A key differentiator for this contract is its focus on innovation: you will actively pioneer the identification and deployment of practical AI use cases and automation to redesign FP&A workflows, eliminate manual effort, and accelerate reporting cycles.
This is a highly autonomous contract position requiring a consultant who can navigate complex stakeholder environments, establish robust cost governance, and drive practical financial solutions from initial design through to final implementation.
Key Accountabilities
Financial Governance & Cost Baseline
* Cost Base Transparency: Build a comprehensive baseline view of Group IT spend across recurring SG&A, project-related costs, capex, and exceptional items.
* Cross-Divisional Alignment: Collaborate with individual divisions and Group IT to extract detailed cost data and assign clear ownership to strengthen financial accountability.
* Head Office Oversight: Establish transparent reporting and tracking processes for other central Head Office functions to improve functional cost control and forecast accuracy.
Budgeting & Recharge Methodology
* IT Budget Leadership: Act as the central financial bridge between Group IT and divisional finance teams to coordinate the end-to-end IT budget process (covering both recurring operations and project spend).
* Project Classification: Coordinate the review of the IT project pipeline, ensuring costs are accurately classified between EBITDA, capex, and exceptional items with appropriate finance sign-off.
* Recharge Framework Design: Design and implement a sustainable, practical Group recharge framework for IT costs across divisions, ensuring appropriate materiality thresholds and evaluating year-on-year performance impacts.
AI Innovation & Systems Integration
* Workflow Redesign: Leverage AI agents and automated workflows to streamline recurring reporting outputs, reduce manual data manipulation, and improve data consistency.
* Systems Transformation: Support the upcoming Head Office IFS ERP go-live by ensuring all IT and Head Office cost reporting models are fully integrated and mapped smoothly into OneStream (the Group’s consolidation platform).
* Reporting Architecture: Ensure the future-state system environment is fully optimized to support actuals, budgets, forecasts, and recharge reporting.
Key Competencies & Attributes
* Professional Qualification: ACA, ACCA, or CIMA qualified accountant with a strong track record in interim FP&A, finance business partnering, or finance transformation roles.
* Cost Governance Expertise: Deep experience designing and implementing cost allocation, recharge methodologies, and robust corporate planning frameworks.
* Stakeholder Management: Proven capability to partner with, influence, and challenge senior leaders, including C-suite stakeholders (Group CIO).
* Systems Fluency: Strong systems capability, ideally with experience navigating complex ERP environments (e.g., IFS) and enterprise consolidation platforms (e.g., OneStream).
* AI & Automation Mindset: Prior technical AI experience is not required; however, you must possess a strong conceptual understanding of, and passion for, emerging AI solutions and how to practically apply them to finance workflows.
* Drive & Autonomy: A self-sufficient, delivery-focused mindset with the ability to manage change cross-functionally and translate design concepts into live, sustainable processes
Salary description
£700.00 - £750.00 per day