Head of Finance, Air Command

High Wycombe, with regular travel to MOD Main Building in Whitehall, RAF Stations and MOD sites across the country.

Job Summary

The Head of Finance supports the Director of Resources and Chief of the Air Staff in their budget holding responsibilities. With their team they support the wider organisation to meet Air Commands strategic objectives while ensuring it meets its financial management and governance obligations. They lead a team of c.120 personnel spread across finance operations, strategic finance, corporate governance, approvals and business partnering. A key member of the Directorate Senior Leadership team, alongside commercial, productivity and Policy Secretariat provide leadership to c.250 civilian and military personnel.

The Head of Finance leads the Air Command Finance function, responsible for supporting financial transformation with the Command and wider department. Act as the deputy for the Director of Resources.

With the Director Resources, the Head of Finance manages Air Command’s £7.5 billion annual budget, leading efforts with military colleagues to develop and present options for the Executive Team, wider Defence, and Ministers. As a senior finance leader within Defence, the Head of Finance represents Air Command on the departmental Finance Management Executive and works collaboratively with other Deputy Finance Directors to drive cross-functional change.

Job Description

The current responsibilities of the role include:

• Leadership of c.120 civilian and military personnel with 5 direct reports. Further indirect leadership of finance staff across the RAF estate, supporting Air Bases and Air Wings.
• Managing the Commands finance function, including a continuous improvement plan to ensure the best possible support to the wider organisation. This includes working with the wider Resources Directorate senior team to ensure that it is an enabler of the Command, including proportionate control and delegation, automation of processes and best in class business partnering.
• Managing the Air Command Budget to deliver the RAF’s Command Plan, in accordance with Defence priorities and standing military tasks, within funding and approvals delegations.
• Allocating resources, setting budgets and delivering the Command’s In-Year financial outturn within Control Total limits.
• Working with Military teams to set out capability and policy choices to deliver an affordable Air Command plan as part of the wider Defence plan, while maximising the amount of capability delivered.
• Ensuring the Command meets its financial obligations to Parliament including investment scrutiny and approvals as chair of the Investment Approval Committee; internal audit; and risk, assurance and counter-fraud. Support the Commands Audit and Risk Committee to meet its objectives.
• As a senior MOD finance leader take an active role in the function including as the member of the x-dept Financial Management Executive, supporting wider change programmes and working with other Finance deputy directors to identify and adopt best practice.
• Leading the Air Finance improvement Plan, a group of incremental changes and improvements to processes and ways of working with contributions from many across the Air Finance team.
• Acting as a role model in leadership across the Ministry of Defence where we expect all our senior leaders to be Inspiring about our work and its future, Confident in our engagement, and empowering our teams to deliver.
  
  

The Current Responsibilities Of The Role Include

• Leadership of c.120 civilian and military personnel with 5 direct reports. Further indirect leadership of finance staff across the RAF estate, supporting Air Bases and Air Wings.
• Managing the Commands finance function, including a continuous improvement plan to ensure the best possible support to the wider organisation. This includes working with the wider Resources Directorate senior team to ensure that it is an enabler of the Command, including proportionate control and delegation, automation of processes and best in class business partnering.
• Managing the Air Command Budget to deliver the RAF’s Command Plan, in accordance with Defence priorities and standing military tasks, within funding and approvals delegations.
• Allocating resources, setting budgets and delivering the Command’s In-Year financial outturn within Control Total limits.
• Working with Military teams to set out capability and policy choices to deliver an affordable Air Command plan as part of the wider Defence plan, while maximising the amount of capability delivered.
• Ensuring the Command meets its financial obligations to Parliament including investment scrutiny and approvals as chair of the Investment Approval Committee; internal audit; and risk, assurance and counter-fraud. Support the Commands Audit and Risk Committee to meet its objectives.
• As a senior MOD finance leader take an active role in the function including as the member of the x-dept Financial Management Executive, supporting wider change programmes and working with other Finance deputy directors to identify and adopt best practice.
• Leading the Air Finance improvement Plan, a group of incremental changes and improvements to processes and ways of working with contributions from many across the Air Finance team.
• Acting as a role model in leadership across the Ministry of Defence where we expect all our senior leaders to be Inspiring about our work and its future, Confident in our engagement, and empowering our teams to deliver.
  
  

Person specification

• Highly developed inclusive senior leadership skills with the ability to inspire and engage high performing and geographically dispersed teams, together with a strong track record of successfully leading people through periods of change.
• The ability to command the confidence and trust of senior stakeholders on sensitive issues or where opinions are divided.
• Evidence of strategic thinking, excellent analytical skills with the ability to translate current challenges in a global defence and security context.
• Significant experience in policy implementation and navigating diverse perspectives in strategic decision-making.
• Hold a CCAB or equivalent professional finance qualification.
  
  

Desirable Criteria May Be Used In The Event Of a Strong Field Of Candidates When There Is a Need To Distinguish Between Candidates. This Will Be As a Second Sift, After The Essential Criteria Has Been Considered

• Experience of delivering financial management improvement and change
• Experience of working within or in collaboration with government, coupled with a strong understanding of its financial processes.
  
  

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
  
  

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55 Sunday 7 September 2025 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role.
  
  

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

External candidates who join the MOD and are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

James Freemantle will be offering an online Q&A session via MS team on the 22 August at 1pm – 2pm to provide an overview of the role and welcome any questions you may have. Candidates can access the meeting by clicking here. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process. If you have any issues accessing the session, please contact: [email protected].

For further information about the role and full application process, please refer to the candidate pack attached below. If you wish to receive any material in a different format for accessibility, then please contact [email protected].

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : [email protected]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]
  
  

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact [email protected] in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.