Interim Associate Director of Finance Management

Main area Finance Grade NHS AfC Band 8c Contract Secondment: 6 months (With potential to extend) Hours Full time – 37.5 hours per week Job ref 278-ADodFM-0826-SBW

Employer South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Crawley HQ Town Crawley Salary £79,504 – £91,609 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 02/09/2026 23:59

Interim Associate Director of Finance Management

NHS AfC Band 8c

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission and while the other areas under their most recent report require improvement, our aim is to continually improve and to reach outstanding across all areas of the Trust.

Our 4,000+ workforce provide services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year. More information regarding our services and locations can be found on our website.

Job overview

Associate Director of Financial Management – Band 8c

Are you an experienced senior NHS finance leader looking for your next development opportunity?

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced and credible finance professional to join us as Associate Director of Financial Management.

This is an interim opportunity and is ideally suited to an existing NHS employee wishing to undertake an NHS-to-NHS secondment.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates currently employed within the NHS who are able to secure the support of their substantive employer for a secondment. Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss and obtain agreement in principle from their current employer before applying.

Interviews to take place week commencing 14th September 2026

Main duties of the job

Reporting to the Deputy Chief Finance Officer, the Associate Director of Financial Management will provide strategic leadership for the Trust’s financial management and business partnering function.

This is a high-profile senior leadership role with responsibility for ensuring that robust financial planning, performance management, governance and business partnering arrangements support the Trust’s organisational priorities and long-term financial sustainability.

You will act as a senior financial advisor to the Deputy Chief Finance Officer and Chief Finance Officer, providing expert insight and constructive challenge across financial strategy, resource allocation, service transformation, financial recovery and investment decisions.

The role will work across organisational boundaries and with partners across Integrated Care Systems, commissioners and other stakeholders, representing the Trust at senior system, regional and national forums.

Working for our organisation

• Option to join NHS pension scheme
• A minimum 27 days’ holiday each year, increasing after 5 years’ service.
• Personal and professional development and training opportunities.
• Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes.
• Access to occupational health and counselling services.
• Access to NHS discounts, offering NHS employees a range of money-saving deals.

Other than in exceptional circumstances, the starting salary for staff new to the NHS will be the bottom point of the band to which they have been appointed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As Associate Director of Financial Management, you will:

• Provide strategic leadership for financial management and business partnering services across the Trust.
• Lead the development and delivery of annual and medium-term financial plans aligned with organisational and system priorities.
• Hold senior accountability for financial performance, forecasting, risk management and financial recovery.
• Provide expert financial advice and constructive challenge to the Deputy Chief Finance Officer, Chief Finance Officer and senior leaders.
• Lead and support Cost Improvement Programmes, financial recovery plans and transformation initiatives.
• Ensure effective alignment between financial, operational and workforce planning.
• Lead financial input into major business cases, investment decisions and service transformation programmes.
• Oversee robust financial reporting, analytics, costing, benchmarking and financial modelling.
• Support and influence system-wide financial planning and resource allocation across Integrated Care Systems and partner organisations.
• Drive continuous improvement within the finance function, including digital innovation, automation and advanced analytics.
• Provide visible, inclusive leadership to the Financial Management team, developing capability and promoting a culture of accountability, professional excellence and continuous improvement.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Evidence of senior leadership development, either formal or experiential
• Educated to postgraduate level or equivalent experience in finance, accounting or a relevant discipline
• Evidence of leadership in financial strategy, planning and transformation.
• Specialist qualifications in areas such as transformation, programme management or data analytics.

Knowledge

• Expert knowledge of financial management, business partnering and strategic financial planning within a complex organisation
• In-depth understanding of IFRS, IAS, IFRIC, DHSC Group Accounting Manual; and NHS financial regimes
• Comprehensive knowledge of Standing Financial Instructions (SFI), Standing Orders (SO) and Scheme of Delegation (SoD)
• Knowledge of financial systems, data, analytics and reporting tools, e.g. Oracle and BI platforms.
• Detailed understanding of NHS structures, policy, funding mechanisms and system working.
• Knowledge of governance, audit and assurance processes.
• Knowledge of costing methodologies, e.g. PLICS, pricing and benchmarking.
• Advanced knowledge of system-wide financial planning and ICS financial frameworks.
• Knowledge of ambulance services or similar complex operational environments.
• Knowledge of digital finance strategy, automation and advanced analytics.

Experience

• Extensive senior financial leadership experience within a large, complex organisation NHS or equivalent.
• Proven track record of leading financial strategy, financial planning and delivery across multi-portfolio areas
• Significant experience of working across organisational and system boundaries, e.g. ICS and commissioners
• Experience of developing and leading high-performing finance teams, including workforce planning and capability development

Following the revision of current national legislation (Vaccine as a Condition of Deployment), the Trust has reviewed our requirements relating to staff uptake of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination.

The Trust is passionately committed to being an inclusive employer – a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. As an employer we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement networks, facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people – including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes – including the interview – are fair and equitable.

We are a committed to offering opportunities to individuals with disabilities and offer on-going support, should you be successful, with any adjustments you may need when performing your role.

The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this.

Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact (emailprotected) stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this.

When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history.

Please note that under our Trust policies, we’re unable to employ anyone under the age of 18 years old.

The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this.

Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact (emailprotected) stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this.

When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history.

Due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview. If you have not heard from us within 10 working days of the closing date, then please assume you have not been shortlisted for interview on this particular occasion.

Please note that we contact all applicants via Trac Jobs and would advise you check your Trac Jobs account regularly.

Please be aware that the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received. For this reason we recommend completing your application as early as possible.

The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people – including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes – including the interview – are fair and equitable.

We understand that AI tools can be useful for generating ideas or structuring your application. However, any content submitted must reflect your own experiences, skills, and understanding. Applications that are generated wholly or in large part by AI, without personalisation or accuracy, may be excluded from consideration. We value honesty, authenticity, and integrity in the recruitment process and expect all applicants to uphold these principles.

If you are a current SECAmb employee, by applying for this position, if successful you will move to the terms and conditions associated with the post.

We are not including extraneous recruiter branding blocks or job-board page furniture in this refined description.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Base: Nexus House, Crawley, West Sussex, with travel across Trust sites and the wider system as required.

Band: Agenda for Change Band 8c

Appointment route: NHS-to-NHS secondment strongly preferred.

Please review the attached Job Description and Person Specification carefully before applying. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate how they meet the essential criteria within their application.

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