Senior Finance Manager in Stevenage

Here at East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, our mission is to provide high-quality, compassionate care for our communities. Our vision to 2030 is to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service. Our values are: Include, Respect, Improve.

We are recruiting a Senior Finance Manager who will lead the delivery of a comprehensive financial management and business partnering service for a significant and complex portfolio within East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust. The role will provide high-quality, timely, and insightful financial reporting and analysis on both a monthly and ad hoc basis, enabling effective decision-making at Divisional, Trust, and Executive level.

You will support a large, operationally complex Division comprising surgical specialties and clinical support services. A core element of the role will be to apply strong commercial and analytical skills to understand the relationship between activity, income, and cost drivers, supporting the optimisation of income streams and the effective management of expenditure.

The role will play a key part in supporting service development, transformation, major change programmes, providing senior financial business expertise to assess affordability, value for money, and financial risk. The post holder will ensure that business cases, investment proposals, and transformation plans are financially robust, deliverable, and aligned with the Trust's financial strategy and wider NHS regulatory framework.

This role would particularly suit a candidate with strong commercial or corporate finance experience who is motivated to apply their skills within a complex, purpose-driven NHS environment.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be a senior member of the Trust's Finance Directorate, providing strategic and operational financial leadership to support the delivery of high-quality, safe and sustainable patient care within a complex acute hospital environment. The post holder will work closely with senior clinical and operational leaders, acting as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to drive financial performance and service sustainability.

The Senior Finance Manager will lead on the development, delivery and monitoring of robust financial plans aligned to Trust strategy, national NHS priorities and regulatory requirements. They will provide expert financial advice to Executive Directors, Divisional Leadership Teams and senior clinical leaders, influencing decision-making at the highest level.

The role is responsible for ensuring strong financial governance, control and performance management across designated portfolios, including oversight of budgets, forecasting, cost improvement programmes (CIPs), business cases and long-term financial planning. The post holder will play a key role in driving financial recovery, productivity and value for money, balancing financial sustainability with service quality and patient outcomes.

The post holder will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, exercising sound judgement in complex and often ambiguous situations, and contributing to the overall strategic leadership of the Trust.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training

Essential criteria

• CCAB (or CIMA) recognized qualification
• Evidence of A level standard

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

• Post qualification experience at a senior level in a large and complex organisation.
• Significant experience of business plans/cases for service development/change
• Efficiency plans, costing and business case planning
• Experience in compliance and integrity of finance systems
• Significant experience of working with senior management particularly General Managers, Executive Directors and Clinical Directors.
• Experience of working directly with clinical staff, successfully communicating with and influencing.

Desirable criteria

• Implementation of complex new IT developments
• Good knowledge of, and commitment to IM&T development
• Management of a large and complex cost improvement initiatives and reporting processes
• Experience of evaluating complex tenders

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to plan, delegate, lead, motivate, meet deadlines, interpret and communicate complex information
• Ability to produce monthly financial statements and reports and contribute to the Annual Accounts process ensuring the Trust strict financial timetables are adhered to
• Ability to provide expert complex specialist monthly financial reports to Board level to manage performance against plan
• Ability to recruit and develop staff professionally and identify training and leadership programmes
• Ability to work under pressure and sustain concentration over long periods to tight deadlines and have good time management skills with the ability to prioritise effectively
• Computer literate with a good working knowledge of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and large general ledger systems
• Ability to apply knowledge to workload and demonstrate analytical skills

Knowledge

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of best practice reporting, costing and appraisal techniques
• Sound knowledge of the NHS and related organisations
• Working knowledge of common clinical treatments to aid costing and communication with clinicians

Other Requirements

Essential criteria

• Experience and evidence of engagement around the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda. Able to actively support the development of a culture that recognises and promotes equality, values diversity, and actively leads by example in deploying these qualities.
• Understands the impact on equality, diversity and inclusion issues in all aspects of service delivery and planning
• Role model our Trust values every day

When you apply...

Please note we do not offer visa sponsorship for roles unless clearly stated in our adverts. This means even if you have the right to work currently but will require a new sponsorship to work for our Trust your application will not be considered.

Vacancies may close earlier than the advertised closing date where a high volume of applications are received. We therefore encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the opportunity to join the Trust or develop your career with us.

While we recognise that AI can support in drafting an application, you are encouraged to clearly demonstrate your personal skills, experience and behaviours that align with the role, and this is usually best done in your own words.

We reserve the right to review all applications for the use of AI tools and where this is inconsistent with our values and standards of behaviour your application may be rejected.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert. If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

If you are an internal applicant applying for a temporary working arrangement, please see the attached notes on secondments.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background.

In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce.

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing [email protected]

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

King's Trust Support

If you're aged between 16 and 30 years-old, you can get FREE employability support from The King's Trust. The King's Trust will help build your CV and cover letter, offer advice and top tips for future interviews and support you with research about working in the NHS. Please contact Enquiries.H& [email protected] for support.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.