The Bank of England is the UK's central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its c.4,000 people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

We have a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Finance Business Partner to work on the RTGS Programme on a fixed-term contract to September 2023. You will be primarily responsible for the programme’s financial control, cost challenge and scrutiny around change control, ensuring value for money is achieved and effective reporting against approved funding and the business case is in place following an Agile model implementation.

Directorate Overview
The world of payments is changing rapidly. New innovative technologies are being developed to meet the changing needs but these can give rise to new threats to users of the payments system, and to the stability of that system as a whole. This means that we need ever stronger protections and more resilient infrastructure.

The Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) lies at the heart of UK payments. In total, RTGS settles over £600bn of payments each day which is close to the UK’s annual GDP every 3 days. The RTGS infrastructure is over 25 years old and, despite its excellent operational record, it needs to be modernised and developed to meet today’s needs. Balancing the safeguarding of stability whilst enabling innovation. To enable the use cases of tomorrow and bring value and benefit to the payments industry.
 

The RTGS Renewal Programme has been established to develop the next generation of RTGS. The way payments are made has changed rapidly in recent years, reflecting changes in the needs of households and companies, and an evolving technology and regulatory landscape. Given the implications of these changes for the Bank’s mission and for users, businesses and regulators, it is important that the Bank consider how RTGS will need to evolve to meet and shape payments trends in the coming decades.
 

With geographically split teams, remote working and reliance on third parties across industry for the Programme’s success, the importance of communications and alignment of purpose are paramount.
The Programme is fully committed to diversity and equality for all staff.

Job Description

We have a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Finance Business Partner to work on the RTGS Programme on a fixed-term contract to September 2023. You will be primarily responsible for the programme’s financial control, cost challenge and scrutiny around change control, ensuring value for money is achieved and effective reporting against approved funding and the business case is in place following an Agile model implementation.

Your role responsibilities will include:

Planning and Reporting
•    Preparation of detailed, informative business cases, annual budgets and quarterly forecasts
•    Working closely/partnering with project managers to ensure that costs, heads and time are accurately captured and understood 
•    Timely and accurate preparation of monthly financial status reports for board meetings
•    Dealing with all budgeting and forecasting queries for the programme / project.
•    Provide challenge to the different Programme Senior Members responsible for the budgeting/forecasting

Controls and Monitoring
•    Implementing effective financial controls for the programme / projects
•    Ensure all costs are correctly captured within the Programme 
•    Ensure month end activities are conducted correctly for the Programme.
•    Review and challenge the programme / project headcount, direct and capital expenditure requirements, ensuring value for money.
•    Monitoring actual and forecast spend against budget/plans and ensure effective use of early key warning indicators for reporting.
•    Maintain the programmes ongoing cost view, with regular interlock with BAU areas.
•    Provide insightful programme / project cost commentary/variance analysis to Central Finance on a monthly basis.
•    Acting as an  acknowledged financial expert for the programme / project
•    Working collaboratively with the rest of the RTGS Finance team on a monthly and ad-hoc basis to ensure all deliverables and requests can be met in a timely and accurate manner.

Role Requirements
Minimum Criteria

The successful candidate will be a commercially minded experienced accountant, with a deep understanding of the financial control aspects for Technology programmes and projects using an Agile model mind set. Specifically: 
•    Qualified accountant with extensive experience supporting large and complex programmes as a dedicated Finance Business Partner or Project Accountant.
•    Experience of IT Finance from an FP&A / business partnering perspective
•    Experience of business cases, budgeting / forecasting, financial control and reporting processes in relation to programmes and projects.
•    Experience in embedding and maintaining the necessary processes and controls to ensure financial control for the programme and ensure value for money.
•    Proven ability to communicate at all appropriate levels within the programme, business area and within multiple functions.
•    Confirmed ability to develop effective stakeholder relationships.
•    Strong Excel and project forecasting / management accounting system experience
•    Accustomed to dealing with ad hoc requests and working to tight deadlines.
•    A team player, willing to get involved across the programme and the wider finance community to ensure all objectives are met
•    Experience gained from supporting a wide range of large programmes / projects.
•    A self-starter with the ability to prioritise effectively and juggle varying priorities and deadlines across a range of topics

Desirable Criteria

•    An understanding of the financial services environment
•    Experience of IT Finance from an FP&A / business partnering perspective

The Bank values diversity and inclusion – we want to reflect the society we serve better, we want the best people to work for us and we want our workplace to be inclusive.  We value all forms of diversity, including but not limited to age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation.  One way we support diversity and inclusion is through our staff-run networks, which are summarised here.

We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive working environment, and are open to considering how the role might be carried out with flexible working.  

We are also committed to making adjustments for candidates and employees where possible, and have partnered with external expert organisations to support us in this.  We are a member of the Disability Confident scheme, summarised here, and people who wish to apply under this scheme should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

We anonymise applications so hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information when reviewing your submission, including your CV. Please fully complete the application form questions as requested, as any incomplete submissions may not be reviewed.

The Bank of England is a distinctive institution and our rewards are one of the things that set us apart. As well as enjoying a competitive salary you will work in a collaborative, inclusive environment, with a subsidised restaurant, flexible working opportunities and plenty of wellbeing initiatives.  

This specific role offers a base salary of up to Â£72,000 per annum, along with our comprehensive benefits package as follows:

•    A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
•    A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits.
•    25 days annual leave with option to buy up to 13 additional days through flexible benefits.
•    Private medical insurance and income protection.