Finance Business Partner - Operations & Supply Chain in Lewes

About Us

Ancient + Brave is a female founded, mission-driven wellness brand with an award-winning range of collagen, supplements and functional blends. Rooted in ancient wisdom and validated by science, our simple daily rituals support our community in nurturing whole body health. As a business, we are ambitious about our growth and disciplined in how we execute. In June 2024, we were named 5th in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies and 4th in the Oresa retail growth index in 2025. We care deeply about the impact we have on our customers, our community and the world around us. As well as a B Corp, we are a member of 1% for the Planet, contributing 1%+ of all revenue to environmental and social causes – putting people and the planet at the heart of all we do. As an equal-opportunity employer we are committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace culture, where we are brave, connected and intentional - and lead with integrity in all we do. While most of our roles are advertised as full-time, we are happy to discuss part-time setup where appropriate. We operate from beautiful head offices overlooking the river Ouse in Lewes, East Sussex.

The Role

This is a detail-oriented, operationally grounded role. The right person will be comfortable working deep in the numbers — from SKU-level costing to inventory dynamics — while remaining able to step back and communicate the so-what clearly to operational and finance leadership. Operating as the bridge between Finance and Operations, this role will challenge cost assumptions with evidence, support investment decisions with robust analysis, and help build the financial foundations that underpin a scalable, sustainable supply chain.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Cost of Goods & Margin Analysis
• Inventory & Working Capital Planning & Forecasting
• Capital Investment & Continuous Improvement
• Support the development of scalable, repeatable operational finance tools and templates
• Operations & Supply Chain Partnering — act as the dedicated finance partner to the Operations, Compliance, Nutrition, and Innovation teams
• Support building MI suite to track performance and attend weekly meetings to drive performance
• Build trusted relationships with operational stakeholders, attending key planning, S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning), and performance review forums
• Provide proactive financial challenge and support to operational decisions, including sourcing, logistics, manufacturing, and capital investment
• Translate complex cost and operational data into clear, actionable insight — not just reporting
• Support COGS performance analysis: input costs, production costs, freight, duties, and landed cost by SKU
• Produce regular analysis of gross margin performance against plan, identifying key cost drivers, variances, and emerging risks
• Support supplier negotiation and procurement decisions with rigorous cost modelling and scenario analysis
• Monitor and report on cost efficiency initiatives, ensuring savings are tracked and realised
• Partner with Supply Chain to understand and improve inventory management, ensuring financial implications of stock decisions are well understood
• Analyse stock levels, cover, and write-off risk across the SKU portfolio
• Support working capital management by providing financial insight into stock purchasing cycles and cash flow implications
• Flag inventory risks proactively and support decision-making around clearance, provisioning, and reorder points
• Lead the operational cost input into the budget and reforecast cycles, working closely with Operations and Supply Chain teams to build credible, bottom-up plans
• Own the COGS and operational cost forecast within the rolling forecast process, ensuring assumptions are current, well-reasoned, and clearly documented
• Build and maintain financial models that support scenario planning, particularly around cost volatility, FX exposure, and supply chain risk
• Play a central role in the S&OP process, ensuring financial data is robust and that operational plans are financially sound
• Support the appraisal and tracking of capital expenditure, including business cases, post-investment reviews, and benefit realisation
• Identify and drive improvements in how operational costs are tracked, reported, and understood across the business
• Work closely with the FP&A team to ensure data integrity and consistency between operational and central reporting

Who You Are

To be successful in this role, you will need the following skills / knowledge / experience:

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, or CIMA)
• Demonstrable experience in a business partnering or operational finance role, ideally within a consumer goods, FMCG, DTC, or manufacturing environment
• Comfortable working with operations and supply chain teams — you understand their language, priorities, and pressures
• Strong financial modelling and analytical skills, with experience in cost accounting, inventory management, or COGS analysis
• Experience working within a budgeting and forecasting cycle, with ownership of cost or operational inputs
• Analytically rigorous: comfortable working with large, complex datasets and building models that can flex with the business
• Clear communicator: able to translate detailed operational and cost data into concise insight for non-finance audiences
• Proactive and inquisitive: you dig into variances, ask the right questions, and surface issues before they become problems
• Collaborative by nature: you build credibility with operational teams through consistency, reliability, and genuine interest in their challenges
• Detail-oriented but not detail-bound: you know when to go deep and when to step back to see the bigger picture

Brand and Culture

Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. For us that is a series of shared beliefs: We believe in Bravery, Integrity, Connection, and Intention. These are demonstrated through our values and daily actions.

Other

This role requires full time working at our Lewes offices. Please apply only if you’re within a reasonable commute. We’re not seeking recruitment support for this role at this time.

Why Join Us

Ancient + Brave are a community-built brand and embracing innovation and sustainability with social and environmental responsibility is at the heart of everything we do. We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards when it comes to our commitment to balance profit and purpose - working with us means being part of building a truly sustainable product. We are B Corp certified and members of 1% for the Planet, committed to giving back of all sales towards helping environmental partners, so we can work together towards a better future for our planet. At Ancient + Brave you’ll find an engaging, collaborative and inclusive work environment where your talents will be nurtured, and your contributions valued. We provide all our team members with suitable laptop computers & headphones and our office is equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and sitting + standing desks. Our kitchen is fully stocked with the usual supplies as well as limitless supply of A+B products (you also get 50% off on any product you wish to purchase). We pay a discretionary bonus based on a mix of company performance and individual contributions and review our salaries annually. Our pension contributions are ESG invested. Our Private Medical Insurance is designed to support your health and wellbeing, providing swift access to high-quality care whenever you need it most. Our Medicash plan offers access to specialist consultations, 24/7 Virtual GP and health screenings as well as dental, optical and complementary therapies and access to confidential support via its EAP programme. Our Mintago platform gives employees access to financial wellbeing advice and support as well as retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes, which cover childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries and mobile/tech purchase. In addition to our regular annual holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays, we also offer one Wellbeing day to use as needed. We offer continuous training & professional development opportunities and our team members get to enjoy complimentary nutrition and workout sessions in the office. We support a number of charities, coordinating our fund-raising initiatives for maximum impact. We hold two social events a year to come together and connect in a meaningful way. An important note on our ways of working: As a fast-paced scale-up, we’ve found that spending time together in person is hugely beneficial to the way we’re needing to communicate, collaborate and drive the business forward. We’ve worked hard to make our new HQ (a beautiful riverside office situated in Lewes, East Sussex) an inviting and friendly environment for all of our team members and we expect any new joiner to be in the office full time.