At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the finance team, ensuring effective operations and strategic decision-making.
- Company: CSG, a dynamic recruitment business with a people-first approach.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, career growth, and a supportive work environment.
- Other info: Join a team that values excellence, accountability, and long-term relationships.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a growing company while shaping financial strategies.
- Qualifications: Experience in finance leadership within B2B services and strong board presence.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
CSG is a specialist search and recruitment business operating across six offices in the UK, US, and Australia. We are looking for a Finance Director / CFO to join the business on a permanent basis, reporting directly to the business owner and leading the finance team.
The role has three core priorities:
- Ensuring the finance function is fit for purpose and running effectively, covering everything from reporting and compliance through to systems and team management.
- Adding strategic value in decision-making at group level, acting as a genuine commercial partner to the business owner and board.
- Ensuring the business is well-positioned to navigate a transaction and that any transition is managed smoothly.
This is a hands-on role that requires someone comfortable operating at both a strategic and operational level, with the credibility to influence at board level and the attention to detail to keep the engine running underneath it.
Key responsibilities:
- Planning & forecasting: Annual budgeting and quarterly rolling forecasts, cashflow forecasting and optimisation, banking, treasury, and cost control, spend approval governance.
- Leadership & management: Direct management and development of the finance team, day-to-day finance business partner to the business owner and senior stakeholders, support and guidance to overseas teams across the US and Australia, management of external relationships: lawyers, banking and finance providers, auditors, tax advisers, and corporate finance advisers.
- Reporting & analysis: Management accounts, KPIs, and commercial analysis, internal and external reporting, identification of process improvements and sustainable profit optimisation.
- Compliance: Audit and statutory accounts, tax, company secretarial, and internal controls, board meeting preparation.
- Systems & infrastructure: Ensuring finance systems are fit for purpose and continuously improved, reducing over-reliance on spreadsheets through better data collection and system integration, equipping the team with the tools to work as efficiently as possible.
What we're looking for:
- Experience leading a finance function within a B2B service business, ideally in a professional services or recruitment context.
- A track record of implementing and improving finance systems, and moving businesses away from spreadsheet-heavy ways of working.
- Confidence and credibility in a board environment; someone who will constructively challenge peers and the leadership team where needed, not just report the numbers.
- Experience managing or supporting a business through a transaction, whether that is a sale, acquisition, or investment process.
- A genuine growth mindset; intellectually curious, always looking to improve, and comfortable in a business that is still evolving.
- The drive and ambition to make this role their own, and the passion to be a meaningful part of what CSG builds next.
- The ability to commit to the Leeds office a minimum of four days per week.
What we're about:
CSG is built on four principles: a commitment to excellence in our specialism; a people-first approach with genuine care for candidates, clients, and colleagues; a drive to deliver with accountability and pace; and a long-term mindset when it comes to relationships and growth. The right person for this role will be comfortable operating in a business where those things matter in practice, not just on paper.
