Finance Manager in Harlow

Location: Harlow (Essex) or Glenrothes (Scotland) with Hybrid working with a minimum of 2 days a week on site.

About the role: A key role supporting the Head of Finance – Operations to deliver business advice and coordinated management of rates and government accounting. It will directly impact the profitability and competitiveness of the organisation and cuts across all functions and business, offering a wide exposure to senior leaders on both tactical and strategic issues.

Responsibilities:

• Owning senior leadership team relationships and leading and owning output of a team of experienced professionals that are responsible for:

• Rates submissions
• Owning Long Range Plan (LRP) and Annual Operating Plan (AOP) rates (absorption costing) cycles
• Developing and calculating, for all rate decks:

• The estimated and actual costing and pricing overhead and G&A rates that will be used to price bids and be charged to backlog contracts
• The estimated and actual average labour rates that will be used to price bids and be charged to backlog contracts

• Be the single point of contact for rates analysis/reporting/queries.
• Developing and managing key relationships to deliver outcomes, such as:

• Liaising with Business Programme Finance (BPF) to understand all business labour, material, ODC, subcon, R&Os, and investment (NBI, CFR, inventory) drivers of the recovery position
• Liaising with Senior FM – Functional Business Partnering to understand all functional labour, utilisation, headcount and indirect cost drivers, R&Os, disallowables, depreciation, Corporate Brochure, RDEC and average labour rate impacts to the recovery position
• Providing BPF and FP&A with recovery forecasts/budgets and R&Os, along with detailed analysis, to support pre close, close and AOP/LRP planning cycles:

• Calculating under/over forecasts for all rate decks, for all forecast/budget cycles incorporating business, functional and Central Finance inputs

• Owning and briefing Marketing & Selling recharge to the Business
• Owning and briefing disallowables recharge to the business

• Ensure RSL's financial compliance with the Defence Reform Act (DRA) and Federal Acquisition Requirements (FAR) throughout the contract lifecycle, from bid to close out
• Own RSL's relationship with CAAS (UK MOD Auditors)
• Own RSL's relationship with the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO)
• Own RSL's relationship with the Defence Contract Management Agency (DCMA)
• Be the single point of contact for CAAS, SSRO and DCMA:

• Manage, review and submit all reporting to these bodies, including, but not limited to, rates reporting, programme reporting and SME/Supplier Reporting
• Manage, review and submit all responses to requests from these bodies, including all audit activity
• Manage, review and submit all consultation responses to the SSRO
• Coordinate all programme reporting and programme audit activity with MOD
• Ensure that Finance, Commercial (and other functions as appropriate) are fully trained in all compliance issues
• Be the RSL SME for all DRA, FAR and reporting queries
• Attend industry groups, e.g. DSAG, to ensure that RSL are fully up to date with changes in the regulatory environment and that RSL interests are accounted for in industry responses to consultations
• Ensuring all estimated and actual pricing rates are negotiated and approved in a timely fashion
• Responding to queries from our internal and external auditors

• Plans repeatable and ad hoc rates, capex and change activities within Ops Finance team, ensuring all team members understand what is required, when, by whom
• Acts as the liaison between Ops Finance and BPF, FP&A & Central Finance. Ensures that monthly, AOP and LRP rates, capex & change calendars are incorporated fully into the wider finance/business calendar (and vice versa) and tracked against Planning and drafting Ops Finance communications aligned to calendar requirements, etc

Candidate Requirements:

• We are looking for a qualified CIMA/ACCA/ACA Finance Manager with a defence background and who has relevant years' experience in a similar role.
• Excellent people manager (using both direct and indirect influencing skills).
• Experience of managing teams effectively
• Excellent presentational skills.
• Comfortable with data and detail but having the ability to extract high level messages.
• Experience of presenting to senior audiences
• Ability to work on concurrent issues/problems with multiple senior stakeholders and sources of information, both internal and external, under time pressure.
• Being able to prioritise effectively and having an agile mindset
• Strong communicator and networker with a thirst for understanding the business model, providing meaningful and actionable insight, critical thinking and an ability to think differently about existing problems.
• Previous experience of dealing one-to-one with both senior and external stakeholders and building relationships
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain financial concepts to non-financial staff
• Working in a programme environment / knowledge of accounting for long term contracts
• Knowledge of the Defence Reform Act and Federal Acquisition Regulations
• Experience with proposal processes such as RLPM/IPDS
• Knowledge of MoD procurement methodologies & DEFCONs
• Experience of working in a matrix organisation
• Understanding of Project reporting including EACs & EVMS

Desirable skills:

• Negotiation experience and being an effective influencer
• Ability to own issues, and deliver effective outcomes
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skillsets
• Creative and entrepreneurial, providing innovative solutions that drive value to the business
• Excellent systems skills, including SAP and Microsoft Office
• Excellent planning skills