Finance Manager and Financial Accountant Opportunities (4614)

Would you like to help manage around £50 billion of public spending to improve the lives of the people of Scotland?

The Scottish Government is recruiting finance professionals to join its Financial Management and Reporting team within Financial Management Directorate. Working at the heart of government, our teams enable Ministers and senior leaders to make informed decisions by supporting financial management, reporting, and governance across the organisation.

This is a unique opportunity to build your career in a collaborative and forward-looking finance function that supports around £50 billion of spending, and that is committed to developing the skills and expertise of its people.

Both Finance Manager and Financial Accountant opportunities are available, and so whether you are leading a finance team to provide strategic insights and advice, or delivering statutory reporting and controls, you will work with a wide range of stakeholders to manage financial challenges and opportunities, deliver high quality stewardship of public resources, and support delivery of government priorities.

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Finance Manager:

• Lead your Finance Team’s budget monitoring activities, reinforcing required standards, identifying improvements and supporting development and training needs.
• Support continuous improvement of financial reporting, providing high quality and persuasive insights that enable stakeholders make informed decisions, and delivering appropriate challenge where required.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across the Financial Management Directorate, Scottish Government business areas, and partner bodies to provide professional advice on a range of finance topics and facilitate effective collaboration on corporate financial exercises.
• Lead and quality assure your Finance Team’s contributions to the annual accounts and Provisional and Final Outturn in accordance with the corporate timetable.
• Build an effective and high performing team by providing support, coaching and guidance, delegating effectively, and by leading by example.
• Support changes arising from the implementation and development of Oracle Cloud finance systems, embedding new ways of working and processes effectively.

Financial Accountant:

• Support the preparation and delivery of the Scottish Government annual accounts, ensuring compliance with corporate timetables and requirements.
• Coordinate external audit activities, preparing required schedules and maintaining effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure timely provision of information.
• Lead and support finance colleagues to deliver team priorities, including driving improvements to management information and reporting, and balance sheet controls.
• Provide accounting and financial management advice to build financial capability and support annual accounts and audit process improvements within your team and the Scottish Government.
• Ensure the integrity and accuracy of transactions and reporting on financial systems, including the Non-Current Asset Register, maintaining effective checks and controls.
• Support changes arising from the implementation and development of Oracle Cloud finance systems, embedding new ways of working and processes effectively.

The successful candidate must be a fully qualified CCAB or CIMA (or equivalent) accountant with up-to-date CPD.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

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

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and presentation.

Assessments are scheduled for w/c 5 October 2026 however this may be subject to change.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.