***Internal Applicants Only***

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: Grade PO10 £68,784 - £72,399

Contract Type: Full time - Fixed term 18 Months

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 21/04/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 27/04/2026

Reference: 2085

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

As a Senior Finance Analyst you will be responsible for driving financial sustainability and supporting finance transformation across the organisation. The role is pivotal in providing strategic support in all aspects of financial advice for the service across the organisation. You will act as partners with the service leadership teams to develop, constructively challenge, and support service plans and project delivery and work alongside the wider Finance business partnering teams. You will also contribute to the delivery of the council’s finance improvement agenda by supporting enhancements to financial processes, insight and reporting.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

The post holder will be required to:

identify and support opportunities to streamline financial processes, strengthen financial governance and embed best practice to improve efficiency and insight
embed financial sustainability principles into all planning and decision‑making, ensuring long‑term affordability and alignment with organisational priorities
be professionally accountable for interventions within their area of responsibility.
assess situations from a commercial, business or finance perspective and provide appropriate financial advice to support complex business decisions.
produce high-quality financial analysis and provide robust assessment of financial risk to support decision-making, including the financial implications of service redesign, process improvements and sustainability initiatives.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Key skills:

Essential

Knowledge of accounting principles and practices necessary to provide financial control and direction.
Strong technical and analytical skills.
Knowledge of the key issues relating to local government financial management and the key challenges facing local authorities in the current financial climate.
Ability to extract and manipulate relevant financial data from financial systems to support analysis and reporting.
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate with stakeholders at a senior level.
Experience of building relationships and working effectively with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
Excellent presentation and report writing skills and the ability to communicate clearly, including the ability distil complex financial advice into appropriate formats and write clear and concise reports.
Experience of working in a complex organisation with competing priorities and the ability to manage workload and meet stakeholder needs.
Significant experience of using MS Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and ability to train and support others in its day-to-day use.
Experience of providing advice and challenge to internal stakeholders, including budget holders, heads of service and senior management.
Experience of undertaking complex financial calculations, including options appraisals, sensitivity analysis and variance analysis.
Experience of supporting the production of annual accounts in accordance with relevant standards and timetables, supported by comprehensive working papers.

Qualification requirements:

Fully qualified accountant (CIPFA, ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or part qualified with a demonstrable plan to achieve full qualification within 9 months

Terms and conditions:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

Satisfactory DBS check;

Continued professional body registration;

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Sarah Chappell at sarah.chappell@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.