Senior Finance Executive - Sports Hospitality & Events

STH specialises in creating unforgettable experiences for sports fans worldwide. With a global presence and industry-leading expertise, we market, sell, and operate premium travel and hospitality programmes tailored to the world's top sporting events. By partnering with rights holders, STH ensures fans get unparalleled access to live events, delivering unique, once-in-a-lifetime moments for attendees. We are committed to innovation and excellence in enhancing spectator experiences. STH Group is a Sodexo Live! company, with offices in London, Auckland, and Melbourne, enabling a truly global reach and service offering.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Our Senior Finance Executive plays a critical role in ensuring financial accuracy, timely reporting, and seamless coordination with internal teams and external stakeholders to support the delivery of first-class financial support across high-profile sporting events and business operations. This is a hands-on role suited to someone with strong financial and accounting literacy, reconciliation skills, operational efficiency, and a collaborative mindset to thrive in a fast-paced, high-performance environment.

MAIN ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Budgeting and Forecasting: Align budgets with organisational goals by coordinating and assisting in their development. Monitor departmental budgets, analyse discrepancies, and propose corrective actions to maintain financial health.
• Support Month-End Accuracy and Control: Assist with the month-end process including intercompany invoicing, revenue deferral, credit card reconciliation, and accrual preparation to ensure timely and accurate financial close across all events.
• Maintain Robust Financial Records: Reconcile profit and loss and balance sheet accounts with precision to support the integrity of financial data and enable transparent reporting.
• Manage the Sales Ledger with Proactive Resolution: Generate and dispatch sales invoices, reconcile payments against control logs, and resolve customer queries promptly to ensure accurate revenue recognition.
• Manage Purchase Ledger and Payment Processing: Coordinate supplier onboarding, invoice processing, PO reconciliation, and approval workflows to facilitate timely vendor payments and maintain strong supplier relationships.
• Coordinate Payroll Processing and Compliance: Liaise directly with third-party payroll providers to generate and review monthly payroll reports, create and post journals, and create secure payment authorisations to ensure compliant and timely payroll processing.
• Support Finance Operations for all events: Collaborate with Senior Leadership to assist with budgeting, reconciliations, and sales reporting to elevate event financial management.
• Deliver Insightful Financial Reporting: Prepare ad-hoc and event-specific reports, including debt analysis, to support strategic decision-making across the business.
• Strengthen Financial Controls and Bank Reconciliation: Accurately allocate all bank transactions, encompassing purchase and sales entries, to ensure compliance and maintain effective financial controls.
• Support VAT Returns and General Compliance: Assist the Head of Finance UK with quarterly VAT submissions and contribute to other general compliance operations to support overall compliance.

KEY SKILLS

• A recognised accounting qualification (e.g. ACCA, CIMA, ACA) or equivalent foundational experience is essential.
• Familiarity with accounting systems is required, SAP would be an advantage.
• Attention to Detail: Meticulous in managing financial records, reconciliations, and reporting ensuring accuracy & compliance across finance operations.
• Confidentiality & Discretion: Trusted to handle sensitive financial data, payroll, and intercompany transactions with the highest level of care.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Strong communicator who collaborates effectively with teams, suppliers, and external partners to ensure smooth financial workflows.
• Analytical Reporting & Compliance: Skilled in generating accurate financial reports and supporting regulatory submissions and budgeting to inform business strategy and maintain compliance.

DESIRABLE COMPETENCIES

• Team Collaboration: Enthusiastic about contributing to and working within a team setting, fostering a collaborative environment that encourages shared success.
• Time Management and Planning: Exceptional ability to manage time efficiently and prioritise tasks effectively, ensuring timely completion of responsibilities and adherence to deadlines.
• Networking and Influence: Highly skilled in building networks and influencing others, utilising strong interpersonal skills to forge and sustain lasting relationships with clients and stakeholders.
• Learning and Data Accuracy: Demonstrates a keen ability to quickly learn new systems and maintain accurate data, ensuring reliability and integrity in customer management and reporting.
• Sport Enthusiasm: While not essential, a passion for sport can enhance connection with clients and understanding of the sports hospitality market, contributing positively to client interactions and service delivery.