Overview
Finance Business Partner Jobs in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom at The Scottish Government
Title: Finance Business Partner
Company: The Scottish Government
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Would you like a rewarding role in Finance, building on your budgeting and customer engagement skills?
The Scottish Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) administers around £1.5 billion of student funding annually on behalf of the Scottish Government and manages an organisational budget of approximately £22 million. As part of the Finance Directorate, the Finance and Business Partner role plays a pivotal part in supporting strong financial stewardship and strategic delivery within a complex public sector environment.
Working at the heart of programme and operational delivery, you will provide high‑quality financial reporting, analysis and advice, partnering closely with budget holders, Project Managers and senior stakeholders. This is an excellent opportunity to develop a career in the Civil Service, work towards a professional accountancy qualification, and gain broad exposure to budgeting, forecasting, project costing and stakeholder engagement during a period of significant organisational transformation.
- Deliver high quality monthly financial reporting to agreed timescales, providing accurate, relevant and insightful management information to support decision making.
- Provide clear financial advice and support to budget holders and senior stakeholders, building effective working relationships across SAAS and with colleagues in the wider Scottish Government.
- Contribute to corporate financial exercises in line with the annual timetable, including budget setting, forecasting and year end processes, ensuring robust working papers, clear audit trails and readiness for audit scrutiny.
- Support the integrity of the financial ledger through reconciliations, journal processing and regular review of financial data, ensuring accuracy and compliance with governance requirements.
- Review and challenge budget monitoring returns and forecasts, ensuring that assumptions are robust, explanations are evidence based and financial risks are clearly articulated.
- Contribute to maintaining strong financial control across the Agency, ensuring accounting and reporting processes are well documented, compliant and aligned to the Scottish Public Finance Manual.
- Work flexibly across resource and capital activity, including digital and transformation programmes, adapting quickly to shifting priorities in a fast paced environment.
Qualifications/Skills
You should be part CCAB qualified (or equivalent)* or have an extensive financial expertise and be willing to work towards attaining such professional qualification.
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 Profile
Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.
Professional / Technical Skills
- Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing – Practitioner
- Government finance – Working
You can find out more about the skills required here Finance Profession Capability Framework
Experience
- Demonstrated strong analytical capability, using a range of financial and data tools to interrogate complex information, identify trends and variances, and translate these into clear, evidence-based options and recommendations.
Behaviours
- Working Together – Level 3
- Delivering at pace – Level 3
- Making Effective Decisions – Level 3
You can find out more about Success Profiles here: Success profiles: candidate guide – gov.scot
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, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile 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.
Assessments are scheduled for w/c 18 May 2026 however this may be subject to change.
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 [email protected] .
