Finance Analyst (Faults) - Crawley

Job Title: Finance Analyst (Faults)

Reporting to - South Eastern Finance Manager

Location - Energy House, Crawley

Department - Finance

Reference Number - 27647

Employment Period - Permanent

CiP Level / Bonus - 5%

Salary Range - GBP32,500 to GBP42,500 - Depending on Experience

Closing Date 24/01/2017

The Company

UK Power Networks is one of Britain's largest power networks, responsible for delivering electricity to 20 million people in London, the South East and the East of England.

We are a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and operate and maintain the networks that deliver power, using 139,000 kilometres of underground cables, 18,000km of Overhead lines, and 130,000 substations. We serve an area of 29,165 square kilometres, from The Wash in the East to the River Arun on the South Coast.

UK Power Networks is owned by the Cheung Kong group (CKI), which has extensive experience of operating regulated infrastructure operations around the world. The group also operates electricity distribution businesses in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, and has been recognised as having leading customer service and health and safety systems. In the UK it has stakes in Southern Water, Wales and West and Northern Gas Networks.

Our people are central to our business and we recognise the need to be able to attract, recruit and retain high performing employees with the potential, skills and experience necessary for the continued growth of our organisation.

Role Overview

This role sits within the Operational Finance team in the Finance Directorate and will support the South-East Finance Manager in delivering key performance metrics for the use of senior management within the business. Working closely with the Operational Accountant, as well as the wider business, it is a pivotal position to enable UKPN to drive down unit costs in line with our ED1 business plan.

You will be responsible for gaining a thorough understanding of how the costs and volumes are processed through the various systems of record, in order that accurate unit cost data can be provided to the business on a monthly basis as well as ensuring that we can fulfil our regulatory reporting requirements.

Dimensions

Network Operations has an annual Gross Faults budget of approximately GBP103m, across the 3 DNO's and the Asset Portfolio Plan which is fundamental to this has over 100 individual lines which will need target costs to be calculated in line with the CU/APP Analyst team and Asset Management.

Not only will you generate improvements in terms of creating commercial analysis and improved communications, but you will create a consensus and mutual understanding between stakeholders, clear commitments, and improved efficiency. The position will require working in all three UKPN regions.

Principal Accountabilities

- Analyse data to continually assess actual performance against the latest best estimates of time, cost and output against the Asset Portfolio Plan in order to determine focus areas during periodic plan reforecasts, that the business need to review and manage against the risk of over-expenditure.
- Assist in the production of clear and accurate unit cost information with the Compatible Unit and Asset Portfolio Plan team and the relevant Asset Management team to enable Senior Managers within the business to drive significant improvements in productivity and efficiency.
- Ensure accurate and timely data analysis is prepared to support the production of the Operational Performance Report for the Executive Management Team each month and that any improvements that can be made to this process are implemented.
- Actively participate in cross business reviews to compare unit cost data, understand the reasons for variances, cause and effect relationships
- Identify opportunities and areas for attention and recommend options for action and help implement any improvements needed
- Consolidate cost and volume data from multiple sources into one source with the help of the MSBI Architect.
- Understand the differences between the Regulatory allowed costs and the budgeted costs and work with the Regulatory finance team to monitor this on a regular basis and track progress.
- Document current business processes in order to define the nature of any hot-spots and work with the business to resolve these and deliver best in class processes ensuring that the necessary controls are implemented as needed.

Nature and Scope:

The nature of this work is to provide data manipulation and analytical support to the Network Operations Directorate and across Operational Finance as required.

This is a professional role which includes liaising throughout the business and involves communicating with non-financial managers. You will be expected to have excellent Communication skills and a professional attitude to work and those you deal with.

The post will be based at Crawley. However, the role will involve visits to other locations.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications and Experience

Awareness of key cost drivers and outputs within the industry.

- Analytical and decision making skills.
- Track record of delivering results, challenging the norm and providing solutions.
- At least 2 years of solid experience working within a Financial Analysis environment
- Highly numerate and methodical with exceptional attention to detail and accuracy.
- Process orientated with excellent organizational and analytical skills.
- Resilient personality, enthusiastic and able to work well as part of a team
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively at all levels
- Ability to work effectively and proactively on own initiative and autonomously, without close supervision
- Very good communication skills to present analytics to all levels of the business
- A current driving license, with access to a car and the ability to work flexibly throughout the year are essential.

Key Competencies

Critical

- Able to define and align to the company's culture and values
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to present these in a simple format is essential
- Strong MS Office skills including Word and PowerPoint
- Can decipher different types of issues from a single data source
- Very strong data manipulation skills
- Excellent excel skills i.e. 'super user'
- Works on their own initiative to agreed thresholds and deadlines
- Offers a high level of commitment
- Enthusiastic individual with the ability to work well as part of the team and as an individual.
- Willing to travel across the geographical areas of UK Power Networks where necessary.

Desirable

- Information extraction and modelling experience
- Ideally educated to a degree level in maths, economic or accounting discipline.
- Systems experience of SAP, Netmap, Power On would be advantageous
- Ability to grasp a situation quickly and create well-reasoned solutions.
- Inter-personal skills that establish and maintain excellent relationships and credibility quickly.