Finance Manager

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Finance Manager for Northern Ireland Sites plays a crucial role in supporting the asset teams across Northern Ireland. Responsibilities include understanding the extensive cost base, driving efficiencies, and fostering business partnerships with site maintenance managers, engineers, and the management team. This role is instrumental in ensuring cost-effective operations, producing reliable cost reporting, and facilitating robust forecasting for critical business decisions. The Finance Manager also oversees the maintenance of accounting records for NI assets, including journal postings, month-end reconciliations, and variance analysis. Additionally, the role involves supporting month-end Group Reporting requirements, ongoing forecasting, and budgeting for NI costs.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Business Partnering:

• Manage overall cost base across NI assets.
• Drive performance through KPIs and data analysis, identifying savings and adding value.
• Provide accurate financial information for informed decisions.
• Lead project appraisals for costs, investment papers, and costing.
• Track project costs, lead finance costs for outage planning in NI, and provide high-level business partnering support.

Forecasting/Budgeting:

• Lead cost review meetings, responsible for cost packs and commentary.
• Collaborate with relevant budget holders for annual and 5-year business plans.
• Monitor spend against the plan, investigate variances, and flag risks/opportunities.
• Track costs and phasing changes for accurate monthly forecasts.
• Understand cash flow and working capital impact of cost phasing.

Financial Reporting:

• Lead month-end cost results for both sites.
• Lead cost initiatives, identifying opportunities and monitoring progress.
• Ensure accurate cost reflection in monthly accounts.
• Review and monitor purchase requisitions against the correct budget line.
• Prepare monthly cost centre reporting packs for discussions.
• Support interim and year-end audits, providing evidence and explanations as required.

THE PERSON:

Qualifications:

• Recognised accountancy qualification (ACA, CIMA, ACCA) (essential).
• Qualified to Degree level or equivalent (desired).

Skills:

• Strong Excel skills, with the ability to build and use Excel models and analyse data.
• Ability to engage, challenge, and influence others at a senior stakeholder level through verbal and written communication.
• Strategic and analytical thinker with the ability to interrogate data and create commercial solutions.

Experience:

• Previous experience in a similar business partnering finance role.
• Experience in an energy, manufacturing, or production-focused environment (desired).
• Experience working with people remotely (desired).

Knowledge:

• Knowledge and application of accounting standards.
• Experience with SAP (desired).
• Understanding of VAT and Corporation Tax (desired).