Finance Business Partner
Location: Civic Offices, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath, DA6 7AT
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Duration: 6+ Months
Working Hours: Mon – Fri, 09:00 – 17:00, 36 hours per week
Pay Rate: £ 45.74 Per Hour
Job Ref: OR21651
Job Responsibilities
Provide proactive financial and commercial support across the Council’s transformation programme.
Act as finance lead for option appraisals and commercial decisions, ensuring proposals are affordable, deliverable, and aligned with Council strategy.
Translate service changes into quantified financial impacts, including revenue, capital, recurring, one-off, cashable, and non-cashable effects.
Develop, review, and challenge business cases, financial appraisals, and investment proposals.
Conduct cost-benefit analysis, scenario testing, sensitivity analysis, and break-even modelling.
Analyse pricing, fees and charges, income projections, demand assumptions, and risk.
Build and maintain robust financial models highlighting costs, savings, income, assumptions, and risks.
Produce timely, accurate reporting on programme costs, savings, and benefits, including variance analysis and forecast outturn.
Design and maintain processes to capture, reconcile, and evidence delivery costs, savings, and benefits realisation.
Extract, validate, and analyse complex financial and non-financial data from multiple sources.
Identify trends, drivers, and insights to inform commercial and financial decisions.
Build strong stakeholder relationships across transformation, service, and corporate teams; act as a credible, constructive advisor.
Present complex financial information clearly to non-finance audiences.
Ensure financial models, reports, and processes meet internal control, audit, and governance standards.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of financial processes and data quality.
Person Specification
Must-Have Requirements
CCAB qualified accountant (or equivalent) or significant senior finance/commercial experience.
Evidence of continuing professional development.
Strong knowledge of local government finance, including budgeting, forecasting, MTFS, and public sector constraints.
Proven experience developing and challenging business cases and financial models.
Commercial acumen, including evaluation of income generation, pricing, commercial models, and contracts.
Advanced analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex datasets.
Hands-on modelling and reporting skills (advanced Excel; experience with Power BI or similar tools desirable).
Strong communication and influencing skills; able to explain finance to non-finance colleagues and challenge assumptions constructively.
Ability to find, cleanse, reconcile, and combine data from disconnected or inconsistent sources.
Experience working independently and delivering high-quality outputs to deadlines.
Nice-to-Have Requirements
Experience supporting transformation programmes (cost reduction, service redesign, operating model change, digital transformation).
Experience in commercial projects such as fees and charges reviews, traded services, or income optimisation.
Experience presenting finance content in governance reports (boards, committees, cabinet-style).
Familiarity with local authority finance systems and data environments (ERP, general ledger, purchasing/AP, HR/payroll, contract registers)
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