As part of our ongoing growth and commitment to excellence, we are thrilled to announce a new opportunity for a Finance Director to join our dynamic team at Axians UK. This pivotal role will play a crucial part in driving our financial strategy and supporting our business units in achieving their ambitious goals. If you are a proactive and experienced finance professional looking to make a significant impact in a fast-paced and innovative environment, we would love to hear from you!

As a key member of the Perimeter team, the Finance Director is responsible for leading, developing, coordinating, and supporting the BU Finance Business Partners within their perimeter in all aspects of finance, treasury, and tax. They will also ensure that the reporting requirements of the BUs are met.

This role requires a high level of interaction with local teams, necessitating the building and maintaining of strong collaborative relationships with the Business Units they serve. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter with excellent communication skills, strong commercial awareness, problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to work in a fast-paced environment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work closely with the Perimeter Director to develop the BU’s within their Perimeter, be a strong advocate of Quartz and provide the necessary support and oversight to make this a reality.
• Ensure the Perimeter Business Units are compliant with the Groups Accounting, Tax, Treasury and internal control Guidelines and timetable.
• Within a business context, help the Business Units maximise the functionalities of Codex, and be the Perimeter lead for any ERP integrations.
• Work with the BUGM’s to build and develop strong finance individuals and teams within its BU’s.
• Ensuring own and Teams adherence to Axians’ Management System Manual for Quality (ISO 9001), InfoSec (ISO 27001) and ESG (ISO 14001).

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

General Accounting & Reporting

• Manage the Group reporting process including planning and communicating the group reporting timetable.
• Obtain and develop a strong working knowledge of our Group reporting requirements including all monthly (TBM) and quarterly (Vision, P Tables) BU and Group reporting.
• Assist the Business with any queries they might have in relation to their reporting obligations.
• Ensuring group processes and controls are in place to facilitate transactions being accurately recorded in a timely manner and in accordance with the group and accounting rules.

Financial Planning & Analysis

• Lead the budget process and lead the validation and consolidation of the Business unit submissions.
• Regular analysis of KPI’s such as invoice lag, debtors, variances and productive hours, overhead spend and project variances, and highlighting any key findings to the Perimeter Director.
• Provide sound commercial insights and possible commercial actions to the Perimeter Director and BUGM’s resulting from the KPI analysis.
• Challenge the processes to improve business effectiveness.

Audit, Tax & Treasury

• Coordinate the Perimeter audits to ensure Business Units have their Financial Statements audited in accordance with the deadlines.
• Ensure the Business Units comply with their tax obligations and be the initial point of reference for any tax queries.
• Monitor and understand the drivers behind the BU’s cash position.
• Ensure its Business units are in compliance with the Groups Banking and Treasury guidelines by conducting periodic reviews.

ERP & Systems

• Understand the business needs of their BU’s in order to suggest reports and functionalities that already exist in CODEX that they could use to meet these needs.
• Help onboard the BU’s on new and existing automation and digitisation topics such as ePDF, automated vendor and customer validation, FSM etc.
• Be the Perimeter lead on External Growth projects with respect to CODEX both pre and post-acquisition.

External Growth, Team Development & Other

• Be actively involved in all External Growth projects both pre (valuation, DD etc) and post (integration- Quartz, CODEX, Recruitment and development) acquisition that happen within the perimeter.
• Work with the BUGM’s to build, manage and develop the finance teams of the BU’s within their perimeter.
• Managing and deliver projects on an ad-hoc basis that deliver real improvements in the effective management of the BU’s within their perimeter.
• Be prepared to engage in transversal projects that benefit the wider group as well as the perimeter.
• Value Demonstration: Consistently embody and demonstrate Axians’ UK core values – Trust, Dynamic, and Supported – in all interactions and behaviours, both internally and externally.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Qualifications and training

• CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent accounting qualification

Skills and Experience

Communication

• Outstanding oral and written communication skills are imperative for this role. The person will need to be a confident communicator, across all levels both internally and externally.
• Ability to translate financial analysis into clear strategic objectives.
• Friendly and approachable manner, able to build and sustain relationships based on trust at all levels.

People & Leadership

• Good people management skills.
• Ability to build consensus and teams.
• A passion for developing people.
• An ability to convert visionary thinking into concrete ideas that the teams have brough into implementing.

Quality and Accuracy

• An eye for detail, focused on quality and accuracy, within a face paced environment, without compromising deadlines.
• Ability to use sound judgement to ensure the appropriate messages are delivered.

Financial

• Strong finance reporting and analytical skills
• Experience or familiarity of group reporting and consolidation
• An appreciation of standard costing and project accounting principles
• A familiarity or willingness to learn about accounting regulations in the Republic of Ireland
• A knowledge or willingness to learn about taxes such as VAT, CIS etc.

IT

• Strong IT skills in particular, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word
• Familiarity working with ERP systems such as SAP.

Organisation and Management

• Able to plan and deliver projects within agreed timeframes
• Excellent organisational skills
• Ability to influence others
• A self-starter who can work on their own initiative but also be able to work effectively as part of a team.