Finance Business Partner

This is a Financial Business Partnering role within the Operations Finance team and reports to the Head of Finance for Water. The role will be a business partner to the members of the Water Senior Leadership team and is responsible for performance reporting, forecasting and analysis. The key purpose of the role is to drive optimal performance at the best value for money across both Opex and Capex investments.

The role covers operations functions primarily supporting the delivery of our leakage activities, as well as working closely with colleagues across the Water finance team. In terms of cost stacks, the role will work across the whole P&L, including revenue, employee, power, materials, third party, and capex costs and thus needs to become familiar with activity drivers of value.

• Ensure that you are sharing and understanding key insights across the financial landscape so that there is one clear understanding of financial performance
• Lead and assist in setting a business plan that achieves all operational and financial objectives
• Prepare and upload budgets and forecasts for operational expenditure, measuring and understanding performance against these metrics
• Identify, monitor and support the business to mitigate key risks and opportunities
• Support any Investment Committee Papers regarding Budget and Actual Cost analysis and approvals, and agree, track and drive business improvement initiatives
• Track and monitor business improvement initiatives for your area (for example, efficiencies and transformation initiatives), providing robust assurance of claimed benefits
• Own the modelling for relevant business area activities and fulfil the role as SME in this space
• Input as required to any other key business requirements (e.g. regulatory returns, analytical reviews)
• Ensure that key business models are maintained for your business unit that support financial planning and analysis (e.g. supporting activity-based costing, “find and fix” analysis, event reporting, etc.).
• Support the business in developing new models as appropriate, ensuring these are robust and aid decision‑making

Base

Location:

Hybrid – Reading

Working Pattern or hours: 36 hours

This is a fixed‑term contract/ Secondment 13‑18 months

• Qualified accountant or QBE
• Business partnering, Management Accounting, Project / Capital accounting experience
• Not afraid to challenge and influence decision-making, as well as building strong relationships
• Planning and Organisational skills to work effectively
• Analytical skills
• Presentation skills
• Microsoft products including Excel
• Information system skills such as HFM

• Experience in a large/complex organisation
• Experience working with Power BI, SAC and SAP

• Competitive salary up to £60,000 - £70,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Performance‑related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance