Head of Finance - Commercial & Corporate Functions in Woking

Head of Finance – Commercial & Corporate Functions

Join to apply for the Head of Finance – Commercial & Corporate Functions role at McLaren Automotive Ltd.

The Head of Finance – Commercial, Corporate Functions & Racing is a strategic and hands‐on finance leader responsible for driving financial performance across McLaren’s central commercial operations, corporate support functions, and Racing liaison activities.

Reporting to the Commercial Finance Director, the role ensures robust financial planning, governance, and business partnering across areas including Marketing, Motorsport, Events, MLP (McLaren Licensing & Partnerships), Aftersales, Commercial Operations, Product Strategy and Licensing. It also partners with executive leaders in Finance, HR, Legal, Transformation, and Quality, while serving as the key financial interface with McLaren Racing to manage cross‑company transactions and cost sharing compliance.

The role balances strategic oversight with operational execution, enabling informed decision‑making and delivering financial outcomes aligned with business objectives.

What You’ll Do

• Financial Planning & Strategy: Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long‑range planning across all covered commercial areas and corporate functions, consolidating global commercial performance into coherent financial plans.
• Commercial Partnering: Act as finance business partner to central global commercial departments (Marketing, Motorsport, Events, MLP, Aftersales, Commercial Ops, Product Strategy, Licensing), providing insights, evaluating business cases, and driving initiatives to maximise revenue and margins. Support on the consolidation of the total commercial and MS operations for reporting, planning and delivering deep insights to enable swift decision making.
• Corporate Functions Support: Partner with corporate function leaders (Finance, HR, Legal, Transformation, Quality, etc) to manage their budgets, support strategic initiatives, and enforce financial discipline in overhead cost management.
• Performance Monitoring: Monitor and report on monthly financial performance for all areas, providing variance analysis and executive‑level commentary to inform decision‑making.
• Cost Control: Enforce budgetary control and cost management, ensuring spend remains within plan and identifying efficiency opportunities across both commercial projects and corporate overheads.
• Racing Liaison: Liaise with McLaren Racing on intercompany charges and cross‑company finance matters, ensuring accurate handling of shared costs and compliance with all applicable regulations.
• Team Leadership: Lead and develop a team of three direct reports (two Senior Finance Managers, one Finance Manager), fostering collaboration, capability growth, and high performance within the finance team.
• Process & Governance: Uphold strong financial governance, streamline reporting and planning processes, and champion the adoption of systems (SAP, Power BI, MS PPT, Excel) for improved analytics and efficiency.

What You’ll Bring

• Qualifications & Background: Professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or MBA in Finance with significant experience in commercial finance leadership roles.
• Industry & Business Acumen: Deep understanding of the luxury automotive industry’s commercial drivers and corporate function cost structures; able to align financial strategies with business objectives.
• Planning & Analysis Expertise: Proven skills in financial planning & analysis, scenario modelling, investment appraisal, with a strong command of budgeting and forecasting cycles in a complex, multinational environment.
• Systems Proficiency: Advanced proficiency in SAP ERP, MS Office, Excel, PowerPoint and Power BI for financial analysis and reporting; ability to leverage these tools for data‑driven insights and process automation.
• Leadership & Communication: Track record of leading teams and ability to demonstrate strong leadership and stakeholder management capabilities, with excellent communication skills to influence and collaborate across functions and with senior executives.
• Financial Control: Track record of maintaining robust financial controls, ensuring audit readiness, and driving process improvements in finance operations.
• Strategic & Results‑Driven: Balanced strategic thinker and detail‑oriented executor, with a results‑driven mindset, high integrity, and the agility to adapt in a fast‑paced environment.

What We’ll Do for You

• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years’ service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath‑taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Finance

Industries

Automotive