Head of Commercial Finance

Head of Commercial FinanceSalary: £80,000 - £100,000 + bonusLocation: Manchester

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Head of Commercial Finance to join a PE backed organisation in Manchester. This pivotal role is responsible for leading the commercial finance and FP&A functions, ensuring robust budgeting, forecasting, and access to strategic insight across the group.

Reporting to a high calibre CFO, you will play a key part in shaping financial strategy, supporting business decisions with insightful analysis, and developing a high-performing team. Future M&A exposure is highly likely. With flexible working opportunities and a focus on work-life balance, this is an ideal position for someone looking to make a significant impact while enjoying generous benefits.

• Lead the end-to-end budgeting, long-term financial planning, and forecasting processes for the entire group, ensuring accuracy and timeliness at every stage.
• Manage and develop a talented team covering FP&A and business partnering within a collaborative and supportive culture.
• Drive improvements to systems and analytical tools.
• Enjoy flexible working opportunities, ongoing training opportunities, and the chance to work alongside knowledgeable colleagues who are committed to your success.

What you'll do:

As Head of Commercial Finance, you will oversee all aspects of commercial finance operations including annual budgeting cycles, long-term strategic planning initiatives, detailed forecasting activities, and effective treasury management. Your day-to-day responsibilities will involve collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver timely insights that drive informed decision-making at every level of the organisation along with the PE investors. You will champion best practices in financial modelling, ensuring robust controls are always in place, while also automating key performance indicators for greater efficiency. By building strong relationships with stakeholders across the business, you will help elevate data quality standards throughout the business. Your ability to provide actionable decision support will be crucial in guiding commercial strategies while your leadership skills will empower your team to excel in their respective roles. Success in this position means not only providing insightful MI but also continuously improving processes so that financial performance remains optimised year after year.

• Take full ownership of the groups' financial model, ensuring it remains robustly controlled while enabling multiple users to operate it effectively.
• Integrate or automate key performance indicator models and maintain responsibility for their ongoing accuracy and relevance to business objectives.
• Oversee short-term cash flow forecasting, aligning these forecasts with broader cash projections in main financial models to ensure liquidity is managed efficiently.
• Provide guidance on future transactions and M&A activities.
• Provide comprehensive decision support to various business units by delivering clear analysis that informs both commercial and strategic choices.
• Collaborate closely with Finance Systems and Transactions teams to build out high-quality data analysis datasets and databases, driving continuous improvement in data quality.
• Work with the Group Financial Controller to align backward- and forward-looking financial reporting for maximum clarity and insight.
• Contribute at a strategic level during business reviews, as well as budget and forecast processes, helping shape the direction of the organisation.
• Lead all aspects of the Treasury function including bank administration duties and regular review of internal controls to safeguard assets.
• Develop, mentor, and inspire your team members to achieve their full potential.
• Ensure all budgets are delivered on time with high levels of accuracy while maintaining strong controls over business financial performance metrics such as EBITDA.

What you bring:

To excel as Head of Commercial Finance you will bring substantial experience from senior commercial finance roles where you have been responsible for complex budgeting cycles, long-term planning initiatives, forecasting activities, and treasury oversight. Your technical expertise will be complemented by advanced Excel capabilities which enable you to manage intricate models confidently while maintaining rigorous controls.

Your proven track record includes successfully leading teams, nurturing talent through mentorship, and fostering an atmosphere where collaboration thrives. You possess excellent organisational acumen which allows you to juggle multiple priorities without compromising on quality or timeliness. Strong interpersonal skills mean you can communicate clearly whether presenting findings at board meetings or coaching junior staff members.

• Full qualification as an accountant (such as ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent) with up-to-date technical knowledge relevant to commercial finance roles.
• Demonstrated experience influencing stakeholders positively while providing constructive challenge when necessary within a finance context.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and financial modelling with proven ability to manage complex financial models accurately under tight deadlines.
• Exceptional analytical skills allowing you to interpret large volumes of data into meaningful insights that inform business decisions.
• Outstanding team leadership abilities demonstrated through previous experience managing diverse finance teams towards shared goals.
• Experience developing teams by setting realistic deadlines and implementing contingency plans when required for successful project delivery.
• Excellent organisational skills enabling you to prioritise workloads effectively even when faced with competing demands or shifting priorities.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills allowing you to engage empathetically with colleagues at all levels regardless of audience size or background.

What sets this company apart:

This growing PE backed organisation offers flexible working arrangements designed around personal needs - enabling better work-life balance. The company invests heavily in ongoing training opportunities and this role provides extensive board level exposure, along with development from a high calibre CFO. You will provide key input towards strategy with future M&A exposure and a potential business exit.

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates

About the job

Contract Type: Permanent

Specialism: Accountancy & Finance

Focus: Commercial Finance