Job Description

Are you looking for a role with autonomy and the opportunity to work closely with government colleagues?

We are seeking a motivated finance professional to play a key role in supporting the effective financial management of Higher Education Student Support within the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). As an Executive Agency operating on behalf of the Scottish Government, SAAS delivers a high volume, high impact service within a complex policy and governance environment. As the Finance Business Partner, you will contribute to ensuring that public funds are managed responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with Scottish Government financial frameworks.

This role sits within the Business Partnering Team in the Finance Directorate and provides broad experience across budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis and financial accounting. You will support key planning and reporting cycles, produce high‑quality financial information, and provide clear, evidence‑based analysis to inform operational and strategic decisions. Working closely with colleagues across SAAS and the Scottish Government, the role requires strong analytical skills, effective communication, and sound professional judgement, and offers a high degree of autonomy, opportunities for professional development, and the chance to contribute to robust financial stewardship across a critical national service.

Responsibilities

• Provision of high quality monthly financial reports to required timescales, providing accurate, relevant and timely management information.
• Provide financial advice and assistance to stakeholders, and build and maintain effective working relationships with business areas including with the wider Scottish Government.
• Contribute to the completion and quality assurance of input to corporate financial exercises in accordance with corporate timetable. Ensuring working papers provide a full audit trail and are retained and easily accessible during the audit process.
• Providing assistance in updating the financial ledger for example performing monthly reconciliation’s and preparing and processing journal entries.
• Review budget monitoring returns, undertake the first check of forecasts, year to date actual, and budget data, and ensure that explanations make sense and support the figures, challenging areas where more explanation is required.
• Assisting in the maintenance of overall financial control, to ensure the integrity of financial data on the ledger and the accuracy of the supporting systems and records.
• Ensuring adequate financial controls and clear audit trails are in place around accounting and reporting processes.
• Working flexibly across the team and shifting direction quickly to meet changing priorities and demands.
• Management of staff across the finance function.
• Leading the annual accounts and audit processes.

Qualifications

You must be fully CCAB (or equivalent) qualified with up to date CPD and relevant finance experience.

Please confirm in your CV/Personal Statement the qualification you hold. If you do not provide this information, your application will not be considered.

Success profileSuccess profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.
Technical / Professional Skills:

• Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing - Practitioner
• Government finance - Working
• International Accounting Standards - Working

You can find out more about the skills required here Finance Profession Capability Framework
Experience:

1. Technical financial accounting skills and ability to communicate financial information clearly and succinctly to a wide range of audiences, including to non-finance colleagues.
2. Strong analytical skills with the ability to use information from multiple sources to inform decision making and identify areas for improvement.
3. Working collaboratively to support change and build effective relationships, trust and credibility with a range of stakeholders.

How to apply: Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills and experience listed above.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples 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, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and presentation

Expected Timeline: (subject to change)

Interview - w/c 4 May 2026
Location - In person

In the event of a high volume of applications, candidates will have their applications initially assessed against the first Experience criteria (in particular technical financial accounting) Candidates who pass this initial sift will have their applications fully assessed against all criteria.

Recruitment Principles:
As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.

About us:

SAAS is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and responsible for assessing and paying student awards for Scottish domiciled students in Higher Education throughout the UK. We administer budgets of around £1.4 billion each year, making payments to both educational institutions and over 190,000 students a year. We are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that is representative of the clients we serve.

More information on SAAS can be found on our website https://www.saas.gov.uk

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.

Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules

Working pattern:

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week. This role requires in person attendance of 6 days per month minimum with more regular attendance as required to support the leadership and strategic direction of the team. We offer a range of flexible and hybrid working options depending on the needs of the role. Flexible working patterns will be considered in line with business needs.

SAAS has separate arrangements from core Scottish Government for Public and Privilege holidays. SAAS office is fully closed between Christmas and New Year.

Security checks:Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks – Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, and read about the Government Vetting Charter, or about all the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide Internal candidates may need to gain higher security clearance than they currently hold if successful in their application. Equality statement:We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.  Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.
Further information Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us on SAAS_Resourcing@gov.scot