Head of Finance; Agency

The Head of Finance (Agency) is accountable for leading SAAS Agency Finance, Procurement, Fraud and Recovery functions, ensuring effective financial stewardship, operational delivery, robust financial governance and high quality performance reporting to the SAAS Executive Team and Board. This includes overseeing and delivering the SAAS Annual Report and Accounts, all elements of the statutory audit and leading annual budget processes and in year budget management support for the Agency with a focus on ensuring value for money.

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government, we help higher and further education students find the right information, support and funding. SAAS manages an operating budget of approximately £15million and administers approximately £1.5 billion of student funding on behalf of Scottish Government.

The Head of Finance (Agency) role carries significant responsibility for financial stewardship, governance, control and assurance across Finance, Procurement, Fraud and Recoveries, you will work closely with the Head of Finance (Programme) role.

• Lead and manage a professional Finance function, creating an environment where colleagues develop their expertise, provide high-quality advice and deliver services that support effective organisational leadership.
• Champion continuous professional development, professional excellence and a culture of integrity, accountability and continuous improvement in systems and controls.
• Build trusted relationships with Scottish Government, auditors, regulators, oversight bodies and professional networks, recognising that effective financial stewardship depends upon collaboration, openness and constructive challenge.
• Provide high quality, professional technical accounting and budgeting advice, analysis and scrutiny of financial proposals to a range of stakeholders and contribute to future business strategies.
• Present complex financial information clearly both verbally and in writing to support organisational decision making, including providing advice on financial implications of policy developments within Scottish Government.
• Oversee the preparation and delivery of the Annual Report and Accounts and all associated tasks in accordance with the FReM and other accounting guidelines and regulations. Lead the statutory audit, engaging effectively with all aspects of the audit to deliver within agreed time frames.
• Work with the Programme finance lead to provide a holistic, whole system approach to financial stewardship and continuous improvement of the Agency's financial management provision, ensuring robust financial controls, effective governance and sustainable financial planning support the delivery of organisational priorities.

The successful candidate must be fully CCAB qualified with up-to-date CPD and relevant post qualified experience in an accountancy environment.

Success Profiles have been developed by the Professions and can be found in the Job Profile for the individual role.

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.

• Financial Management and Reporting - (Level: Expert)
• Stakeholder Management and Communication - (Level: Expert)
• People Management and Operational Leadership - (Level: Expert)

• Strong technical financial accounting and governance skills, including the ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and succinctly to a wide range of audiences, including to non-finance colleagues.
• Experience of implementing and managing effective, sustainable change, modifying and improving behaviours, systems and controls.
• Strong planning and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage a diverse workload and team, including providing effective leadership to finance teams with direct line management of staff.

• Seeing the bigger picture (Level
  4)
• Delivering at Pace (Level
  4)

Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship now or in the future. Applicants must have an existing and ongoing right to work in the UK.

• Sift - 20th to 27th October 2026
• Interview - week commencing 9th November 2026
• Location
  - Interview via MS Teams