Head of Finance

Policy Services Ltd is proud of working together with St. James’s Place since being founded in 2002. They have been a longstanding provider of administration, fee reconciliation and advice services to Partners of St James’s Place Group (SJP) and their clients who hold non-SJP policies and plans. The team based out of Linlithgow support Partners and clients across the group and help drive administration efficiencies for over 2000 other financial advisors in the UK.

The Opportunity

Policy Services Ltd (PS) has created this new Head of Finance who will be responsible for driving forward the finance function and delivering high-level goals and targets.

Working as part of a small, agile and dynamic team this individual will be responsible for the finance function, leading the team with strong commercial acumen and high levels of emotional intelligence. The successful candidate will be a qualified accountant with a strong operational finance background. Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills will also be valuable attributes to have. This is an extremely compelling opportunity to play a key role in the growth of a very exciting, innovative and ambitious business, based in Scotland.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, the role creates a fantastic career opportunity in helping successful delivery of the finance function, ensuring it’s compliant with the latest statutory, legal and regulatory requirements. As such, it is likely the individual would be required to interpret and outline complex technical information under time pressure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Delivery and ownership of the PS monthly management accounts
• Review, challenge and sign-off the monthly control pack
• Provide senior management with the relevant commentary as to the financial performance of the business monthly
• Process improvement – drive for continued process improvement and efficiencies in the delivery of information and reporting
• Oversight of the income reconciliation function of the business
• Assist the wider SJP finance team in ad-hoc tasks/project work as required
• Statutory reporting – own and deliver the PS and two immediate parent holding companies statutory accounts and manage external audit queries
• Regulatory reporting – oversight and delivery of the PS returns
• Subject matter expert for PS accounting, preparing technical papers, presenting on key topics and being involved in PS project work as and when required
• Oversight of the accounts payable function and acting as a payment authoriser
• Drafting reports for the Group Audit Committee, covering areas such as auditor valuation

People management is required in this position, with the expectation that this would involve the line management of at least one trainee financial accountant and the income reconciliation team leader to assist in the delivery of the job requirements.

Candidate Requirement:

We are seeking to appoint a driven, dynamic and ambitious finance professional to the organisation who has either spent time in an accounting or audit role, or finance management position within financial services.

The successful candidate will possess most of the following:

• A relevant and full finance professional qualification i.e. ACA/ACCA/CIMA
• Financial services experience is highly regarded
• Strong data analysis skills and be highly proficient with excel
• Strong financial systems knowledge and significant experience in using Sage and Microsoft Office.

To apply, please send your CV and covering letter to Lindsey Cramond at lindsay@fwbparkbrown.com or contact her on 0131 539 7087 for a confidential discussion.