Head of Finance Systems & Payments – IT

Location Country

United Kingdom

Work Location

London

Who are V?

As a global leader in ship management and marine services, we add value to a vessel’s operations. Operating around the clock and around the world, V. gives every client the quality and efficiency they need in every sector. Covering crew management and recruitment, quality ship management and technical services, together with supporting management and commercial services, V. has an unrivalled industry knowledge with performance assured. Our values, We Care, We Collaborate, We Challenge, We are Consistent, We Commit and Deliver, are at the heart of everything we do and they support our strategy of Investing in Talent. We are always interested in making contact with talented individuals - people who will demonstrate our values and deliver great service, for internal and external stakeholders.

Overall Purpose of The Job

• The role decides where the group standardises, where it allows a fit-for-purpose alternative, and how the parts connect. It covers core finance, data, analytics and AI in finance.
• The role also develops the group's financial infrastructure for banking and payment flows at scale.
• It owns the implementation of a treasury management system (TMS) integrated with ShipSure. It designs the payment flows with the Treasury team.
• The Value Creation team finds growth, cost and efficiency opportunities across the group.
• This role works with that team on banking and payments, and delivers the approved changes.
• This is a hands-on, enabling role. It does not hold a budget. It designs, builds and manages partners, and makes the case to the budget holders. It works with finance teams in V.Group offices worldwide. It runs its own projects as part of the PMO, with PMO support.

Key Responsibilities And Tasks

• Finance systems vision
  • Set one vision for the finance systems stack across the group, with ShipSure at its core. Define the target state for core finance, treasury, payments, data and analytics. For each area, decide where the group standardises and where a different tool fits the business better. Explain each decision in commercial terms.
• Roadmap and practical tools
  • Record the current finance systems, integrations, data flows and manual workarounds. Sequence the work to reach the target state in a roadmap. Deliver practical tools early, so that finance teams get help before the long-term changes are complete.
• Core finance systems
  • Make sure the finance systems for record to report, purchase to pay, order to cash, consolidation and planning are scalable, auditable and controlled. This applies to all entities and currencies. Agree with the Product Owner — Finance how other tools connect to ShipSure.
• Treasury management system
  • Own the TMS implementation: selection support, design, integration with ShipSure and the banks, testing, cutover and adoption. Work with the Treasury team, who own treasury policy and process.
• Banking and payment flows
  • Design bank connectivity and payment flows across the group, with the Treasury team: bank formats and channels, payment automation, cash visibility, FX and bank reconciliation. Design for high volume, including crew, supplier and client payments in many countries and currencies. Include payment controls, fraud prevention and sanctions screening in the design.
• Client accounts
  • Make sure the systems and flows for client funds are controlled, reconciled and auditable, across about 1,000 client accounts. Keep client funds separate from group funds.
• Value creation in banking and payments
  • Work with the Value Creation team to find and size opportunities in banking and payment flows. Examples are lower payment costs, better FX outcomes, working capital and simpler processes. For each opportunity, state what to change, the cost and the risks. Then deliver the approved changes.
• Finance data and analytics
  • Own the finance data model and the definitions of finance master data: chart of accounts, entities, vendors and customers. Work with the Head of Data Platform so that finance teams get finance data from the group data platform, not from separate extracts. Give finance leaders reports and analytics that they can trust and use without rework.
• AI in finance
  • Apply AI to finance work where it gives a measurable return: reconciliation, matching, invoice processing, close, anomaly detection and reporting. Put each use case into production with controls, an audit trail and a named owner. Work with the group's AI teams. Use the AI standards that the Director of Technology & Architecture sets.
• Partners and vendors
  • Evaluate finance systems, banking and payment partners, and implementation partners. Prepare the business case for the budget holders. Manage each partner day to day, and hold each partner to account for delivery. Protect the group against lock-in and poor handover.
• Delivery
  • As a member of the PMO, run the finance systems projects: plans, risks, dependencies, testing and cutover. Make sure each change goes live with training, support and clean data.

What can I expect in return?

V. Group can offer you a market leading salary and benefits package, in addition to significant opportunities for career growth and personal development. This a great opportunity to join a true leader in the maritime sector - a company that has exciting plans for future growth.

Essential

• A finance background, ideally as a qualified accountant (ACA, ICAS, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent). Moved from finance into finance systems leadership. Credible with finance and with technology.
• Owned a finance systems landscape across many entities, countries and currencies, and made it more standard, scalable and auditable.
• Led a TMS implementation, including integration with an ERP and with banks.
• Delivered bank connectivity or payment automation at scale: many accounts, bank formats such as ISO 20022 and SWIFT MT, and API or host-to-host channels.
• Systems and controls for client funds or other third‑party funds.
• Set a finance systems roadmap and delivered it, with practical tools in the short term and platform change in the long term.
• Uses finance data hands‑on: SQL, Power BI or similar, and finance data models.
• Put automation or AI in finance into production with controls, not only as pilots.
• Evaluated systems and partners, wrote the business case, and held implementation partners to account.
• Strong in internal controls, audit and payment fraud risk.
• Gets results through partners and colleagues, without a budget.
• Credible with executives. Explains systems choices, risk and cost in commercial terms.

Desirable

• Maritime, shipping, logistics or another asset‑heavy operational business.
• Integrated finance tools with an in‑house ERP.
• Bank connectivity with a global transaction bank, such as Citi.
• High‑volume, multi‑currency payments, such as payroll to a mobile workforce or payments in many countries.
• Experience with Microsoft Fabric or a similar data platform.
• Worked with a strategy or value creation team on cost and efficiency programmes.

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