supporting professional development, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Business Partnering: Support the finance business partnering function through providing financial insight, challenge, and support to enable effective decision‑making.
• Budget Setting and Monitoring: Support the preparation, consolidation, and monitoring of revenue and capital budgets. Ensure robust and proportionate forecasting and variance analysis is being carried out, either within, or on behalf of services. Monitor the performance and support services in managing financial pressures.
• Financial Performance and Insight: Support the development of financial performance dashboards and insight reports. Use data analytics to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, and communicate findings to both finance and non‑finance stakeholders.
• Governance and Compliance: Ensure compliance with financial regulations, internal controls, and audit requirements. Support the development and implementation of financial policies and procedures.
• Change and Transformation Support: Provide financial input into service transformation projects, business cases, and savings plans. Assess financial viability, risks, and benefits of proposed changes. Experience in managing and resolving ambiguity.

Essential Requirements

• CCAB or CIMA Qualified with significant post‑qualification experience.
• Strong experience of managing team and individual performance and development.
• Experience of delivering change and transformation within a finance team.
• Substantial experience working in a business partnering environment, supporting complex services.
• Understanding of financial management, business planning, governance, risk management, processes & procedures.
• Experienced communicator who can communicate with authority and credibility, and use these skills to inform, instruct, persuade and encourage feedback.
• Excellent organisational skills, with a strong ability to plan your own work and that of a team to deliver a high‑performing and motivated team.
• Able to proactively solve problems, look for opportunities, implement solutions, and manage risk.
• Excellent leadership skills to inspire and develop organisational thinking and deliver high levels of performance, both within own team and the wider organisation.
• Commercially aware, with an ability to understand cost drivers, value for money, and identify opportunities for delivering greater value.
• Ability to join the dots across the organisation, identify the implications of proposals.
• Local Government experience.

Working Arrangements

The post is not politically restricted. Contractual base as detailed on contract, but you are able to work on a flexible basis in line with our Agile Working Policy. Able to travel across the county and work from various office locations within the county.

Health and Safety at Work

All employees have responsibilities for health and safety – both for themselves, colleagues and the people we work with.