Senior Technician Transactional Accounting

The reality of the role: You'll be joining at a pivotal moment. The council has set a balanced budget for 2026/27 with a forecast surplus of £1.063m, delivered a £20.4m net underspend in 2025/26, and reduced debt from £827m to £292m in six years. But significant pressures remain – the MTFP projects a cumulative budget gap of £37.107m over four years, and the council has identified £11.948m in new savings for 2026/27, with a target of £50m over the MTFP period.

Your work will directly support the council's response to these challenges. You'll support Business Partners to ensure that the forecasted financial position is an accurate and true reflection of the business position. You'll be proactive in identifying further training requirements of managers using the forecasting system, what corrective action is required, and supporting managers in developing those actions. You'll also identify business risks and inform managers so they can be addressed.

This is not a role where you'll be on your own with no support. You'll be part of a team, working under the guidance of qualified accountants and Business Partners, with opportunities to develop your skills and take on more responsibility as you grow.

Your Influence and Responsibility

• Financial support: You'll provide accurate and timely professional support, advice, and challenge to programmes, projects, business cases, and decisions as directed by Business Partners and Accountants.
• Compliance and control: You'll contribute towards ensuring that financial policies, procedures, and controls within your team are compliant with all relevant legislation, codes, regulations, guidelines, standards, and best practice.
• Reporting and returns: You'll support the completion of statutory and non-statutory returns, including grant claims, ensuring accuracy, timely completion, and that grants are maximised.
• Analysis and insight: You'll ensure that the advice you provide enables your team to create analysis to inform policy and funding decisions, with consideration of constitutional process.
• Collaboration: You'll liaise with other external organisations with regard to data collection, financial analysis, and benchmarking.

What You'll Lead and Influence

• Supporting the completion of statutory and non-statutory returns, including grant claims
• Supporting the maintenance of corporate registers to support year-end statutory disclosures
• Supporting Business Partners to ensure that forecasted financial positions are accurate and true reflections of the business position
• Providing accurate and timely professional support, advice, and challenge to programmes, projects, business cases, and decisions
• Supporting managers in the development, achievement, and updating of business plans to ensure the robustness of the MTFP is maintained
• Preparing audit working papers for assigned areas
• Producing good quality and fully supported corporate reconciliations for assigned areas
• Promoting correct use of the Chart of Accounts across the Council
• Ensuring corporate timelines, standards, and processes are applied to the budget and closedown process

About You

You're someone in the early stages of your finance career who is ready to take the next step. You may already be working in a finance role and looking to develop your skills in a larger, more complex organisation. You may be part-qualified and looking for a role that will support your development. Or you may have relevant experience and be looking for an opportunity to build your career in local government finance.

Whatever your background, you'll bring a willingness to learn, a commitment to accuracy, and a desire to make a real contribution to the council's financial resilience.

You'll bring:

• An understanding of accounting principles and practices and their applicability to local government
• Able to utilise a range of systems to produce easily understandable financial information
• Experience of providing information that supports decision making through financial analysis and option appraisals
• An ability to work on your own initiative with a minimum of supervision
• Financial and commercial awareness with strong analytical skills and a creative approach to problem solving
• AN ability to assess risk whilst effectively supporting services and strategic priorities
• Ability to communicate to colleagues from other disciplines through strong communication skills
• An understanding of the current issues and challenges facing local government in general and Nottingham City Council in particular

You'll also bring the behaviours that make a great local government finance professional:

• A willingness to learn and develop – you're open to feedback, you look for ways to improve your own skills, and you take ownership of your time, wellbeing, and performance
• A collaborative approach – you work well with others, you deal with disagreement constructively, and you're honest about what's possible
• A proactive mindset – you act early when you spot risks, gaps, or unmet needs, and you suggest improvements for how you and your service work
• A commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion – you treat people fairly and with respect, you challenge bias and exclusion where you see it, and you value different perspectives
• A mission-driven, public service orientation – you're motivated by the knowledge that your work supports services that make a difference to people's lives

Why Nottingham, Why Now?

Few councils have undergone a change of this scale. Having rebuilt financial resilience and restored confidence, we're now focused on long-term excellence.

Nottingham's financial recovery has been remarkable. In November 2023, the council issued a Section 114 notice. By early 2026, the government confirmed its intention to scale back intervention – acknowledging the significant progress made. The council delivered a £20.4m net underspend in 2025/26, did not require Exceptional Financial Support, and set a balanced budget for 2026/27.

But the next phase requires discipline at every level. The council must continue to deliver savings while investing in services. It must manage the financial implications of Local Government Reorganisation – with £28m set aside for preparation costs – while maintaining day-to-day financial control.

Nottingham is a city of 331,077 residents, with a notably young population – 69.7% aged between 16 and 64. It is the 18th most deprived lower-tier authority out of 296, with life expectancy