Head of Finance | FD Designate in Leeds

Number one in finance, reporting to the board. Ask this business how it is performing and you will get an answer. Ask it why. Entity by entity, margin by margin, contract by contract. That answer takes longer than it should. The distance between those two questions is the job.

A privately owned West Yorkshire group, more than fifty years old, turning over around £20m across several trading entities and growing at roughly 20% a year. The owners have driven all of that themselves, and they have kept the financial detail close, largely because until now there has been nobody to give it to. They are not looking for someone to carry on doing what they have been doing. They want it off their desks completely, in better shape than they could get it into themselves.

You would not be the only new face. The group is recruiting a Commercial Manager and an Operations Manager at the same time as this role. Three senior appointments into a business of this size, made together, is not a coincidence. It is a leadership layer being built on purpose. Most finance leaders joining an SME arrive alone, into a structure that was set years ago and is not going to shift to accommodate them. You would be arriving alongside two peers with the same brief, at the exact moment the structure is being drawn. That matters more than it sounds. It is the difference between influencing how a business runs and negotiating with how it already runs.

What the first year probably looks like: This is our read of it rather than a plan the client handed over, so take it as a shape, not a schedule. The early months are unglamorous. Group reporting and consolidation across multiple entities, a month end that closes when it should, controls and governance that hold, data you would be willing to put your name to. None of the interesting work is possible until this part is boring, and it is not boring yet. The middle of the year is where you start to build. Systems and processes, the reporting pack, budgeting, forecasting and cashflow, and a small finance team to lead and develop into something that can run without you standing over it. By the end of it, the job changes. You stop reporting on what happened and start shaping what happens next. Which entities are actually making money and why. Where margin is leaking. What the group can afford to do next, and what it cannot. The owners want to make bigger decisions with more confidence, and you would be the reason they can.

The honest bit: Four days a week on site. Not three, and not negotiable. If that is a problem, better to know now than at offer stage. The first six months are hands-on. You will be in the detail, not above it, and the commercial influence is earned by getting the foundations right rather than granted on day one. And the structure will not be tidy while it is being built. Three new senior hires is an opportunity, but it is also three people working out where their edges are at the same time. If ambiguity drains you, this is the wrong job.

If you recognise yourself: You are the most senior finance person in your business already, and you have taken it as far as the structure will let you. Or you are number two to a Finance Director who is not going anywhere, and the interesting work stops one level above you indefinitely. Or you have done exactly this before, in a business that has since been acquired, and you would like to do it again somewhere it still means something.

What we need underneath that: ACA or ACCA qualified, multi-entity experience including consolidation, and real time spent in an SME or owner-led environment, so the founders being in the building is familiar rather than alarming. What decides it: whether you will tell the owners something they do not want to hear, and whether you can do it in a way that means they ask you again next time.

The facts:

• Role: Group Financial Controller
• Location: West Yorkshire, four days a week on site
• Salary: £80,000 - £90,000 depending on experience
• Reporting to: the board. Number one finance role in the group
• Team: a small finance team, with scope to shape it
• Qualification: ACA or ACCA qualified
• Experience: group reporting, multi-entity consolidation, financial control and governance, management information, budgeting, forecasting and cashflow. SME or owner-managed background strongly preferred
• Group turnover: circa £20m, growing at around 20% year on year
• Holiday: 26 days plus bank holidays
• Benefits: bonus and private healthcare

The part most adverts leave out: We wrote a full candidate pack on this role before we advertised it. It has the things this advert cannot: the company, named. The leadership team, in their own words. The organisation chart, so you can see exactly where you would sit and who sits either side of you. The numbers behind the numbers. And an honest read on what the first year asks of you. Ask and it is yours. No CV needed, and nothing goes near the client until you say so. You would know more about this business before your first conversation than most candidates know by their second interview. That is the point of it.