Finance Business Partner in London

Position Title: Operations Business Partner GB&I
Position Type: Regular - Full-Time
Requisition ID: 44699
Finance Business Partner, Operations
Scarborough
In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.
About the role.
As Finance Business Partner - Operations GB&I, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping the operational and financial success of our manufacturing network. Partnering closely with Site Leadership Teams and Functional Leaders, you'll provide strategic financial guidance, commercial insight, and constructive challenge to help drive profitability, productivity, cost efficiency, and sustainable growth.
Acting as a trusted advisor to senior operational leaders, you'll influence key business decisions through robust financial analysis, strong governance, and proactive risk management. You'll identify opportunities to create value, champion continuous improvement initiatives, and ensure the successful delivery of financial commitments. In addition, you'll lead the evaluation of capital investment opportunities, helping to prioritise investments that deliver long-term business performance and returns.
This is an exciting opportunity for a commercially minded finance leader who thrives on partnering with stakeholders, driving change, and making a tangible impact across a complex and fast-paced operational environment.
What you'll be doing.
Strategic Business Partnering Serve as the lead Finance Business Partner for designated manufacturing sites and operational functions across GB&I.
Collaborate closely with Site Leadership Teams to enhance operational and financial performance through data-driven insights and informed decision-making.
Provide independent financial challenge and strategic guidance to influence key business and operational decisions.
Ensure financial risks, opportunities and commercial implications are fully understood and considered across all major initiatives.
Build strong partnerships with operational leaders, becoming a trusted advisor on site performance and value creation.
Performance Management & Financial Leadership Lead financial performance reviews for manufacturing sites and operational functions, driving accountability and continuous improvement.
Analyse performance against budgets, forecasts, standards and prior-year results to identify trends and opportunities.
Partner with stakeholders to develop and implement action plans that improve business performance.
Support delivery of productivity, efficiency, waste reduction and cost-saving initiatives.
Provide clear recommendations that enhance profitability, cash generation and overall business performance.
Risk & Opportunity Management Drive regular risk and opportunity reviews across manufacturing sites, ensuring proactive performance management.
Challenge assumptions, evaluate financial impacts and develop robust mitigation plans where required.
Escalate significant risks and opportunities to Finance and Operational Leadership teams.
Monitor the delivery of improvement initiatives, ensuring benefits are realised and sustained over time.
Support the achievement of annual financial commitments through proactive intervention and strong performance oversight.
Capital Investment & Business Case Leadership Lead the financial evaluation and approval of capital investment proposals, automation projects and operational improvement initiatives.
Develop, challenge and validate the financial assumptions underpinning investment business cases.
Partner with Engineering, Operations and Supply Chain teams to prioritise investments and maximise returns on capital.
Ensure post-investment reviews are completed and benefits are tracked against original business case expectations.
Provide robust financial governance for significant operational and transformation projects.
Planning, Forecasting & Resource Allocation Lead budgeting, forecasting and strategic planning activities for manufacturing operations.
Challenge operational assumptions to ensure plans are realistic, achievable and aligned to business objectives.
Identify financial risks and opportunities throughout the planning cycle and recommend appropriate actions.
Support effective resource allocation and investment prioritisation to maximise value creation.
Deliver scenario modelling and financial analysis to support strategic decision-making.
Financial Control & Governance Maintain a strong control environment, ensuring compliance with corporate policies, accounting standards and audit requirements.
Own operational finance governance processes across assigned manufacturing sites.
Review and challenge manufacturing costs, accruals, provisions and balance sheet positions to ensure financial integrity.
Deliver accurate and timely financial reporting while driving process simplification and standardisation.
Identify control weaknesses and implement sustainable improvements to strengthen governance and compliance.
Continuous Improvement & Transformation Partner with operations teams to support operational excellence, Lean Manufacturing and productivity improvement programmes.
Identify opportunities to enhance reporting, analytics, automation and decision-support capabilities.
Drive the adoption of best practices and consistent ways of working across manufacturing sites.
Champion a culture of continuous improvement, accountability and performance excellence.
Support finance transformation initiatives and broader business change programmes.
Leadership & Capability Development Strengthen financial capability across operational leadership teams through coaching, guidance and support.
Mentor site finance teams and cross-functional stakeholders to improve financial understanding and decision-making.
Lead cross-site benchmarking activities and promote the sharing of best practices.
Foster a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement across teams.
Act as a role model for company values and leadership behaviours, inspiring high performance and collaboration.
What you'll need to be successful. A professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
Significant experience in a Finance Business Partnering, Operations Finance or Manufacturing Finance role.
A proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, challenge constructively and drive measurable business performance improvements.
Strong expertise in budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, performance management and financial analysis.
Experience developing and evaluating capital investment proposals and robust business cases.
A solid understanding of key manufacturing and operational performance drivers, including labour, productivity, maintenance, yield, waste and cost management.
Excellent commercial acumen with the ability to translate complex financial information into actionable business insights.
A collaborative and proactive approach, with a passion for driving continuous improvement and business performance.
Nice to Have
While not essential, we'd be particularly interested in candidates with: Experience within an FMCG manufacturing environment.
Previous exposure to multi-site manufacturing operations.
Involvement in business transformation, change management or continuous improvement programmes.
Experience using SAP, Power BI and advanced analytics tools to support decision-making and performance improvement.
Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, operational excellence methodologies or productivity improvement initiatives.
Benefits.
Although we do encourage you to taste the goods, you'll be pleased to know we don't pay you in chips. Alongside your salary, you'll enjoy a range of benefits including: Private healthcare (single)
Car Allowance
Annual bonus scheme based on both company and individual performance with the ability to salary sacrifice into your pension
An excellent salary sacrifice pension scheme where we'll contribute double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your salary
25 days' annual leave from day one plus