Senior Finance Business Partner – FP&A & Commercial Performance

Location: South London
Reporting to: Finance Director
Level: Senior Finance Professional

The Opportunity

We are recruiting for an experienced, commercially focused Senior Finance Business Partner to join an established, project-driven business looking to strengthen its financial planning, forecasting and commercial performance capabilities.

Working closely with the Finance Director, CEO and wider leadership team, this is a highly visible, hands-on position offering the opportunity to make a measurable impact on business performance.

The successful candidate will go beyond traditional financial reporting, using data to understand what drives revenue, costs and profitability, challenge commercial assumptions and identify opportunities to improve financial outcomes.

This role would suit someone who enjoys getting beneath the numbers, working closely with operational teams and taking ownership of improvements rather than simply reporting on historic performance.

What Success Looks Like – Your First Six Months

A particularly important aspect of this appointment is the ability to deliver tangible improvements within the first six months.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Improve forecasting accuracy: Strengthen the consistency, reliability and usefulness of financial forecasts, ensuring the business has greater confidence in future performance.

• Enhance financial visibility: Establish clearer, more insightful reporting across revenue, gross margin, operating expenditure and EBITDA.

• Understand profitability: Develop greater transparency around profitability by project, client and business area, identifying the factors influencing financial performance.

• Build commercial relationships: Establish credibility and effective working relationships with operational and commercial leaders, becoming a trusted partner in decision-making.

• Identify opportunities to improve margins: Highlight tangible opportunities to improve profitability, manage costs and increase operational efficiency.

• Streamline management reporting: Reduce manual processes, improve data quality and introduce more efficient reporting and analytical tools.

• Influence strategic decisions: Provide the Finance Director and CEO with clear, timely and actionable financial insight to support faster, better-informed decisions.

The expectation is not simply to produce better financial reports, but to actively influence how the business performs.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Lead and improve budgeting, forecasting and financial planning processes.

• Develop rolling forecasts covering revenue, gross profit, operating costs and EBITDA.

• Build financial models to support scenario planning, investment decisions and commercial opportunities.

• Challenge departmental assumptions and improve accountability for financial performance.

• Analyse actual results against budgets and forecasts, identifying risks, trends and opportunities.

Commercial Finance & Profitability

• Analyse financial performance across projects, customers and operational business areas.

• Identify the drivers behind revenue, gross margin and profitability.

• Work closely with commercial and operational teams to understand project costs, pricing, resource utilisation and margin performance.

• Evaluate commercial opportunities, pricing structures and investment proposals.

• Highlight areas of margin erosion, cost overruns and underperformance, recommending practical solutions.

Management Information & Business Insight

• Develop meaningful management information and performance dashboards for senior leadership.

• Improve the clarity, consistency and accessibility of financial reporting.

• Translate complex financial information into concise, commercially relevant recommendations.

• Establish financial and operational KPIs that improve visibility and accountability.

• Provide insightful commentary on performance, rather than simply presenting financial results.

Finance Business Partnering

• Work directly with the Finance Director, CEO and senior operational stakeholders.

• Build relationships across commercial, operational and finance teams.

• Provide constructive challenge to assumptions, decisions and business plans.

• Help non-financial managers understand their financial responsibilities and performance.

• Proactively identify commercial risks and opportunities.

Systems, Data & Process Improvement

• Identify opportunities to automate reporting and reduce manual spreadsheet activity.

• Improve the quality, consistency and reliability of financial data.

• Develop reporting models, dashboards and analytical tools.

• Support improvements to financial systems, processes and controls.

• Ensure financial information can be used effectively to support operational and strategic decisions.

The Person We're Looking For

We are particularly interested in individuals who are naturally curious, commercially inquisitive and genuinely motivated by understanding what sits behind the numbers.

This is not a role for someone who simply produces management accounts and reports on historic performance.

We are looking for someone who:

• Questions the numbers: Enjoys investigating financial performance, identifying inconsistencies and understanding the underlying commercial drivers.

• Is comfortable with complex data: Can work confidently with large volumes of information, identify patterns and turn analysis into meaningful business insight.

• Has commercial confidence: Is comfortable challenging senior stakeholders, asking difficult questions and constructively influencing decisions.

• Takes ownership: Demonstrates initiative, follows issues through to resolution and brings solutions rather than simply identifying problems.

• Builds relationships: Works collaboratively with operational and commercial colleagues, understanding their challenges and helping them improve performance.

• Thinks beyond finance: Understands the connection between operational activity, commercial decisions, financial performance and profitability.

• Enjoys improving processes: Recognises opportunities to simplify reporting, improve data quality and create more efficient ways of working.

• Delivers results: Is pragmatic, proactive and focused on achieving measurable business improvements.

Above all, we want someone who combines strong financial expertise with commercial curiosity, credibility and the determination to make a difference.

Experience & Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA), or substantial equivalent relevant experience.

• Strong background in FP&A, commercial finance, finance business partnering or management accounting.

• Proven experience developing financial forecasts, budgets, models and management information.

• Advanced Excel and financial modelling capabilities.

• Strong understanding of P&L performance, gross margin, EBITDA and operational cost drivers.

• Experience working closely with commercial and operational stakeholders.

• Ability to analyse complex financial information and present clear recommendations to senior management.

• Evidence of improving financial reporting, forecasting or business performance.

Desirable

• Experience within a project-based, operationally complex or service-led business.

• Exposure to project profitability, labour costs, resource utilisation and subcontractor expenditure.

• Experience using Power BI or similar reporting and business intelligence tools.

• A track record of reporting automation, data improvement or financial systems enhancement.

• Experience working within a group or international reporting environment.

• Involvement in business improvement, transformation or operational change initiatives.

Why This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to take a central role in improving the financial visibility and commercial performance of an established business.

With direct exposure to the Finance Director and CEO, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to influence important decisions, develop stronger financial processes and deliver improvements that have a genuine impact on profitability.