Director of Finance & Business Services - Zero Waste Scotland

Zero Waste Scotland is Scotland’s circular economy public body. Since 2014, our work has helped more people understand that the answer to the climate emergency is to consume less. Through an expansive range of projects and programmes, our innovative work has shown that embedding circular practices is as possible as it is essential. Through sharing this knowledge, nurturing relationships, and fostering bold collaboration, we’re in a truly unique position to influence this vital change.

Here at Zero Waste Scotland, we value our people and are committed to nurturing and supporting them to learn, grow and develop so we can focus our efforts and be a collective force of unique colleagues, creating positive change. As an accredited Investors in Diversity organisation, we are committed to embedding FREDIE principles (Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement) across all that we do at Zero Waste Scotland.

About The Role

With a new Chief Executive in post, this role integrates Finance and Business Services to provide authoritative financial stewardship and to strengthen how the organisation plans, prioritises and delivers change. The Director will ensure strategy translates into affordable, deliverable work, enable disciplined choices (including when to stop/pause/reset), and give the CEO/Board clear sight of performance, risk, benefits and value.

In addition to finance leadership, the portfolio spans corporate planning & performance, programme/portfolio governance, governance & company secretarial duties, research & evaluation, and communications (with a specific uplift of internal communications maturity).

Our Director of Finance & Business Services will need to be a confident, strategic, commercial thinker with a solutions focused approach. In addition to being a qualified accountant, they will be a sophisticated communicator and will have the credibility and gravitas to influence and impact on decision making with all stakeholders, including our Board and Scottish Government. They will invest time in building trusting relationships with colleagues internally and will have the courage to supportively challenge others to ensure that risk, audit, compliance and legislative standards are upheld at all times. Externally, they will cultivate stakeholder relationships to understand innovative opportunities for funding investment.

The role will be focused on continuous improvement, they will be dynamic and will think creatively about opportunities and be strategic in execution and delivery.

Key Responsibilities – (The ‘What’)

• Lead statutory finance, ensuring compliance with all legal, regulatory and governance requirements; maintain robust controls and risk management.
• Develop medium- and long-term financial plans aligned to strategy; provide value-for-money and commercial insight to major initiatives.
• Provide clear, confident financial advice to the CEO, Board and Committees.
• Direct the financial strategy to maintain a sustainable, resilient position; support Audit & Risk Committee, Board, Sponsor and External Audit to obtain appropriate assurance.
• Partner with the CEO and Board on the Corporate Plan and annual business planning cycle.
• Establish transparent performance management and reporting (internal and external), with sharp management information for Executive and Board decision-making.
• Act as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for corporate change programmes.
• Enhance visibility of progress, delivery confidence, risk, interdependencies and benefits.
• Own the single organisational view of strategic programmes and change.
• Embed proportionate governance focused on outcomes and benefits; ensure prioritisation and sequencing reflect affordability, capacity, capability and risk.
• Put in place mechanisms and decision rights to stop, pause or reset initiatives where evidence requires; ensure benefits are defined, tracked and realised at portfolio level.
• Design and operate an effective governance and control environment across Business Services.
• Act as Company Secretary, managing key processes and relationships with the Chair, Committee Chairs and Non-Executive Directors.
• Ensure compliance with NDPB requirements and robust risk management.
• Provide strategic leadership for Research & Evaluation and Communications, prioritising activity to strategic need, ensuring robust control and maximising partnership opportunities.
• Uplift internal communications from sporadic/channelled activity to a disciplined, strategic and coherent approach; deliver a full digital pathway review to improve colleague experience and message consistency through change.
• Continuous improvement of strategic and operational planning, performance reporting and Exec/Board MI.
• Evolve operating model elements where this improves delivery, efficiency or outcomes.
• Act as a critical friend to the CEO on affordability, capacity, delivery risk and organisational readiness.
• Hold collective responsibility for organisational culture, leadership behaviours and delivery of the Corporate Plan; provide visible leadership beyond functional boundaries.
• Partner closely with the People Director and Circular Economy Delivery Director to strengthen culture and ways of working, ensuring leadership behaviours, internal communications, performance management and decision-making send consistent signals about accountability, learning, prioritisation and delivery discipline.

Candidate requirements

• Professionally qualified accountant (CA, CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent).
• Operated at Executive/Director level; demonstrable cross-organisational leadership beyond one function.
• Proven experience leading or co-leading complex change/transformations with portfolio governance.
• Track record managing major programmes and delivering to the highest standards.
• Experience of Governance accountability with the ability to support ARC/Board/External Audit.

Leadership Style & Behaviours

• Calm, credible, authoritative; collaborative but prepared to challenge; pragmatic not process-heavy; value-led, curious and commercially astute.
• Strong judgement; able to challenge constructively; effective in ambiguity and complexity, balancing pace with assurance.
• Corporate-level programme/portfolio management experience; translating strategy into prioritised, deliverable plans; experience with Boards, Audit and Finance Committees; systems thinking and interdependency mapping.