Head of Finance Shared Services

Overview

Lead the Finance Shared Services organisation, ensuring high-quality, scalable, efficient and controlled finance operations across multiple geographies, and act as a strategic partner to senior finance and business leaders.

What you'll do

• Lead the Finance Shared Services strategy, operating model and organisational development to support business growth and transformation.
• Provide strategic leadership across people, processes, technology and service delivery.
• Own the Shared Services budget, resource planning and productivity agenda.
• Own end-to-end delivery of Shared Services operations across Procure-to-Pay (PTP), Record-to-Report (RTR), Order-to-Cash (OTC), Payroll, Treasury Support and Finance Controls.
• Ensure achievement of SLAs, KPIs, customer satisfaction targets and operational excellence standards.
• Drive operational excellence through workload optimisation, process standardisation, automation and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ensure the successful delivery of month-end, quarter-end and year-end financial close activities.
• Maintain a strong governance and control environment across all Shared Services activities.
• Ensure compliance with accounting standards, company policies, regulatory requirements and internal control frameworks.
• Manage operational risk, business continuity and compliance programmes across the function.
• Build and develop a high-performing global Finance Shared Services team.
• Create succession plans and talent development frameworks.
• Drive colleague engagement, capability building, cross-skilling and leadership development.
• Partner with senior stakeholders and business leaders to provide insights, resolve operational issues and support strategic decision-making.
• Provide insightful analysis and challenge to support planning, forecasting, budgeting and performance reviews.
• Develop strong relationships with Finance Directors, Controllers, Treasury, Tax, Procurement, HR and business leadership teams.

What you'll need

• Significant experience leading Finance Shared Services or Global Business Services organisations.
• Overall, 12 - 15 years of progressive finance experience.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end finance processes including PTP, RTR, OTC, Payroll, Treasury, Controls and Compliance.
• Proven track record in transformation, automation, ERP implementations and process improvement.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing budgets, operational performance and service delivery.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility at senior leadership level.
• A people-focused leader with a passion for developing talent and creating high-performing teams.
• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA or equivalent).

Nice to have

• Financial accountancy experience including UK GAAP within a multi-national organisation.