Finance Product Manager (Synergy Programme)

£57,946 - £68,205

Job description

Drawing upon your knowledge and experience, you will be responsible for supporting the Finance Product Lead to deliver Finance process convergence and the design, testing and deployment of the new Synergy ERP and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems and associated BPS services. As a Finance Product Manager, you will be an integral part of the programme and be expected to demonstrate leadership from programme inception to live deployment and throughout the post go-live support period. You will be the custodian for the transformational end-to-end design on Chart of Accounts and Enterprise Structure common design and be responsible for ensuring it is future-focused and transformational for Synergy.

This role will sustain, but also develop, throughout the programme life cycle and into live running services. This is an exciting opportunity for people with excellent technical, organisational and interpersonal skills to work in a fast-paced environment over both Change and Finance functional disciplines. The role offers the opportunity to use existing Finance knowledge to broaden your experience. It will suit someone who has a strong grounding across the Record to Report process, with specific experience and expertise in Chart of Accounts and Enterprise Structures (CoA & ES).

Key tasks will include:

• Leading the Finance aspects of designing, building, testing, implementing and live-running CoA & ES services for the Synergy Programme on behalf of the cluster departments. This will include leading a cross-departmental Design Squad dedicated to the CoA & ES requirements.
• Acting as the CoA & ES lead across all Finance, HR and Procurement Design Squads for the solution design, understanding the dependencies across the functional design and raising any potential risks or issues.
• Communicating CoA & ES business, functional, and technical information across multiple stakeholders, representing Synergy in key forums as required and being able to reach resolutions amongst challenging stakeholder groups.
• Being an advocate of the ‘Adopt not Adapt’ principle of design, challenging established ways of working to realise the transformation aspirations of the programme and move to Software as a Service for Finance processes.
• Own the end-to-end Finance Business Process Service and its associated products within the CoA & ES areas of responsibility.
• Work across a ‘product centric’ multi-disciplinary team to design and successfully implement the programme deliverables. This will include working alongside multiple Synergy technical teams, delivery teams, user and business change teams and strategic partners.

Person specification

To be successful in this role, candidates must demonstrate substantial experience and capability in the following areas:

Essential

Technical Expertise

• Significant experience in Record-to-Report (R2R) processes, with deep knowledge of Chart of Accounts (CoA) and Enterprise Structures (ES) design and delivery in large, complex organisations. (LEAD CRITERIA)
• Understanding of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Structure concepts (e.g., ledgers, legal entities, business units) and Enterprise Data Management (preferably Oracle Fusion).
• Experience in designing and maintaining CoA processes and controls.
• Strong working knowledge of ERP systems and data governance principles.

Leadership and Change

• Proven ability to lead finance transformation projects at scale, including managing complex ERP implementations.
• Demonstrated experience in driving behavioural and process change to achieve transformation objectives.
• Skilled in prioritising competing demands in a fast-paced environment and delivering outcomes under challenging deadlines.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messages for diverse audiences.
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills, with a track record of engaging senior stakeholders across government and external partners.
• Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with multidisciplinary teams, including Shared Services, BPS providers, and vendors.

Government Finance Knowledge

• Knowledge and experience of delivering finance processes within UK Government, including awareness of HM Treasury reporting requirements and relevant standards. Ideally with experience in General Ledger (GL) data migration and government reporting requirements.

For successful candidates who are CCAB qualified accountants, the following additional criteria would apply:

To be considered for a qualified accountant role requires the following:

• Up to 40 units (hours) of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to be planned and undertaken each year in line with the CPD cycle and requirements of your institute.
• An understanding of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and which specifically relate to this area of work, including any recent adaptations or interpretation papers written by leading accountancy organisations. This will ensure the department applies the correct financial accounting treatment to current transactions as well as new contracts and business case proposals that you are asked to review.
• Access to professional advice, best practice and latest knowledge through your personal membership of your institute and its technical advisory services and specialist networks. You must respect DWP commercial sensitivity when engaging with fellow members of your institute via external channels.
• An awareness of the Government Finance Function Career Framework which sets out the responsibilities and level of finance qualification required for each job family. This specific role is most closely aligned to Systems and Data.
• Meeting the DWP annual key work objective for qualified accountants, which is set at the beginning of each performance year by the head of profession

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