Senior Financial Accountant

Can you provide expert financial advice and ensure compliance with accounting standards and regulations?

Have you delivered accurate financial reporting, strong controls and robust governance?

Are you confident leading on complex financial accounting, audit, fees, assets or business change activities?

If so, we'd love to hear from you!

This is an excellent opportunity to join a high-performing finance team at the heart of DVSA, playing a key role in delivering financial expertise, supporting strategic priorities and driving continuous improvement. Working closely with a wide range of stakeholders, you will help ensure sound financial decision-making while contributing to the development of both people and processes across the organisation.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: Working for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers

As a senior member of the Financial Accounting team the job holder is expected to participate across the full breadth of the team’s remit whilst specialising in one of the areas. The area of specialisation will be rotated through the team to encourage staff development.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Ensure the timely completion of the DVSA Annual Report and Accounts. This includes planning, coordinating and liaising with key stakeholders including contributors from across the Agency and NAO/Auditors.
• Lead the timely and accurate preparation and submission of financial reporting returns and supporting information for consolidation into Department for Transport (DfT) accounts at both interim and year-end reporting periods.
• Regular maintenance of ledger controls and balance sheet accounts.
• Participation in the monthly reporting cycle ensuring actual expenditure is properly controlled, and forecasts are accurate and soundly based with audit trail.
• Provide lead authority on IFRS/ FReM. Ensure compliance with standards as well as assess the impact of changes to IFRS/ FReM on the accounts.
• Manage and maintain the fixed asset records of the organisation. Specifically ensuring the fixed asset registers are up-to-date, accurate and fully understood.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

You will be a fully qualified CCAB or equivalent Accountant.

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.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) which must include your employment history, relevant experience to date, and professional qualifications and memberships as well as a personal statement (500-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:

• Experience of working with IFRS, FReM or other statutory reporting frameworks.
• Experience of working in Finance in a large, complex organisation, including for example working in accountancy practice with larger complex clients.

The sift will take place week commencing Monday 26th October 2026.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours - Delivering at Pace, Managing a Quality Service and Communicating and Influencing
• Technical – Finance Competence Framework - Reporting & Control - Financial control and operations, Technical Accounting (Page 8) - Practitioner
• Experience

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess the Behaviour Communicating & Influencing and the Technical element Reporting & Control - Financial control and operations, Technical Accounting. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place week commencing Monday 9th November 2026.

This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Feedback

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