Finance Business Partner - Operations & Supply Chain in Lewes

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

• 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.
• Cost of Goods & Margin Analysis: 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.
• Inventory & Working Capital: 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.
• Planning & Forecasting: 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.
• Capital Investment & Continuous Improvement: 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

• 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.

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.

Benefits

• 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, avoiding investments in pharma, weapons, or other ethically questionable areas.
• 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 covering 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 and professional development opportunities.
• Team members can also enjoy complimentary nutrition and workout sessions in the office.
• We support a number of charities, coordinating our fund‑raising initiatives for maximum impact, and hold two social events a year to bring the team together.
• As a fast‑paced scale‑up, we’ve found that spending time together in person is hugely beneficial to the way we communicate, collaborate, and drive the business forward.
• We’ve worked hard to make our new HQ an inviting and friendly environment for all of our team members and expect any new joiner to be in the office full time.