Interim Financial Planning and Analysis Lead in Newtownabbey

About Us

3173 is a privately owned UK firm of pensions experts with clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The 3173 Group of companies includes Dalriada Trustees Limited (Dalriada), one of the UKs largest professional pension scheme trustee companies. Spence & Partners provides full pension actuarial, consulting, investment consulting and administration services that provide simply smarter solutions for trustees, employers and members.

The 3173 Culture

Our primary aim is to provide interesting, worthwhile and healthy careers for all our people; we believe that this emphasis sets us apart from our competitors. We are defined by our ethos and by our goal: Our ethos is an individual and collective commitment achieved through carefully balancing responsibility with freedom and flexibility, all of which is underpinned by a willingness to work interdependently. When we get this balance right, it is how we do our best work. We look after our staff first and foremost, but for a commercial purpose, which is to deliver great service profitably. By focusing on our goal, we provide the best outcomes for pension scheme members, trustees, and employers.

About You

This role within our Finance Department will support our group of businesses across the UK. This role will report directly to the Chief Financial Officer but will also work collaboratively with the Group Financial Controller and with the wider Finance team as required to support routine finance processes. The candidate may also be required to work on a project basis with other senior personnel within the 3173 Group as required. This role will involve the provision of maternity cover for the Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Accountant. This maternity cover is an important assignment and will enable the candidate to gain significant experience of the commercial activities carried out across the 3173 Group. In addition to the maternity cover assignment, the successful candidate may be assigned additional responsibilities in areas such as performance measurement, profitability analysis and improvement and investment analysis. The job role may also include the requirement to work alongside the broader finance team in support of monthly reporting processes. These responsibilities will be in response to the changing needs of the 3173 Group as it continues its track record of growth. As with all our group supporting roles, you will be working in a fast-paced environment with multiple priorities and stakeholders. It is an exciting time to join our group of businesses as we are developing in a number of strategic areas. This role will play a key role in delivering against our growth strategy for the 3173 Group.

Responsibilities & Criteria

• Leading the preparation of both budgets and longer term strategic financial plans across the 3173 Group of businesses, including the gathering of source data, the development of financial models and the presentation of budgets to senior leadership and investors.
• Leading the preparation of rolling profit and cashflow forecasts across the Group, including the development of financial models and the presentation of such forecasts to senior leadership and investors.
• Leading the preparation of the financial investment appraisal of significant strategic investments across the Group.
• Supporting the wider Finance Team as required in the provision of variance analysis and other routine financial reporting across the Group, including the detailed analysis of group payroll expenditure.
• Supporting the preparation of financial performance profitability monitoring and associated governance across the Group including contract profitability and staff utilisation metrics to enhance the overall performance of the Group.
• Collaborating with the wider Finance team to continually develop and innovate the financial reporting systems in use across the Group.
• Supporting the Group Financial Controller, CFO and other members of Senior Management as required.
• Managing the Group recruitment process, from a budgetary perspective providing oversight and analysis of planned recruitment exercises.

About You

You will be a qualified accountant with a minimum of three years post qualification experience gained working within a busy commercial finance environment and are looking for the opportunity to develop your commercial knowledge and financial analysis skills within 3173, a high growth provider of financial services to the pensions industry. As the Interim Financial Planning & Analysis Lead you will provide financial leadership and contribute proactively to the growth and development of 3173. You will be able to demonstrate your experience in supporting a commercial organisation through the provision of thoughtful and concise financial analysis, to contribute to the financial planning process. In order to meet the initial requirements of the role you will have significant practical knowledge in the creation of financial models to underpin budgets, rolling forecasts and longer term strategic financial plans. You will be a confident and articulate communicator with the ability to work with senior leaders and use your influencing skills to achieve the best outcomes for the business. You will be highly competent in the use of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. You may be competent in specialist financial planning tools or data analysis software such as Powerbi. You will thrive in a collaborative, fast moving team-based environment. You will be able to prioritise competing priorities. You will support and contribute to the development of the wider Finance team. You will be a diligent and driven individual with a high level of attention to detail. Someone who is confident, thorough and conscientious will do well in this role. The ability and confidence to highlight and escalate where relevant any challenges or risks to the senior leadership team is a must. You will be able to easily build effective working relationships at all levels. You must be able to manage multiple tasks and competing priorities, in a pressured and deadline driven environment. You may be required to travel to different 3173 Group locations from time to time as part of your role therefore may need to be flexible as regards your working hours.

Minimum (essential) requirements:

• ACA/ACCA/CIMA Qualified accountant with experience post qualification gained in a commercial finance environment.
• Demonstrable experience in the use of accounting software such as Sage, NetSuite, Oracle, Navision or similar across sales ledger, purchase ledger and nominal ledger.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Very experienced in the use of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Must demonstrate experience in the development of financial modelling to support the creation of budgets, rolling forecasts and other financial plans.
• Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision and escalate matters where necessary to the relevant personnel.
• Ability to work efficiently and prioritise your workloads in a fast-paced environment, delivering a high level of accuracy and attention to detail within tight timeframes.
• Experience in the training and development of junior staff.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to build trusted relationships with both staff and external stakeholders.
• Highly flexible, including willingness to work flexible hours at peak times.

Desirable requirements:

• Educated to degree level.
• Experience post qualification within a fast-paced commercial financial environment.
• Strong commercial awareness in relation to a professional services business with experience in the reporting of commercial key performance indicators.
• Expert level knowledge of Oracle NetSuite.
• Experience in the use of advanced financial modelling techniques such as macros or visual basic.
• Experience in the use of specialist FP&A tools and data analysis software such as Powerbi.
• Experience in the use of Microsoft Access.
• Practical experience within an M&A environment.
• Experience in developing investment appraisals.
• Experience in managing and developing a small team.

Competencies

• Delivers Results: Very High attention to detail and accuracy. Ability to work under pressure with minimal supervision and to tight deadlines.
• Leadership: Contributes to and aligns to the strategic plan for the department. Provides clarity of direction and ensures employees know what is expected of them. Able to motivate, drive and engage positively with project team members.
• Change & Innovation: Promotes and encourages innovative ways of working. Directly manages change programmes committed to process improvement.
• Communicating & Influencing: Promotes and encourages a culture of openness and transparency. Demonstrates credibility and makes a strong impression. Able to chair meetings, run workshops and facilitate sessions as required.
• Customer Relationship Management: Passion for excellent customer focus. Manage stakeholder expectations and keep them updated as required.
• Teamwork & Collaboration: Able to bring out the best in people to form a cohesive team. Promotes and encourages the use of collaboration across the organisation.

Circumstances

Location: Belfast

Contract: 12 months fixed term contract

Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required. Our Company is committed to work life balance and our flexi-working policy and opportunity for remote working enables individuals to maintain that balance. All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete an Access NI check. As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking security vetting. 3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Applying with a disability or long-term health condition? As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us, we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. As part of this commitment, we guarantee to automatically interview anyone with a disability who meets the minimum criteria. If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially. To discuss this further please call and ask to speak to a member of the People team.