Accountant

At Salford City Council, we are committed to delivering highquality services that improve outcomes for our residents. Our Finance function plays a vital role in supporting informed decisionmaking, protecting public funds, and ensuring value for money across the organisation.

Our management accountancy teams work closely with services to understand how resources are used, identify financial risks early, and support sustainable delivery. Collaboration, constructive challenge, and forwardlooking financial insight sit at the heart of what we do.

This is an exciting time to join Salford. We are implementing a new finance and procurement system, modernising the way we work and strengthening financial management across the Council.

We currently have an Accountant vacancy within our Place Directorate.

This post is firmly focused on management accounting and financial business partnering.

It is not a transactional finance, treasury, or financial accounts role.

The purpose of the role is to support budget holders to manage their resources effectively by providing robust budget monitoring, forecasting, and meaningful variance analysis, alongside constructive challenge and advice.

You will work closely with managers to understand financial performance, explain variances, identify risks, and support decisions about spend and resources.

The core day to day activities will involve

• Owning budget monitoring, forecasting and reforecasting for assigned service areas
• Producing clear and insightful variance analysis, explaining drivers rather than just reporting movements
• Working directly with budget holders to understand spend patterns, pressures, and resource plans
• Challenging assumptions, profiling, and value for money in a constructive and professional way
• Providing forwardlooking financial analysis to support operational and strategic decisions
• Identifying emerging financial risks early and supporting managers to take corrective action
• Supporting continuous improvement, including the implementation of the new finance and procurement system

This role involves regular engagement with nonfinance colleagues and requires confidence in explaining financial information clearly and pragmatically.

This role is not for you if you are primarily looking for:

• Accounts payable or accounts receivable roles
• Treasury or cashmanagementfocused positions
• Financial accounting, audit, or statutory reportingled roles
• Roles with limited stakeholder engagement or financial challenge

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Strong management accounting experience, including budget setting, monitoring, forecasting, and variance analysis
• Experience working directly with budget holders or nonfinance managers
• Confidence to challenge financial assumptions and spending decisions in a supportive and evidencebased way
• An ability to translate complex financial information into clear, actionable insight
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• A proactive and collaborative approach to improving financial management and ways of working
• (Desirable) Experience within a public sector finance environment, ideally local government, with an understanding of grant funding, regulatory frameworks and public sector financial processes.

You may be fully qualified, partqualified, or actively working towards a professional accountancy qualification. We are happy to discuss development pathways for the right candidate.

What success looks like in this role

Within your first months, you will be a trusted finance partner to servicesproviding meaningful variance analysis, producing reliable forecasts, and helping managers understand and actively manage their financial position.

Contact and Application Information

To find out more about this role, please contact Paul Guest at:

paul.guest@salford.gov.uk

Please do not send CVs to this email address, as they will not be accepted.

When applying, please ensure your supporting statement clearly sets out how your experience meets the requirements of the role, including examples of budget management, forecasting, and variance analysis.

Supporting Documents

↗ Role Profile