Head of Finance, Capital Business Partnering (12 mth FTC)

As a key member of the Development Leadership Team, this role works closely with Programme Directors and Leaders to drive strategic outcomes, assess and mitigate risks, and ensure financial targets are met. Responsibilities include leading a team in strategic business planning, programme prioritisation and the development of long-term plans for both operational and capital expenditure.  

The role oversees capital investment decisions, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives via robust financial modelling and appraisal. It also influences internal and external governance forums, ensuring business cases are well-appraised and portfolio performance is tracked.  

Additionally, the Head of Finance manages governance and control of project funding, drives continuous improvement, and leads, develops, and motivates the finance team through transformation, fostering strong cross-functional relationships to deliver business excellence. 

• Providing expert financial insight and analysis to support and influence key commercial and strategic decisions, ensuring a balance between customer service, cost, and revenue. This will require the building of strong relationships across the business and finance functions to drive value and continuous improvement.
• Leading the planning process, including target setting and deliverables, to ensure challenging yet achievable plans. Delivering high-quality, concise, and insightful regular reporting, and benchmarking performance (financial and non-financial) against other airports and industries.
• Overseeing investment analysis, benefits tracking, and the development of optimised programme portfolios through strategic prioritisation and robust business case appraisal. Providing financial assurance for business cases and ensuring capital is allocated effectively in a capital-constrained environment.
• Reviewing and challenging the cost base and its drivers, identifying risks and opportunities to improve financial performance. Supporting the business in understanding the impact and relative merits of different choices.
• Leading governance and controls for the business area, ensuring alignment with long-term business planning, budgeting, financial controls and financial constraints. Liaising with relevant teams to maintain compliance and robust control over project funding and approvals.
• Conducting ex post reviews of capital projects to assess performance against original business case metrics. Develop and maintain investment appraisal methodologies and models to support ongoing and future investment decisions. 

• Qualified accountant, CFA or qualified by experience with extensive managerial experience as a Finance Business Partner operating at an operational and strategic level and/or corporate finance
• Strong influencer and communicator with the ability to structure and deliver persuasive arguments at Director, Executive Director and Shareholder levels.
• Knowledge and experience of global aviation industry or other capital-intensive industries advantageous
• Strong leadership skills with a demonstrable track record of leading high-performance teams
• Strong evidence of investment appraisal experience, including assessing the impact of carbon on capital investment projects 

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