Senior Management Accountant, Greater Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Chief Operating Officer Group works closely with the Home Office's policy and operational commands to enable us together to deliver the department's priorities. The group is comprised of different teams and professional functions, including Commercial, Finance, People, Portfolio and Project Delivery, Security, Estates and Information and Digital, Data and Technology.

The Management Accounts Unit (MAU) sits at the centre of this activity, providing timely information, forecasts and insight. This supports leaders to understand financial position, manage risk and take informed decisions.

Working in MAU offers a fast‑paced environment where your analysis directly supports national priorities and public services.

Job description

This is a senior leadership role responsible for the end‑to‑end delivery of consolidated management reporting, strategic financial insight, and robust governance for a major Home Office area.

You will lead the production of Board‑level reporting, ensure accuracy and completeness of MI, provide incisive narrative, challenge forecasts, and surface strategic risks and opportunities. You will ensure that reporting meets the needs of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) budget‑holders and aligns to the MAU cycle.

You will lead Management Accountants and virtual teams, maintain high control standards, strengthen data quality, and provide scenario‑based analysis to support operational and strategic decision‑making.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced finance professional seeking a strategic leadership role with real impact on organisational performance. It will suit someone who enjoys shaping direction, leading high‑performing teams, and providing authoritative insight and challenge at senior levels.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Reporting&Assurance

Lead consolidated Board and Budget Holder reporting, delivering accurate, timely outputs with clear narrative on financial position, drivers, risks, opportunities and decisions. Maintain oversight of cross‑cutting trends, dependencies and pressures.

Leadership of MAU Monthly Cycle

Oversee the monthly MAU close and forecasting cycles, ensuring accurate reporting, strong controls, standardised improvements and data quality. Ensure alignment with FBPs, Corporate Finance, and operational leads to maintain one version of the truth.

Forecast Challenge, Approvals&Decision Support

Lead rigorous forecast challenge, securing Director General approvals; rapidly quantify risks, opportunities and mitigations. Oversee scenario modelling, options analysis and dynamic cost models to inform senior decision‑making.

Governance, Controls&External Assurance

Embed robust controls and assurance across reporting, lead responses to high‑priority commissions including NAO, PQs and FOIs. Act as senior escalation point for accounting judgments, modelling assumptions and governance.

Leadership&Ways of Working

Provide visible leadership across teams, set clear standards, manage resources through peaks, maintain strong controls, foster high performance and improvement. Undertake line management responsibilities for staff development and delivery.

Working Pattern

This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working.This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 4 days / 32 hours per week due to business requirements.

Travel

Occasional travel may be required to attend meetings.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

1. Proven strategic leadership experience, delivering through peak periods, building multi-grade capability, and fostering collaborative, high-performing organisational relationships.
2. Extensive experience in board-level consolidated financial reporting, delivering high-quality insight to inform strategic decision-making effectively.
3. Demonstrated leadership of the full management accounting cycle, in-month and YTD reporting, variance analysis, forecasting challenge, risk management, quality assurance, timely consolidation.
4. Expert in financial controls, governance and assurance, ensuring data integrity, compliance and audit readiness, with strong public sector finance knowledge across budgetary control, forecasting, in‑year reporting and decision support expectations.
5. Strong influencing and challenge skills, proven ability to challenge assumptions, strengthen discipline and enable evidence-based decision making.
6. Excellent written, verbal and Excel skills, translating complex financial and operational data into clear, actionable insight for senior audiences; interpreting datasets, identifying cross-cutting themes, and articulating key risks and opportunities.
7. Proven change leadership delivering continuous improvement, standardised processes, reporting, user‑focused culture.

Desirable Criteria

1. CCAB or CIMA qualification or working towards and have financial experience over an extended period of time.
2. Experience working with Metis or other corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership

Benefits

In addition to your salary, a career with the Home Office offers a range of benefits, including:

• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service to 30 days.
• Eight days of public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.
• See more of our benefits on our careers website.

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Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Ability and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

As part of the application process, you will first be asked to confirm your eligibility by providing some basic personal information.

After submission of this first stage, you will be invited to complete the followingCivil Service Numerical Test and Civil Service Verbal Test.

1. Online Test - by4th June 2026

If you successfully pass theCS Numerical and Verbaltests, you will be invited to complete the full application form. Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended). If you fail to complete the online tests or full application before the deadline, your application will be withdrawn.

Guidance for the Civil Service tests will be available when you are invited to take the tests. The online tests are accessed via the Civil Service Jobs website.

You cannot complete the tests on a mobile phone or tablet.

Following successful completion of your tests, you will then be asked to complete the full application form.

2. Application - by4th June 2026

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Evidence of the Behaviours Leadership (maximum of 250 words).

Your CV should consist of yourcareer history, qualifications and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (CV and Behaviour), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

3. Sift - …