Group Financial Controller

Group Financial Controller | Leisure & Hospitality | Surrey | £120,000 to £130,000 plus car allowance, bonus & benefits

Zachary Daniels Finance is partnering with a high-profile, multi-site leisure and hospitality organisation to appoint a Group Financial Controller into a senior and broad-ranging finance leadership role.

Reporting directly to the CFO and sitting on the Finance Leadership Team, this is significantly more than a traditional financial control position. Alongside ownership of Group reporting, statutory accounting, tax, treasury and financial governance, the role has a broad leadership remit extending beyond traditional financial control, with responsibility for a sizeable team and several key business functions.

The organisation is entering a significant period of investment and change, making this an excellent opportunity for a commercially minded Financial Controller who enjoys solving complex problems, improving how businesses operate and influencing beyond the traditional boundaries of finance.

The role

• Lead the Group controllership agenda, ensuring accurate, relevant and timely financial reporting across the organisation.
• Own the Group statutory accounts process, external audit relationship and Group balance sheet.
• Lead Group cash flow forecasting, covenant reporting and working capital performance.
• Oversee Group tax compliance and the relationship with HMRC, including VAT and wider regulatory requirements.
• Provide technical accounting leadership across significant and non-routine transactions under FRS 102.
• Provide leadership and oversight across broader operational and commercial functions outside of core Finance.
• Drive improvements across financial operations, processes, controls and service levels.
• Own the finance systems framework and play a key role in systems implementation and wider finance transformation.
• Lead financial input into significant commercial contracts, investment decisions and business-wide projects.
• Support the CFO with refinancing and investment activity.
• Manage key external relationships including auditors, tax advisers, banks and other professional partners.
• Lead and develop a sizeable team, creating a high-performance environment while building capability and succession.
• Operate as an active member of the senior leadership community, representing Finance across major commercial, organisational and strategic initiatives.

About you

We are looking for a qualified Chartered Accountant with a strong technical foundation, but this role requires considerably more than technical accounting expertise.

You will ideally bring:

• At least five years' post-qualified experience within a sizeable, complex organisation.
• Strong technical accounting knowledge, including FRS 102, statutory reporting and ownership of external audit relationships.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing finance teams.
• The confidence to take leadership responsibility beyond your own technical specialism.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to challenge investment, contracts and business decisions constructively.
• Experience improving financial processes, controls, systems and ways of working.
• A track record of operating successfully through change, ambiguity and complex business challenges.
• Excellent communication skills with the credibility to influence CFO, Board and senior operational stakeholders.
• A proactive, solutions-focused approach, identifying problems, taking ownership and driving them through to resolution.Experience within multi-site, consumer, retail, leisure, hospitality, travel, entertainment or another operationally complex environment would be advantageous, but we are equally interested in individuals from other sectors who can demonstrate the required scale, complexity and leadership capability.

Package

• £120,000 to £130,000 basic salary, with potential flexibility for an exceptional candidate
• Car allowance
• Bonus
• Employer pension contribution
• 25 days' annual leave
• Healthcare benefits
• Excellent wider benefits
• Hybrid working

This is an unusual Group Financial Controller opportunity, combining the technical foundations of a senior controllership position with broader operational leadership, systems transformation, investment, commercial contracts and significant senior stakeholder exposure.

For somebody looking for a broad finance leadership position with genuine influence across an organisation, it offers considerably more scope than a conventional Group Financial Controller role.

Zachary Daniels is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates and are committed to creating an inclusive recruitment process for everyone.

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