Financial Director

As the Finance Director, you will play a pivotal role in strengthening and evolving The IN Group’s financial leadership as the business continues to scale across recruitment, consulting, and workforce solutions. This role will oversee end-to-end core financial operations, with a particular focus on cash and treasury management, billing and collections, and contractor payroll and settlements. As the Group moves into its next phase of growth through 2026 and 2027, this position includes ownership of complex financial structures, systems, and risk management across the UK and international entities.

A key element of the role is building and owning treasury capability, ensuring cash flow security, compliance, and operational excellence across the business. This role is best suited to someone with 5–8+ years’ experience in treasury and financial operations, with at least 3 years in UK recruitment, HR outsourcing, or contractor payroll environments.

Who are The IN Group? Put simply, we’re a global group of talent brands that unlock the power of people with offices in the UK, Europe, US and Middle East. We love growing, evolving, and challenging the status quo. We work in a truly human way that goes the extra mile and focuses on building long-standing relationships with our clients, candidates, and colleagues.

We’re proud of our six specialist brands, each operating with its own identity while benefiting from the strength of the wider Group:

• Investigo – Award-winning permanent and temporary recruitment across 21 specialisms and sectors, operating in the UK, US, and Europe.
• Definia – Defining, designing, and delivering technology, transformation, and cultural change.
• BioTalent – Global life sciences recruitment delivering a first-class, people-centred service.
• InX – Executive search and interim management solutions to accelerate leadership capability and build high-performing teams.
• Caraffi – Talent advisory solutions spanning employer branding, talent acquisition strategy, and leadership development.
• Sigma Labs – Hiring, training, and deploying high-performance technology consultants to help organisations bridge the digital skills gap.

As a Group, we combine entrepreneurial energy with operational maturity, offering an environment where senior leaders can genuinely shape how the business evolves.

The Team: You’ll be part of the wider Core Functions leadership team, working closely with the CFO, senior stakeholders, and operational leaders across the Group. The Finance Director will lead and develop teams across treasury, billing, collections, and contractor payroll, ensuring robust processes, strong controls, and a culture of accountability, accuracy, and continuous improvement.

Experience Needed for the Role:

• 5–8+ years’ experience in treasury and financial operations, with at least 3 years in UK recruitment, HR outsourcing, or contractor payroll environments.
• Strong hands-on experience across cash management, receivables, payroll operations, and financial compliance.
• Proven experience building, optimising, and scaling compliant financial operational systems.
• Experience leading small to mid-sized finance teams (2–5 direct reports).
• Familiarity with UK and European business operations is desirable.

Key Skills:

• Cash flow forecasting, liquidity planning, and treasury risk management.
• In-depth knowledge of UK PAYE, NICs, VAT, pension auto-enrolment, and HMRC regulations.
• Strong leadership and change management capability.
• Excellent communication skills with the confidence to partner senior stakeholders.
• High attention to detail with the ability to operate under pressure.
• Strong systems capability (e.g. Sage, Xero, BrightPay, XCD People).

Personal Attributes:

• Commercially minded with a strategic outlook.
• Highly detail-oriented with strong data sensitivity.
• Calm, credible, and confident when managing risk and complexity.
• Proactive, adaptable, and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment.
• Collaborative leader who enjoys building and developing teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Cash & Treasury Management: Lead cash flow forecasting, liquidity planning, and payment authorisation processes. Own UK banking relationships and treasury operations. Ensure fund security for company operations and contractor payroll, complying with UK payment regulations (BACS, Faster Payments). Manage currency exposure and cross-border transactions, including intercompany funding across overseas subsidiaries. Optimise funding structures and minimise financial risk. Establish and maintain end-to-end billing processes, including invoicing, credit notes, and VAT treatment. Oversee collections strategy, client reconciliations, payment follow-ups, and bad debt provisioning in line with Group accounting standards (FRS 102). Improve cash conversion cycles and working capital efficiency.
• Contractor Payroll & Settlements: Build and maintain compliant UK contractor payroll operations, covering PAYE, NICs, pensions, and statutory payments. Oversee contractor onboarding processes including right-to-work checks and tax coding. Ensure payroll accuracy, zero-error processing, and compliance with HMRC and employment legislation. Manage settlement reconciliation between clients and contractors and resolve disputes efficiently. Lead and develop payroll, billing, and collections teams, setting clear objectives and operational KPIs. Own and improve SOPs for all core financial processes. Partner with IT to maintain and enhance financial and payroll systems. Produce high-quality management information including cash flow reporting, receivables ageing, and payroll cost analysis.
• Governance, Compliance & Risk: Ensure all financial operations comply with UK legal, tax, and regulatory requirements. Lead regular compliance audits and update processes in response to legislative changes. Identify and mitigate financial and operational risks across the Group.

What We Can Offer You:

• A mature, autonomous working environment with genuine leadership influence.
• A role that will evolve significantly as the Group scales through 2026–27.
• Hybrid working with a flexible working policy.
• Private health insurance, wellbeing initiatives, and discounted gym memberships.
• Pension salary sacrifice.
• A vibrant social and wellbeing calendar.
• The opportunity to play a key role in shaping the financial future of a fast-growing, people-led group.