Financial Resilience Analysts

Location

Birmingham (B5 4UA) or London (E14 4HD) based with hybrid working

About the job

Job summary

We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.

We have an opportunity for two Financial Resilience Analysts to join our Financial Resilience Team within the Delivery Directorate.

Ofwat is working with the government and other regulators to help create a new body for England, bringing together our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England. We are also continuing to work with the Welsh Government to support decisions on the future arrangements for Wales.

While these changes take shape, our mission remains the same: to hold water companies to account, drive performance, and ensure the sector delivers real value for customers, communities, and the environment. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this is a unique moment to join us and help shape the future of water, and together we can continue to make a positive impact.

Job description

We have 2 excellent opportunities for Financial Analysts to join our Financial Resilience Team at Senior Associate level.

Resilience is crucial in the water sector – and we define this as including corporate, financial, and operational resilience.

The Financial Resilience work-stream looks at the corporate and financial resilience of companies in the water sector.

We monitor the performance and resilience of the companies we regulate, exploring all sources of information available to us, including Annual Performance Reports and statutory accounts, looking in detail at corporate structures and financing and governance arrangements. We challenge companies where necessary to take steps to improve their financial resilience and we hold companies to account where they are not delivering in line with expectations.

Our aim is to ensure the interests of customers are protected in the event of risks to financial resilience and as such we continuously review our procedures and processes to determine whether there is more we can and should do to hold companies to account for maintaining their financial resilience.

As a Senior Associate within the Financial Resilience team, you will use your accountancy experience and knowledge of corporate finance to monitor the financial performance of the companies which we regulate. You will undertake financial analysis to support our wider policy and monitoring work including supporting other workstreams across Ofwat. You will be expected to proactively share skills and knowledge and equally will be supported by coaching and mentoring.

You will thrive in a varied environment, managing a wide range of financial and compliance issues. A flexible and adaptable approach is essential, as priorities can change and the team is often required to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.

Key deliverables

In this role you will be expected to:

• Work on a varied projects within the Financial Resilience work stream.
• Monitor the financial performance and position of companies and consider whether there is a risk to their resilience and whether action needs to be taken to protect customers. This may include wholesale water and wastewater companies, smaller NAV (New Appointment and Variation) companies and the non-household retail companies.
• Contribute to the development of our policy and processes in relation to how companies need to demonstrate resilience and the approach that Ofwat should take to regulation in this area.
• Identify potential issues relating to the accuracy and transparency of financial reporting by companies, as well as company compliance with relevant license requirements. You may also be involved in work to address concerns over the resilience of individual companies.
• Support other workstreams and priority areas across Ofwat, such as the delivery the price review process. Work in this area may include contributing to the review of business plans submitted by companies and following any interventions to those plans made by Ofwat.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need the below essential attributes, experience, skills and knowledge:

Experience, skills and knowledge

1. Lead criterion 1: Qualification or part-qualification in accountancy, corporate finance or other financial disciplines (e.g. ACA, CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA, CFA) or equivalent experience in a similar role.
2. Lead criterion 2: Experience of analysing, interpreting and challenging financial information relevant to determining a company's financial position.
3. Experience of developing and using financial indicators and other information to monitor the performance and financial stability of companies.
4. Understanding of financial reporting and the application of relevant accounting standards.
5. Understanding of company and group structures, how companies raise finance and the types of finance that are available to them.
6. Excellent analytical skills and the ability to draw well-reasoned conclusions from your analysis.
7. Excellent oral and written communication skills. Including the ability to write high-quality documents and to communicate complex analysis and issues to non-technical audiences.
8. Ability to work flexibly to tight timescales, while managing competing priorities.

Attributes

• 9. Builds trust
• 10. Adaptable thinker
• 11. Delivers outcomes

Attributes as per Ofwat's Framework for Success for the relevant salary grade. You can read more about Attributes here.

Qualifications

Qualification or part-qualification in accountancy, corporate finance or other financial disciplines (e.g. ACA, CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA, CFA) or equivalent experience in a similar role.

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