Senior Finance Business Partner in Edinburgh

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group. Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• Interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

The Business Performance and Strategic Costs function plays a central role in shaping financial strategy and driving operational excellence across the organisation. Working in close partnership with senior stakeholders, including the Group COO and Technology leadership team, the department focuses on delivering the strategic and commercial agenda while ensuring robust financial oversight. It brings together deep analytical expertise and a forward-looking approach to cost management, enabling the business to make informed, value-driven decisions and maintain a consistent, high-quality standard of insight across all business partnering activities.

The Senior Finance Business Partner for COO & Technology is a pivotal role, providing real-time, trusted financial advice and decision support to senior leadership. Acting as the primary finance lead on key operational initiatives, technology investments, and cost optimisation programmes, the role combines strong analytical capability with commercial acumen and clear communication. Working closely with the COO and wider leadership team, the postholder will translate complex financial information into actionable insights, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and supporting effective decision making across the organisation’s technology functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with senior stakeholders across the COO team regarding financial performance providing insight, challenge and strategic guidance;
• Translate financial data into clear, actionable insight for non-financial audiences;
• Hold leaders accountable for performance and help business teams deliver key financial targets;
• Lead monthly forecasting and annual budgeting processes, ensuring financial plans are aligned with corporate strategy and operational delivery requirements;
• Provide forward-looking financial analysis, identifying risks and opportunities to inform management decisions;
• Develop and maintain financial models to support decision making on technology investments and operational programmes. Drive cost transparency, efficiency and optimisation;
• Deliver regular reporting and performance analysis.
• Act as a senior member of the Finance Business Partnering team, contributing to continuous improvement and best practice development;
• Mentor and support junior finance partners, demonstrating and role modelling behaviours;
• Foster a collaborative, high-performance culture within the function.
• Ensure robust controls, procedures and policies across FP&A processes.
• Identify opportunities to improve reporting, processes and systems.
• Support operational risk management within the Finance function.

About the Candidate

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, ICAS) or qualified by experience.
• Extensive experience in a senior finance business partnering role, ideally within operational or technology-focused environments (essential).
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and challenge constructively (essential).
• Excellent understanding of budgeting, forecasting and performance management processes (essential).
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to communicate clearly to senior, non-finance stakeholders (essential).
• Strong leadership experience managing and developing junior team members.
• Advanced Excel skills and strong systems awareness (Power BI, Oracle) or demonstrable ability to learn new systems at pace.
• Experience improving processes and implementing efficiencies.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported. When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you. At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.