JOB SUMMARY

UK Research and Innovation
Head of Management Reporting
Salary: £56,745 per annum
Band: UKRI Band F
Contract Type: Open ended
Hours: Full-time (flexible working available)
Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available
Closing Date: 15th September 2025

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

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)
• 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

ABOUT THE ROLE

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the UKRI Strategic Financial Planning team in the role of Head of Management Reporting. This is a high profile and critical role in a dynamic and fast paced environment with regular engagement and interaction with senior management including the UKRI Finance Director, CFO, CEO and Executive Committee (ExCo) amongst others. This post would suit a high-reaching and driven individual with a strong commitment to the provision of high-quality financial reporting and to continuous improvement.
Reporting to the UKRI Deputy Director for Strategic Financial Planning the successful candidate will be central to ensuring UKRI delivers within its financial management target of no overspend and no less than 1% underspend. The successful candidate will lead on enhancing the current management reporting model for UKRI, raising and leading on the management of key in-year financial risks and opportunities. This role will be key in the effectively transition of the management reporting team from current manual processes and collation of data to a single integrated system-based solution harnessing the opportunity presented by the introduction of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications and complementary reporting systems and tools.
Directorate
You must be able to lead a team through change ensuring that everyone understands their responsibilities and inputs and develops new ways of working to adapt to internal and external change.
Additionally, you will have an appreciation of the nature of UKRI which has several different entities and build strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that the forecasting and budgets produced are agreed and bought into.
You will also perform a range of reporting, systems and control functions, but fundamentally will be responsible for producing accurate UKRI-level budgets, forecasts and reporting which has had input and agreement from FBPs to provide information that can be relied upon for PFO, ExCo and Board-level decision-making.
Working with your team to harmonise and standardise processes between in year and multi-year financial models and teams where practicable and develop insightful reporting, highlighting cost drivers with commentary that gives the reader additional valuable information.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Lead the Central Management reporting team by:

• Developing, leading and maintaining strong working relationships with key stakeholders across Finance function, DSIT and when required other government departments (OGDs)
• Show effective leadership skills in motivating and developing team members. Maximise the team’s performance through clear management, smart objective setting and effective performance reviews
• Promote a one team approach where continuous improvement is encouraged
• Building a strong understanding of UKRI 9 primary entities and their associated cost drivers enabling the team to provide effective challenge and support when building open budgets and forecast, including in-year management of operational expenditure (OpEx), leading on mains and supplementary estimates, and ARA performance reporting
• Working with the team to develop consolidated UKRI reporting across the various entities and teams, harmonising and standardising where practical and developing the processes required to produce UKRI Management Reporting Pack and internal Allocations
• Having a strong understanding of the strategic financial risks, pressures and opportunities for UKRI both in year and in future years to ensure effective financial decision-making in these areas, working with the Financial Planning Team
• Seeing the big picture, ensuring the team meet deadlines critical to UKRI financial management and identifying trends in data presented
• Working with the newly created Head of Finance Data and Systems role to continuously improve reporting capabilities by identifying areas of enhancement and supplying to the development of management information, enabling the team to provide greater insight, automated solutions and one version of the truth.
• Responsible for reviewing the output of the team to ensure relevance, accuracy and completeness, meeting the needs of stakeholders
• Working with the team to ensure there is cover for all key activities
• Using various information sources (external audit, internal audit, stakeholder feedback, team feedback, risk registers) identifying and taking forward process improvement
• Inputting as a subject matter expert and intelligent customer into UKRI/function-wide project and change activities including post-live optimisation of Oracle Fusion (UKRI’s ERP replacement) and other projects e.g. to roll-out self-service reporting to UKRI budget-holders.