Finance Manager in Lisburn

3173 is a privately owned UK firm of pensions experts with clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The 3173 Group of companies includes Dalriada Trustees Limited (Dalriada), one of the UK’s largest professional pension scheme trustee companies. Spence & Partners provides full pension actuarial, consulting, investment consulting and administration services that provide simply smarter solutions for trustees, employers and members.

The 3173 Group is an ambitious and fast growth software and professional services business operating right across the UK in the specialist defined benefit pensions industry. The business has been in operation for almost 20 years and has grown to be one of the leading players in its principal markets being the provision of Trustee, Administration, Actuarial, Investment and technology services to Pension Schemes. 3173 has developed its own unique technology platform, Mantle, which gives our company a significant advantage in our market. We have office locations throughout the United Kingdom but we are very proud to be headquartered in Belfast. The Group received a significant investment from Synova, a leading growth investor in September 2022. This partnership will enable our business to consolidate its market leading positions and will facilitate the investment required to enable 3173 to achieve even greater potential in the rapidly developing pensions and technology markets.

Due to our continued success and expansion, 3173 is eager to appoint a Finance Manager to join the business. This role will take full ownership of financial management for the Dalriada Trustees division, including responsibility for the P&L and balance sheet integrity, while leading the delivery of complex client billing arrangements. Reporting to the Group Financial Controller, the successful candidate will play a key role in driving financial performance, improving processes, and providing valuable insight to support decision-making. You will also lead and develop a small finance team.

About You

You will be a qualified accountant with demonstrable experience post qualification working within a busy commercial finance environment. You will have worked as a Finance Manager (or in a similar role) in a busy commercial environment and are looking for the opportunity to develop your career within 3173, a high growth provider of financial services to the pensions industry. You will be a confident and articulate communicator with the ability to work with senior leaders and use your influencing skills to achieve the best outcomes for the business. You will be highly competent in the use of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. You will thrive in a collaborative, fast moving team-based environment and be able to support and contribute to the development of the wider Finance team. You will be a diligent and driven individual with a high level of attention to detail. Someone who is enthusiastic, confident, thorough, and conscientious will do well in this role. The ability and confidence to highlight and escalate where relevant any challenges or risks to the senior leadership team is a must. You will be able to easily build effective working relationships at all levels.

Responsibilities & Criteria

• Management responsibility for a small finance team including coaching, mentoring and development of more junior staff.
• Lead the preparation of monthly management accounts including practice revenue, expense, and variance analysis.
• Lead the preparation of the monthly Financial Performance Report and Finance Board Reports.
• Assist in the preparation of audited financial statements and provide audit evidence to external auditors.
• Be a business-partner to the wider commercial team by providing financial insight and analysis, monitor performance against budget and drive improvements in profitability.
• Ensure compliance with relevant accounting standards and regulatory requirements.
• Lead and support complex billing processes, including time-based, fixed-fee and milestone billing structures.
• Ensure accurate and timely invoicing and revenue recognition.
• Manage work-in-progress (WIP) and recoverability including detailed WIP and revenue reconciliations on a monthly basis.
• Oversee credit control and debtor management.
• Supporting the wider Finance Team as required in the provision of routine financial reporting across the Group.
• Supporting the Group Financial Controller and CFO as required.

Minimum (essential) requirements:

• Strong academic record at A level.
• ACA/ACCA/CIMA Qualified accountant with demonstrable post qualification gained in a commercial finance environment.
• Previous experience within a Commercial business in a Finance Manager (or similar) role.
• Background in Professional Services environment or another sector involving complex billing preferred.
• Previous experience in a leadership position, to include the training and development of team members.
• Demonstrable experience in the use of accounting software such as Netsuite or similar across sales ledger, purchase ledger and nominal ledger.
• Experience with complex billing models (e.g., time & materials, project billing) and strong understanding of revenue recognition principles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Very experienced in the use of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience in the reporting of commercial key performance indicators.
• Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision and escalate matters where necessary.
• Ability to work efficiently and prioritise your workloads in a fast-paced environment, delivering a high level of accuracy and attention to detail within tight timeframes.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to build trusted relationships with both staff and external stakeholders.

Competencies

• Delivers Results: High attention to detail and accuracy. Ability to work under pressure with minimal supervision and to tight deadlines.
• Leadership: Contributes to and aligns to the strategic plan for the department. Provides clarity of direction and ensures employees know what is expected of them. Able to motivate, drive and engage positively with project team members. Highly organised.
• Change & Innovation: Promotes and encourages innovative ways of working. Directly manages change programmes committed to process improvement.
• Communicating & Influencing: Promotes and encourages a culture of openness and transparency. Demonstrates credibility and makes a strong impression. Excellent communication skills. Able to chair meetings, run workshops and facilitate sessions as required.
• Customer Relationship Management: Passion for excellent customer focus. Manage stakeholder expectations and keep them updated as required.
• Teamwork & Collaboration: Able to bring out the best in people to form a cohesive team. Promotes and encourages the use of collaboration across the organisation.

Circumstances

• Location: Belfast, Manchester or Glasgow (Hybrid)
• Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required.
• All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete an Access NI check.
• As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking security vetting.

3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applying with a disability or long-term health condition? As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. As part of this commitment, we guarantee to automatically interview anyone with a disability who meets the minimum criteria. If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially. To discuss this further please call and ask to speak to a member of the People & Culture team.