Commercial Finance Business Partner - Infrastructure in Edinburgh

Wilkinson & Associates is delighted to be supporting a well-known, infrastructure-led organisation in Edinburgh to appoint a Commercial Finance Business Partner into a strategically important area of the business. This is an opportunity to step into a visible and commercially important finance role with genuine breadth.

Working closely with senior stakeholders across a varied portfolio of initiatives, the successful individual will help shape investment decisions, support strategic priorities and bring financial clarity to a range of commercial and project-led activity. It is a role for someone who enjoys using finance as a tool to influence decisions rather than simply report outcomes after the fact. The position offers a strong mix of modelling, business partnering, challenge and decision support within a complex, fast-moving environment. This is a hybrid opportunity based in Edinburgh and is likely to appeal to a commercially minded finance professional who enjoys variety, stakeholder exposure and work that goes beyond the month-end cycle.

Our client is a high-profile, operationally complex organisation with a significant asset base, a broad stakeholder environment and a constant need to balance commercial performance with longer-term strategic priorities. It operates in a setting where investment decisions, planning assumptions, commercial outcomes and project execution all have visible and meaningful impact. The environment is fast-paced and varied, but also highly collaborative, with finance expected to play an active and credible role in helping the business make well-informed decisions. This is not an environment for someone who wants to stay in the background. It is one where finance is expected to add value through insight, challenge, judgement and the ability to work closely with stakeholders across a broad range of issues.

This role sits within a team focused on supporting commercial and strategic projects across the organisation. The successful candidate will provide financial support, insight and challenge across a wide range of initiatives, helping stakeholders assess opportunities, evaluate proposals and make sound commercial decisions. The remit is likely to include a mix of revenue-generating ideas, operational initiatives, capital expenditure and broader strategic projects, making it a genuinely varied and interesting role. You will not be confined to a narrow reporting remit. Instead, the emphasis is on helping shape decisions, developing financial analysis that supports action, and ensuring that projects and opportunities are assessed with the right level of rigour.

The role is likely to include:

• Partnering with stakeholders across commercial, operational and project-led teams
• Supporting strategic decision-making through robust financial analysis and insight
• Developing and maintaining financial models to assess opportunities, returns and risks
• Supporting business cases through scenario analysis, challenge and evaluation of assumptions
• Providing input into budgeting, forecasting and longer-term planning activity linked to strategic priorities
• Helping assess project performance and track whether expected benefits are being delivered
• Producing clear, decision-useful analysis and reporting for senior stakeholders
• Contributing to stronger financial discipline, better visibility and more informed prioritisation across key initiatives

It is a role for someone who enjoys balancing detail with judgement - someone who can build a model, interrogate assumptions, communicate clearly with non-finance stakeholders and bring structure to complex or evolving situations.

We are interested in speaking with qualified accountants who can combine analytical strength with commercial awareness and stakeholder credibility. You may already be working in a finance business partnering, commercial finance, FP&A or strategic finance role. Equally, you may have developed relevant experience in a project-led, investment-heavy or infrastructure-style environment where financial analysis, planning and decision support have been central to your role. What matters most is not that you have done this exact job title before, but that you can demonstrate the judgement, curiosity and financial capability to support better business decisions in a complex environment. Relevant backgrounds could include commercial finance, business partnering, FP&A, project finance, strategic finance or analytical roles within large operational businesses, infrastructure-led environments or other settings where investment decisions and cross-functional stakeholder management are important.

The successful person is likely to be:

• Commercially aware and intellectually curious
• Comfortable working through ambiguity and helping bring structure to decision-making
• Strong analytically, with the ability to turn numbers into useful insight
• Credible with stakeholders and confident communicating with both finance and non-finance audiences
• Able to challenge constructively without becoming dogmatic
• Organised and proactive, with the ability to manage multiple priorities at once
• Grounded, thoughtful and keen to add value beyond the technical aspects of finance

This role is likely to suit someone who enjoys being close to live issues and meaningful decisions. Someone who wants to understand how a business works, influence outcomes, and build a career around commercially relevant finance rather than purely technical or reporting-led work.

This is an opportunity to join a high-profile organisation in a role with real visibility, breadth and stakeholder exposure. For the right person, it offers the chance to work on a genuinely interesting mix of commercial and strategic initiatives while developing further in areas such as business partnering, modelling, investment support and decision-making. It should appeal to someone who wants to broaden their experience, work closely with senior stakeholders and play a visible role in helping shape the direction of the business. It is particularly attractive for someone looking to move into a role that offers more variety and influence than a traditional reporting or FP&A position, while still providing a strong platform for longer-term development.

For a private and confidential discussion, please contact Jack Ramage at Wilkinson Associates.