Head of Finance

Head of Finance

Location: Aylesford

Contract: Full time, permanent

Salary: £70k - £85k

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

The opportunity

An entrepreneurial SME group with a number of trading subsidiaries is looking for a Head of Finance to act as its most senior full-time finance professional and as a genuine commercial partner to the CEO and senior leadership team.

This is not a reporting role with some partnering attached. The group already has the disciplines in place; what it wants is someone who can tell it what the numbers mean, why they matter and what should happen next. You will sit with market and brand leaders, challenge their plans, and shape decisions on pricing, investment and where the group puts its money.

Reporting to the CEO and attending Board meetings, you will make the group legible through three aligned lenses: the consolidated group, performance by market, and performance by brand or product. Making those views coherent, reconcilable and commercially meaningful is how leadership comes to understand where value is actually created. A part-time CFO provides governance oversight, challenge and mentoring, giving you the autonomy of the top finance seat with experienced support behind it.

What you'll be doing

Commercial partnership and decision support

• Act as trusted commercial partner to the CEO and senior leadership team
• Partner with P&L owners, market leads and brand leads on planning, forecasting and performance optimisation
• Provide the "so what" - translating performance into decisions that improve margin, cost efficiency and capital deployment
• Constructively challenge proposals, business cases and performance, actively driving profitability and returns rather than reporting on them
• Support strategic planning and investment decisions with robust financial analysis
• Balance analytical rigour with pragmatism and commercial judgement, keeping a group-first perspective while supporting individual leaders

Profitability analysis and performance insight

• Own the analysis that shows how profit is generated: margin drivers, cost structures and contribution across the group
• Develop reporting that clearly articulates profitability at group level, by market, and by brand or product
• Use profitability analysis to inform pricing, investment, resource allocation and growth decisions
• Present consolidated results to the Board alongside clear performance analysis by market and by brand or product
• Ensure every performance view reconciles back to statutory and management accounts, so the insight carries credibility

Planning and forecasting

• Lead group-wide budgeting, forecasting and cash flow management
• Build market and product performance into forecasts and scenario modelling
• Improve forecasting accuracy through disciplined assumptions, data gathering and performance tracking

Reporting, control and governance

• Ensure a single version of financial truth across all entities, markets and brands
• Lead preparation of group statutory accounts, including consolidation of the subsidiaries
• Produce high-quality consolidated management accounts, KPIs and Board packs
• Maintain consistent accounting policies, controls and disciplines across the group
• Manage the group audit process and the relationship with external auditors
• Ensure compliance with UK accounting standards, company law and listed company reporting requirements

Systems, team and capability

• Act as business owner for core finance systems, ensuring they support multi-dimensional reporting and are fit for a listed environment
• Manage external systems providers and key suppliers, holding them to account on delivery, cost and service
• Lead, support and develop the group finance team, building capability to move beyond reporting into insight and commercial analysis
• Ensure resilience, continuity and succession within the function

About you

Essential

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)
• Demonstrable commercial acumen, with a track record of turning numbers into insight and action that changed a decision
• Proven ability to design and deliver meaningful management and profitability reporting at Board level
• Confidence engaging with Boards, senior leaders and non-finance stakeholders, including the credibility to challenge them
• Proven experience in group reporting and consolidation
• Experience managing audits, external advisers and finance systems in a regulated, listed or similarly governed environment
• Advanced Excel, and experience working in a digital, paperless environment
• Experience leading and developing a small finance team