Join Us in Shaping the Future of Local Financial Leadership at Citizens Advice
Location: Blended between office and home (England and Wales). Time in office negotiable.
Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward whoever they are, and whatever their problem.
Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives from debt to evictions to trouble at work and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.
At a time of significant transformation, Citizens Advice is looking for an exceptional Head of Local Finance to lead and drive forward the evolution of our finance services to the local network. This role sits at the heart of how we support and collaborate with local Citizens Advice offices, ensuring they are equipped, informed, and resilient to meet both current and future financial challenges.
As we roll out our Target Operating Model and pursue strategic change aligned with our Advice Strategy and Sustainability Objectives, you will be central to leading service improvement, boosting collaboration across national and local teams, and keeping our people engaged and on board.
What You’ll Be Doing:
* Driving the transformation of local financial support and engagement, ensuring alignment with national strategy.
* Collaborating across teams, including Business Development, National Finance, Network Strategy, and Change to co-create financial systems that promote modern, sustainable services.
* Leading the development of tools, frameworks, and insights that build understanding of financial variation and promote equitable, strategic decision-making.
* Supporting the growth of local financial leadership and capability, ensuring services are empowered to manage diverse income streams and long-term financial planning.
* Overseeing the collection and transparent reporting of financial health data across the network.
* Providing responsive, high-quality support to local services facing major funding challenges.
* Embedding a consistent, effective and strategic approach to financial risk identification and mitigation.
What We’re Looking For:
* A strategic leader with a strong background in finance, transformation, and stakeholder engagement.
* Experience in shaping and delivering complex organisational change, ideally within a federated or networked structure.
* A deep understanding of financial sustainability, risk management, and funding strategy in public or third sector contexts.
* Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build trust with a diverse range of stakeholders, from local offices to national teams.
Why Join Citizens Advice?
We offer a supportive and inclusive workplace where your leadership will directly impact our ability to serve communities across the country. You’ll join a committed team at a pivotal time, with the opportunity to make meaningful change.
Please apply with your CV and cover letter detailing the below essential criteria:
* Qualified accountant (CCAB) or significant equivalent experience
* Significant experience in managing financial and operational processes in a customer-facing organisation
* Strong people management skills with demonstrable experience of leading and motivating teams, particularly during periods of flux, and keeping teams engaged during significant periods of change.
* Experience of providing strategic advice and delivering change in complex and fast-moving environments
* Experience in managing and delivering successful change in a business environment, with demonstrable ability to take the lead in improving processes and ways of working within a team and with other teams.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.
Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.
We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.
The National Citizens Advice Operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.
Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.
We have been awarded the top charity in Third sectors' employer index, where it's recognised that Citizens Advice is an organization that not only prioritizes the people we serve but also values the wellbeing of its employees.
Citizens Advice seeks to redeploy internal staff who are at risk or under notice of redundancy and will prioritise them in the recruitment process where necessary. If you have been confirmed as at risk or under notice of redundancy please ensure you indicate this in the at-risk box in your application.
Please note, in the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.
This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.
For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits
Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants