Finance Officer

This role is located within the Transactional Services Division of ECC's Finance Directorate. Finance Transactional Services aims to provide a comprehensive financial transactional and support service, maximising new and innovative technology to provide excellent customer service using a multi skilled workforce. Senior Finance Officers in Sundry Debt will lead a team to deliver timely and cost-effective income collection across a diverse customer demographic. With strong experience of Income Collection, excellent leadership, and communication skills with the ability to build strong relationships. Commercial awareness is essential in this role as is the ability to lead change. To read more about our business area, please visit: Accountabilities

• Lead, drive and motivate a team of finance officers, admin and assistants, to deliver debt collection, ensuring exemplary standards and continuous improvement.
• Lead on the delivery of the business plan for debt collection, in support of the wider organisational vision.
• Lead in the identification and clarification of customer needs to deliver process and technology changes, which drive efficiency and value for money.
• Lead in improving financial awareness and capability across the organisation, to promote the culture of empowering budget holders in line with financial regulations.
• Contribute to the production of reports for Income and external customers, to manage organisational performance, maximise income and ensure compliance to Financial Regulations.
• Lead on service improvement projects or programmes to achieve best practice and organisational efficiency.
• Lead in maintaining currency on legislation changes and translating these into local policy and procedure, to identify and review potential changes in technology.
• Working collaboratively across the organisation to ensure a high level of understanding across all Functions, to constructively challenge and influence internal and external partners.
• Lead in identifying, mitigating, managing, and resolving risks to minimise financial impact and loss to the organisation.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
  
  Educated to RQF level 6 (Bachelor's degree) or equivalent by experience.
• Strong experience of income collection is essential with experience of sundry debt income highly desirable.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Strong experience and good working knowledge of Income systems and demonstrable accounts receivable experience, in a high-volume environment is relevant to the role.
• Ability to interpret complex and varied information and use it to drive continuous improvement.
• Strong leadership skills and behaviours, building and leading a diverse team to achieve shared objectives. Experience of managing cultural and operational change in a complex environment.
• Good level of commercial awareness, with the ability to build effective working relationships at senior level, with internal and external customers, suppliers, and partners.
• Ability to evaluate and support innovative approaches to improving service delivery and value for money, with a strong focus on performance and delivery.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to negotiate with and influence at senior level.
  
  Budgetary responsibility (direct or indirect impact): None
People management (including direct reports): Circa 7 direct reports Breadth of role: break down per team Income -
• circa £320 million of income
• Wide demographic of customers of sundry debt
• Interaction with senior managers & operational managers across the organisation
• Interaction with external and internal auditors for provision of information to support audit processes
• Interaction with external customers