Head of Finance (Sizewell C) in Suffolk

Location: Orwell, Ipswich, Leiston, Suffolk (hybrid basis – 3 days in office per week, flexible as needed).

Contract: Permanent, full‑time.

Salary: Starting £110,000 per annum, depending on experience.

Car Allowance: £8,400 per annum.

Bonus: 15% annual incentive.

Pension: Up to 7.5% employee / 15% employer contribution.

Leave: 28 days holiday plus bank holidays.

About the Role

As Head of Finance – Site Delivery, you will lead financial governance and strategic financial planning across the project’s site delivery programme. You will ensure transparency, financial discipline, and value for money within one of the UK’s largest capital programmes. Acting as a crucial interface between Finance, Operations, the Executive team, and Government partners, this role offers both influence and impact at an organisational‑wide level.

Key Responsibilities

• Financial Governance & Oversight: Lead programme cost control, cash flow management, and financial reporting. Ensure expenditure aligns with budgets, funding obligations, and HMG requirements.
• Performance & Insight: Deliver high‑quality analysis of cost performance, risks and forecasts. Drive financial discipline and ensure timely escalation of issues to senior leadership.
• Strategic Partnership: Develop business cases and commercial proposals. Support long‑term financial planning and ensure value for money across delivery programmes.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Act as the senior financial interface for Site Delivery team and its delivery partners. Ensure seamless and transparent information flows across all stakeholder groups.
• Leadership & Influence: Advise, challenge and upskill operational leaders to improve financial capability. Embed a culture of accountability and support the modernisation of the Finance function.
• Programme & Commercial Alignment: Oversee financial reporting, contract governance and alignment to programme milestones. Ensure forecasts and budgets align with investor requirements and project schedule.
• Leadership Impact: Play a key role in shaping the future of SZC’s Finance function as part of the CFO’s leadership team. Drive integration across delivery teams, strengthen financial capability and ensure SZC meets its financial, regulatory and strategic commitments.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience

• Exceptional stakeholder management, building strong relationships across internal teams, delivery partners and external stakeholders.
• Outstanding influencing, negotiation, communication and presentation skills; ability to distil complex financial information for senior and non‑financial audiences.
• Expert business partnering capability, demonstrating a customer‑focused, proactive and action‑oriented approach.
• Advanced strategic problem‑solving skills, evaluating complex issues, identifying risks and opportunities, and recommending decisive action.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing business performance and driving financial outcomes within large‑scale, complex environments.
• Excellent prioritisation and organisational skills, balancing competing demands across multiple programmes and teams.
• Highly analytical mindset, interpreting data, challenging assumptions and driving improvements in financial and operational performance.
• Up‑to‑date industry and sector knowledge, including regulatory change, finance sector trends and emerging technologies that influence business performance.
• Adaptability and resilience, responding effectively to changing market, regulatory or programme conditions.
• Strong technology awareness, leveraging digital tools, data and systems to improve decision‑making and financial insight.
• Broad understanding of end‑to‑end financial processes ensuring effective governance, forecasting, reporting and performance tracking.
• Sound judgement and decision‑making, balancing competing viewpoints and constructively challenging plans, performance and assumptions.

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified accountant with recognised Accounting Professional Organisation or equivalent (e.g. ACCA, ICAEW, ICAS, CIMA).
• Strong leadership experience within a large or complex organisation.
• Excellent experience of managing internal and external relationships, providing both support and challenge to business performance.
• Experience of major programmes.
• Experience of regulated industry (desired).

Behavioural Competences

• Humility: Recognise the value brought from different cultures and experiences. Be open to others’ points of view and ideas, be willing to debate and to compromise.
• Positivity: Positively challenge poor quality and performance. Identify solutions at the lowest possible level. Encourage others to bring new ideas forward.
• Respect: Value the rules and environment in which we operate. Give and receive feedback with respect. Embrace and engage with new people and ideas.
• Solidarity: One team, working closely together and helping each other. Empowered teams always looking forward. Shared responsibility for delivery of the project outcomes.
• Clarity: Communicate clearly and consistently. Promote collaboration and team alignment. Clearer and faster decision making. Drive simplification at all levels.

Equal Opportunity Statement

For this role you must have evidence of right to work in the UK. As a project, we do not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, race, colour, religion, disability or sexual orientation, and we welcome applications from all sections of the community.