Finance Integration Lead in Maidenhead

Fixed Term Contract: 12 months (Initially) Location: UK, Ideally commutable distance to Maidenhead (Head Office). The Finance Integration Lead will own the finance workstream of RWS's acquisition of Acolad, driving the practical, end-to-end integration of Acolad's finance operations, systems, and controls into the RWS Group finance operating model. This is a high-visibility, time-bound role spanning pre-completion planning through Day 1 cutover and the first 12 months of post-completion integration.

A significant part of the role is converting the acquisition's synergy plan into detailed, costed action plans, and partnering closely with HR and functional leads to ensure synergies are delivered on time, in full, and cost-effectively. You will partner closely with the Transform segment Finance Director, Group FP&A, Group Reporting, Tax, Treasury, and the Acolad finance team to ensure a controlled, well-sequenced integration that protects business continuity, delivers a clean cutover of banking, systems, and master data, and embeds RWS's financial control environment across the newly acquired entities — including navigating the French works council and regulatory process ahead of completion.

You will also work closely with the wider integration programme (legal, tax, HR, IT/CTPO, procurement, and supply chain workstreams) to ensure finance dependencies are correctly sequenced across the overall integration plan.

Key Responsibilities

• Pre-completion planning & due diligence follow-through
• Convert the high-level synergy plan into detailed, costed, and time-phased action plans, with clear ownership and milestones for each synergy line.
• Track delivery of synergies against plan — on time, in full, and cost-effectively — reporting progress and variances to segment leadership and the Group Investment Committee on a regular cadence.
• Review Acolad's existing banking arrangements, give notice to current banks as required, and oversee cashflow monitoring through legacy accounts during transition.
• Support the Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) process and lead the opening balance sheet review, confirming fair value adjustment requirements and write-offs of equivalent balances.
• Own migration of vendor and customer master data into RWS systems, including data extraction and cleansing, test loads, and formal sign-off before go-live.
• Establish an interim procurement approval process and lead the transition of Acolad employees onto RWS's standard PO process.
• Ensure a robust control environment is established across Acolad entities during the transition period, with no degradation of control standards.
• Capture lessons learned from the Acolad integration to strengthen RWS's playbook for future acquisitions.

Skills & Experience

• 10+ years operational finance, or M&A integration experience, 3+ years in a senior role.
• Prior hands-on experience of finance integration following an acquisition or carve-out — ideally including synergy tracking, banking cutover, ERP/master data migration, and opening balance sheet work — in a multi-country context.
• Professional certified qualification (CFA/CPA/CA/AAT/CIMA/ACCA/ACA or global equivalent).
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or other business-related discipline.
• Strong English language skills; French language skills highly beneficial given Acolad's Paris headquarters.
• Practical experience with ERP systems (Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains experience beneficial) and data migration/reconciliation.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across Group, segment, HR, and target-company finance teams, and with external advisors.

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