AMS PSR

On behalf of UKRI, we are looking for an Assistant Financial Analyst - (Inside IR35) for a 12-month contract working on a hybrid basis and with an expectation of 2 days attendance in the Swindon office

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.

UKRI invests £8 billion of taxpayers’ money each year into research and innovation and the people who make it happen. They work across a huge range of fields – from biodiversity conservation to quantum computing, and from space telescopes to innovative health care. They give everyone the opportunity to contribute and to benefit, bringing together people and organisations nationally and globally to create, develop and deploy new ideas and technologies.

Purpose of the role

• Sitting within the CCC FBP team, the role will provide financial analysis & modelling to support financial decision making for the Horizon Guarantee DSIT managed programme.
• Responsible for the forecasting & management reporting, including the provision of timely & focused financial information and analysis, to help inform budget management & business strategy.

As an Assistant Financial Analyst - (Inside IR35) , your main responsibilities will be:

• Build & maintain good working relationships with internal & where appropriate, external partners, developing & influencing a strong network to facilitate effective working relationships.
• Deals effectively with challenging situations & consults at a higher level when necessary.
• Adaptable & flexible approach to work; able to effectively multi-task & adapt to frequently changing priorities & circumstances.
• Understand & respond to regular processes as commissioned by UKRI.
• Act as a role model to members of the finance team by promoting a team-based culture; motivating employees to deliver consistently high levels of performance & continuous improvement.
• Provide constructive ideas for improvement in processes & procedures that would deliver further efficiencies & service enhancement.
• To deputise for the more senior colleagues on a range of issues, if & when required.

Role deliverables

• Able to work with and interrogate large volumes of data with ability to identify weaknesses or inconsistencies which test assumptions used in Budgeting/Forecasting.
• Proactively explore errors or missing data to recommend and instigate fixes/corrections to aid completeness of reporting
• Building/maintaining financial models to support major financial decisions within CCC, including translating DSIT and UKRI strategy & priorities into setting budgets and forecasts, creating a long term financial planning model, & improving understanding of financial risk & volatility.
• Work with the Management Reporting Team & Finance Business Partners to ensure that any relevant commission templates & guidance can provide the right management information & underlying data in a structure that ensures it can be used in financial modelling accurately & can support decision making effectively.
• Provide insight to help senior management to understand the financial performance of the portfolio & make decisions about future direction & strategy by analysing financial data to highlight trends, unexpected fluctuations, areas of overlap & make recommendations where appropriate.
• Support with a review of data & reporting across the organisation & assist with the implementation of any new processes from the new systems.
• Support other members of the team & the Finance Business Partners with the design, build & maintenance of costing models for the new and existing activities.

Experience & knowledge:

• Experience of working in financial & data analysis roles in complex organisations
• Experience of working with, manipulating, managing, & analysing large & complex data sets
• A good working knowledge of Microsoft Office: Excel (Pivot tables, lookups, etc.), Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams (essential), Access, Power BI & other data analysis tools
• Previous experience of Oracle &/or other accounting systems
• Understanding & experience of working with public sector finance & governance frameworks
• Experience working in a Research & Innovation policy area

Skills & abilities:

• Self-directed; taking ownership for your own performance & achieving the outcomes expected for the role & able to prioritise workload as necessary & to work to demanding deadlines.
• Strong numerical, analytical & critical thinking & problem-solving skills, with ability to distil complex & often incomplete management information into the key elements required to deliver projects & influence decision making at a strategic level.
• Effective problem-solving skills using logic, as well as imagination, to make sense of a situation & come up with an intelligent solution. Ability to actively anticipate potential future problems & act to prevent them or to mitigate their effects.
• Excellent verbal, written, report writing, communication & listening skills with the ability to articulate complex concepts & analyses into clear, easy-to-understanding presentations to senior partners to ensure decisions are made effectively & using the right information.
• Ability to work effectively & collaboratively under pressure.
• Effective team worker, able to support colleagues & work flexibly on their own initiative.

Essential

• Experience of working with large data sets as well as manual data to produce dashboards and forecast models
• Spreadsheet modelling experience
• Error identification experience
• Experience of using Excel
• Stakeholder engagement experience
• Proactive with experience of working with minimal direction

Desirable

• A good working knowledge of Microsoft Office: Excel (Pivot tables, lookups, etc.), Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams (essential), Access, Power BI & other data analysis tools
• Previous experience of Oracle &/or other accounting systems
• Experience working in a Research & Innovation policy area

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, UKRI guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".