Director of Finance and Accounts

Job Description

Director of Finance and AccountsSalary c. £120,000PermanentHQ Central London, 3 days a week in the officeYou will be our first Director of Finance and Accounts, to help develop our new financial systems and controls and to provide financial advice and insight to ARIAs Management Team, Programme Directors and Board, reporting directly to our CFO/COO.This is truly a career changing executive appointment in the newly formed Advanced Research + Invention Agency, an R&D funding agency designed to make bold bets that complement and amplify the UKs world-class research ecosystem.Our mandate: create new capabilities that can benefit the UK and advance human progress."About ARIA Launched in January 2023 with a £800M budget, ARIA was formed to create transformative science and technology capabilities that will benefit the UK and help humanity thrive.ARIA is about to take bold and experimental steps that complement and amplify the UKs world-class research eco-system. The agencys Programme Directors will each run R&D programmes of up to £50m, creating a portfolio of ambitious projects.Role SummaryJoining us as the Director of Finance and Accounts, you will ensure that ARIA has secure and reliable financial management and project accounting systems and processes that are agile and fully compliant with reporting requirements and standards.What Youll Do

• Provide an excellent level of financial information and advice to underpin informed strategic decisions across the organisation.
• Lead the delivery of management and financial accounts, and tax compliance, across ARIA and its programmes.
• Develop the governance processes for ARIA Programmes, such as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), and ensure these are well managed financially.
• Define and lead appropriate financial control requirements, fraud reporting and ensure that financial risks are minimised.
• Lead financial reporting and engagement with internal and external stakeholders including:

Audit and Risk Committees, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and other Departments, as required.

• Inspire, develop and manage direct reports and team members and oversee the development and management of staff within the finance team to ensure that staff are properly trained and developed, and perform at an optimum level to provide an excellent serviceto the organisation.
• Play an active role in developing ARIAs organisational culture, values and supporting organisational structures. We are essentially a "start-up" you will need to be comfortable with an ever-changing evolving business model.

Who You Are

• Hold a relevant financial qualification; member of professional accounting body (CIMA, CISI, ACCA etc).
• Can work collaboratively at all levels and have an adaptive mindset and approach for each individual programme.
• Experience of developing new processes and/or systems which drive agile and distributed decision making across a matrix of teams.
• Possess excellent leadership, interpersonal and mentoring skills to develop inclusive and customer focussed teams.
• Experience and expertise across all aspects of the financial management and reporting of a similar sized organisation, ideally within a technical/scientific or project-based organisation.
• Be comfortable with uncertainty and thrive in innovative and new situations.
• Naturally passionate about improving the world with science / technology and highly motivated by the opportunity to build a world-changing organisation and community.
• (Desirable) Previous experience of management accounting in the public sector and / or managing public money.

Recruitment Process: On the link to apply you will be asked to submit your CV along with a personal statement of no more than 2 pages of A4, explaining your interest in and suitability for the role.Close date: 12th March 2023

Keyskills :
Financial ControlFinancial ManagementFinancial ReportingFinancial SystemsManagement Accounting