Employer: Leicestershire County Council

 Location: Leicester

Salary: £69,789 - £78,777 per annum

Closing Date: 5th Jan 2025

Reference: 4166

About the Role

This is a unique commercial leadership opportunity, delivering an effective business-focussed finance function for both Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) - a large, public sector-owned buying organisation with significant growth potential, serving over 20,000 public sector customers - and Leicestershire County Council’s (LCC) Traded Services.

Reporting to the Chief Officer of ESPO and LCC’s Assistant Director - Finance and Commissioning, you’ll deliver robust financial planning, reporting and control to drive sustainable growth, and deliver financial targets. Your time will be predominately spent supporting ESPO at 4 days per week, due to the size of the business and wider finance responsibility, however this may change over time due to the needs of the respective businesses.

As a member of ESPO’s Leadership Team, you will contribute to the development of the long-term strategic direction of the organisation, taking responsibility for the creation and delivery of the medium-term financial strategy.

You will lead and develop the delivery of operational finance activity as well as managing the external audit of ESPO’s accounts and risk activity including maintaining the risk register.

In your role with LCC’s Traded Services, you will support, challenge, and influence financial matters and commercial decisions, ensuring the planning and analysis activity for traded services is undertaken effectively and efficiently.

The Council’s Traded Services include a range of hospitality, catering and professional services delivered to schools and other customers, as well as the Council’s County Parks Service.

About You

We’d love to hear from you if you:
 Have a CCAB Accounting (or equivalent) qualification and membership of the
relevant body, plus continuing professional development.
 Have a background of significant achievement in a senior finance role in an
organisation of comparable scope, size, and complexity, and experience in a wide range of financial disciplines including business partnering, financial planning, financial reporting, balance sheet management, and operational finance.
 Are an effective communicator, with experience of developing successful working relationships with senior and operational managers, other finance professionals, and external stakeholders, who can influence change within the business and has the presence to build strong financial management.
 Have experience of developing links between financial and operational information and processes to ensure business and financial objectives are met.
 Have experience of working in and leading cross functional teams and significant experience of leading and managing teams through periods of change to deliver successful outcomes.
 Have experience of identifying opportunities for efficiency and change.
 Have knowledge of relevant current legislative and governance requirements, as well as an understanding of the different areas of finance in a commercial environment, including statutory reporting and trading Profit and Loss accounts and how the use of technology, aligned to business processes, can support the
management of efficient and effective services.
 Have strong analytical and creative thinking skills and be able to lead and deliver sustainable, collective high performance.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Kristian Smith, Chief Officer - ESPO
Telephone: 0116 2657887 
Email: k.smith@espo.org

How to Apply

If you’re interested in applying for this role or want to find out more including the benefits we offer, click on the apply button below.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.