Closing date: 29 May 2026
Salary: £55,101 per annum
Full-time (37 hours), 18-month fixed-term contract.
33 days’ annual leave (additional to Bank Holidays)
Flexible and Hybrid working opportunities.
If you’re an experienced finance leader ready to shape and modernise services at scale, this is a unique opportunity to take ownership of Somerset Council’s transactional finance and financial systems. You’ll lead critical services such as payments, income, and debt recovery, ensuring they operate efficiently and compliantly while supporting essential services across our communities. This role offers the chance to drive meaningful transformation, leading the adoption of new technologies, AI, and automation while influencing how financial services are delivered across the organisation. You’ll play a key role in strengthening financial resilience, improving performance, and embedding innovative, future-focused ways of working across a large and complex council environment.
Role Summary
As our Exchequer and Systems Manager, you’ll provide strategic leadership across transactional finance and financial systems, ensuring efficient, compliant, and customer-focused services. You’ll drive improvements in financial resilience, support organisational transformation, and enable the Council to deliver its priorities through strong financial governance and modern service delivery.
What You’ll Do – Key Responsibilities
* Lead and manage Exchequer and Transactional Finance services, including Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Debt Recovery and Cashiers.
* Oversee and develop financial systems, ensuring they are efficient, resilient, and aligned with organisational and IT strategy.
* Drive continuous improvement and transformation of financial services, including integration into the Council’s Target Operating Model.
* Act as the lead for financial system incidents, coordinating with ICT and suppliers to ensure timely resolution.
* Develop and implement policies and procedures covering income management, debt recovery, procurement compliance and cash handling.
* Lead fraud prevention activity and ensure strong financial governance and regulatory compliance.
* Oversee debt recovery processes, including analysis, reporting and legal proceedings.
* Build and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders, schools and external partners to ensure effective service delivery.
* Manage relationships with system vendors and service providers, ensuring performance and compliance.
* Monitor performance and drive service improvements to enhance efficiency and customer experience.
Essential – What we’re looking for – Knowledge, Experience, & Skills
* Significant experience in transactional finance operations and financial systems management within a complex organisation.
* Strong knowledge of financial systems, particularly ERP platforms such as Microsoft D365, alongside high IT literacy and data analysis skills.
* Experience of working collaboratively across Finance and ICT, including service management, performance monitoring, incident handling and continuous improvement.
* Experience in policy development, compliance, audit processes and fraud prevention.
* Strong understanding of public sector finance, governance and statutory reporting.
* Experience managing debt recovery processes, including legal proceedings and aged debt analysis.
* Proven leadership and people management experience, including managing large or matrix teams.
* Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
Desirable
* Knowledge of AI and automation tools within financial systems.
* Understanding of traded services and school finance operations.
* Familiarity with open banking and digital payment strategies.
* Experience with income management systems and e-payment platforms.
* Experience working in a local authority or public sector environment.
* Experience conducting service reviews and audits to improve efficiency and quality.
* Relevant professional finance qualification or equivalent experience.
* Project management qualification such as PRINCE2 or Agile.
Additional Information
* Regretfully, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. We are only able to proceed with candidates who already have the right to work in the UK without the need for VISA sponsorship.
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