Interim Commercial Finance Director - temp to perm (London)

Company Description Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets. Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond. Job Description As Commercial Finance Director, you will sit at the heart of strategic decision-making — partnering across leadership, product, marketing, and sales teams to optimise performance, enhance customer value, and ensure sustainable growth. You will bring a strong commercial acumen, data-driven mindset, and a proven track record in scaling high-growth environments. This role is pivotal in shaping our financial narrative and growth strategy in collaboration with both the executive team and our Private Equity partners. This role is ideally suited to a finance leader who thrives in fast-paced, change-oriented businesses, with a strong focus on performance improvement, margin optimisation, and strategic decision-making. Principle Accountabilities Strategic Business Partnering

• Act as a trusted advisor to the CEO and Exec team, providing strategic financial guidance and real-time financial insights
• Lead scenario modelling, commercial forecasting, and investment appraisals to support data-led decision-making.

Commercial and Revenue Optimisation

• Analyse and optimise, and retention strategies to improve CLTV efficiency.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to assess ROI, funnel conversion across customer segments.

Drive Margin Optimisation :

• Implement strategies to enhance profit margins through effective pricing, cost control, and operational efficiencies. Collaborate with key departments to identify opportunities for margin improvement and ensure alignment with overall business objectives.
• Work closely with Private Equity investors to deliver on value creation plans and operational targets

Performance and Financial Planning

• Lead the end-to-end budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning processes.
• Develop and track key commercial KPIs and dashboards to drive accountability and performance.
• Lead the Anaplan modelling team to develop and maintain robust financial models that support strategic decision-making and drive business performance.

Private Equity Stakeholder Management

• Prepare board packs and present key insights to PE investors.
• Support M&A, due diligence, and exit readiness initiatives as required.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing Commercial Finance, FP&A and Anaplan teams.
• Foster a culture of excellence, agility, and continuous improvement.

KEY INTERFACES

• CFO
• Group Financial Controller
• Senior Leadership Team
• HR

Qualifications We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world’s leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully. If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on… Knowledge, Experience And Skills We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and have a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

• ACA / CIMA / ACCA qualified (or equivalent), with clear progressive experience in senior commercial finance roles including leadership.
• Proven experience in a PE-backed, high-growth or subscription-based business through an investment cycle.
• Strong grasp of SaaS/subscription metrics (ARR, enrichment, churn, CLTV).
• Exceptional analytical, financial modelling, and strategic thinking capabilities and board reporting.
• Highly collaborative, with excellent communication and influencing skills.
• Track record of partnering with C-level executives and investors and lead cross-functional initiatives
• Hands-on, pragmatic approach with the ability to thrive in a scale-up or transformation environment.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias for action and outcomes.

If you're excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don't perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway. Additional Information Our Values Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values. Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

• METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance
• ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done
• GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency
• INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
• CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do
• COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you! If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day. It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great. #J-18808-Ljbffr