Accounting Services Manager

Staffordshire County Council is an innovative, ambitious and sustainable county with a proud heritage and bright hopes for the future – well positioned at the heart of the thriving West Midlands to create jobs, growth and prosperity for  local people. Much has been achieved in recent years – a better quality of life  for local people, major programmes delivered to secure future growth and jobs and substantial changes to how we operate, ensuring we can continue to deliver what local people need at a cost we can afford.
We are immensely proud of our record of managing the council’s finances and whilst there are challenges ahead for the sector, we believe we have laid the foundations to ensure that we continue to deliver for our residents and businesses.
We are looking for someone to join our team at a senior level, to help us maintain and improve our financial systems and transactional processes in these challenging economic times. Working closely with the Chief Accountant and other colleagues, you will lead the Accounting Services team to ensure robust and efficient processes and systems are in place and that transactions and data are held securely and accurately.
You will have an office base in Stafford, and we currently operate hybrid working, so there is flexibility for you to work from home, subject to service requirements.
Main Responsibilities:
You will be required to:

• Ensure the provision of high quality, reliable financial records and reporting to inform strategic and operational decision making
• Be the senior finance owner of the council’s main finance and HR/payroll systems
• Ensure appropriate controls are developed and maintained for the main financial and feeder systems operated by the County Council to manage resources and counter fraud.
• Be accountable for the County Council’s control function incorporating system control, payroll control and reporting teams
• Be accountable for the performance management of contracts in place for the provision of payroll services & systems and finance systems

The Ideal Candidate
We are looking for someone who:

• Is CCAB qualified with experience of managing an accountancy function
• Has a thorough understanding of local government finance in general and of specific issues in management of financial systems
• Has knowledge of exchequer functions in a major organisation, preferably a local authority
• Excellent knowledge of appropriate control environment
• Knowledge of potential areas of fraud in accountancy systems, grading risks and creating systems to minimise them.

Closing date: 6th May 2024