Global Enabling Functions Financial Controller
£75,000 – £82,500 + £6,300 car allowance + discretionary bonus up to 10% + excellent benefits
Cardiff | Hybrid working | Global remit | Newly created position
This is an exciting opportunity to shape a newly created global finance function…
Môrwell Talent Solutions is delighted to be partnering with a global organisation undergoing an exciting period of transformation and growth, to recruit a Global Enabling Functions Financial Controller.
This is a newly created position following a significant business restructure and offers the opportunity to become part of a brand-new leadership team, helping to shape how finance supports one of the organisation’s key global business engines.
The role sits within the Sales & Marketing Engine, a global division comprising approximately 700 people across multiple regions. From a finance perspective, you will have responsibility for a budget of approximately £60-70 million, providing financial control, commercial insight and challenge across a diverse and geographically dispersed business.
This is not a role that simply reports the numbers. You will be expected to get under the skin of the business, understand what is driving expenditure, challenge variances and assumptions, and work closely with senior stakeholders to identify opportunities to improve performance and maximise return on investment for the fee earning side of business.
The opportunity
Reporting directly to the Global Enabling Functions Controlling Director, you will become a key finance partner to senior management and leadership teams across the division.
Your remit will broadly encompass three key areas:
Financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting – taking financial responsibility for the accurate reporting, budgeting and forecasting of the Sales & Marketing Engine, ensuring performance is clearly understood and appropriately controlled.
Business partnering and commercial insight – partnering with S&M Engine leadership to ensure they understand key variances to budget, identify opportunities for cost efficiencies and improve return on cost of sales investment across business.
Cost allocation, billability and sector alignment – working with the Industry and Sector Finance community to ensure the allocation of Sales & Marketing Engine costs to sectors aligns with the original design principle and providing clear explanations for any cost and billability deviations versus budget.
What will you be doing?
This is a broad and commercially focused Financial Controller position, combining strong technical accounting and financial control with genuine business partnering.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Taking ownership of the accuracy and timeliness of monthly financial reporting across the functions within your remit.
- Leading the annual budgeting and forecasting processes, challenging assumptions and ensuring forecasts provide a realistic and transparent view of future performance.
- Providing insightful analysis and commentary around actuals, budgets, forecasts and key financial drivers.
- Investigating significant variances and getting beneath the numbers to understand the why, not simply reporting the what.
- Working closely with senior stakeholders and function heads to understand business priorities and provide commercially focused financial insight.
- Supporting investment and business decisions through analysis of return on investment, expenditure and financial performance.
- Identifying and driving cost efficiencies and savings in line with the organisation’s wider strategic objectives.
- Owning the development of new reporting and analysis to provide greater visibility and insight across the business.
- Supporting the consolidation of financial information across the global division.
- Working collaboratively with Finance Business Partners, FP&A, BI, Group Finance and other global finance teams.
- Identifying opportunities for process improvement, standardisation and automation.
- Helping to establish and embed new processes and ways of working as the newly structured division develops.
- Building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across different regions, sectors and functions.
The person
We are looking for an ambitious, commercially minded and technically strong finance professional who enjoys getting into the detail but can also step back and understand the bigger picture. You will need to be comfortable operating in an environment where not everything is established or fully defined yet. This is a new role within a newly structured division, so there will inevitably be a degree of short-term change and ambiguity. The successful individual will therefore be resilient, adaptable and comfortable helping to build something rather than simply inheriting an established process.
You will ideally be:
- A fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
- Experienced within a medium-to-large, complex or international organisation.
- An experienced Financial Controller / Senior Finance Business Partner / Commercial Finance professional with strong management accounting and financial control experience.
- Highly analytical, with an excellent eye for detail and the ability to identify when something doesn't look or feel right within the numbers.
- Commercially minded, with the confidence to challenge expenditure, budgets, forecasts and assumptions.
- A strong business partner who can translate financial information into meaningful commercial insight.
- A confident communicator who can build credibility and trust with senior stakeholders.
- Comfortable working across different countries, regions, sectors and functions.
- Resilient and adaptable, with the ability to operate effectively through periods of change and ambiguity.
- Curious and forward-thinking, with an interest in improving processes, reporting and the use of technology and data.
- Ambitious and keen to develop their career within a large global organisation.
Above all, this role requires someone who is personable, credible and trustworthy. You will be working with senior stakeholders across a global organisation, so the ability to build strong relationships, communicate clearly and challenge constructively will be just as important as your technical finance expertise.
Why this role?
This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who wants more than a traditional Financial Controller position.
You will be joining at a pivotal point in the organisation’s development, with the opportunity to help shape a newly created global function, establish processes, influence senior decision-making and make a genuine commercial impact.
There is also significant scope for future career development. The organisation is ambitious and continues to grow both organically and through acquisition, so this role would suit someone who is looking to build a long-term career and progress within a complex global environment.
The package
- £75,000 – £82,500 salary, depending on experience
- £6,300 car allowance
- Discretionary bonus up to 10%, linked to business performance
- Family private medical cover
- 27 days annual leave
- 8% matched pension contribution
- Hybrid working, with the Cardiff office expected approximately once a week
Interested?
If you are a qualified finance professional looking for a genuinely global role where you can combine technical finance, commercial insight, business partnering and strategic influence, we would love to hear from you.
For more information, or to arrange a confidential conversation about the opportunity, please get in touch.