Finance Business Partner

Perm Recruitment RF/BDT; Queensland; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Perm Recruitment RF/BDT seeks a commercially astute Finance Business Partner to lead financial planning and strategic analysis for a large horticultural business in Central Queensland. You will translate complex data into practical guidance for farm leaders, production teams, and executives, influencing capital allocation and cost management.

The role reports to the CFO, drives budgets, forecasts, and cost-to-serve metrics, and collaborates across multi-site operations.

Qualifications

• CA or CPA qualification with a degree in Accounting, Finance, or Economics.
• At least five years’ experience, including a minimum of two years in a business partnering role within agricultural, horticultural, food manufacturing or FMCG setting.
• Proven experience in grower pools, supplier settlement, consignment accounting, or commercial licence and royalty frameworks will be highly regarded.
• Advanced financial modelling capabilities with the ability to independently build robust 5-year business cases and capital proposals.
• Demonstrated track record of identifying, quantifying, and delivering cost reduction initiatives, with measurable impact on financial performance.
• Strong proficiency with Excel, modern ERP/finance systems and business intelligence tools (Power BI, Tableau).
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, with the confidence to constructively challenge operational managers and build collaborative relationships.

Responsibilities

• Developing detailed block, variety, and planting-age profitability models—tracking growing, harvest, and post-harvest costs per hectare, tonne, and bin across all planted areas.
• Evaluating sub-breakeven blocks and building comprehensive financial business cases for orchard removal, replanting or retention strategies.
• Governing capitalised operating expenditure boundaries, immature block schedules, and biological asset/inventory reconciliations to ensure clear visibility between accounting and cash flow impacts.
• Managing unit-level labour productivity metrics and operational input costs to drive cost convergence across properties.
• Owning annual budgets, rolling operational forecasts, seasonal working capital models, and capital expenditure tracking across peak harvest windows.
• Overseeing standalone profit and loss, grower settlement models, and marketing margin allocations under exclusive commercial variety licenses
• Managing cost-to-serve analysis by sales channel, maintaining license compliance registers, modelling program working capital and assessing counterparty exposure across grower bases.
• Leading month-end close procedures, entity financial reporting, tax/grant compliance, and external audit support while embedding robust cost-coding discipline.

Skills

Financial modelling

Cost reduction

Stakeholder management

Business partnering

Education

CA/CPA qualification

Accounting/Finance degree

Tools

Excel

ERP systems

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

The Company

Our client is a premier, large-scale horticultural business with extensive operations spanning across farming, state of the art packing facilities, cold storage, and a multi-channel domestic and export distribution network. Operating across a national multi-season footprint, the business is dedicated to operational excellence, sustainable produce supply and continuous growth.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer, this high-impact Finance Business Partner position is based in Central Queensland. The role provides strategic financial leadership, deep analytical insight, and commercial guidance to operational teams across the company’s premier assets and grower networks in Queensland.

You will partner with farm leaders, production teams and commercial executives, translating financial reporting into practical operational insight. Your advice will support decisions that improve profitability, control costs and prioritise capital investment.

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing detailed block, variety, and planting-age profitability models—tracking growing, harvest, and post-harvest costs per hectare, tonne, and bin across all planted areas.
• Evaluating sub-breakeven blocks and building comprehensive financial business cases for orchard removal, replanting or retention strategies.
• Governing capitalised operating expenditure boundaries, immature block schedules, and biological asset/inventory reconciliations to ensure clear visibility between accounting and cash flow impacts.
• Managing unit-level labour productivity metrics and operational input costs to drive cost convergence across properties.
• Owning annual budgets, rolling operational forecasts, seasonal working capital models, and capital expenditure tracking across peak harvest windows.
• Overseeing standalone profit and loss, grower settlement models, and marketing margin allocations under exclusive commercial variety licenses
• Managing cost-to-serve analysis by sales channel, maintaining license compliance registers, modelling program working capital and assessing counterparty exposure across grower bases.
• Leading month-end close procedures, entity financial reporting, tax/grant compliance, and external audit support while embedding robust cost-coding discipline.

About You

The ideal candidate will be a commercially astute, CA or CPA qualified finance professional who can translate complex financial information into clear, practical insights for operational leaders.

To be successful in this role, you will bring:

• CA or CPA qualification with a relevant degree in Accounting, Finance, or Economics.
• At least five years’ experience, including a minimum of two years in a business partnering role within agricultural, horticultural, food manufacturing or FMCG setting.
• Proven experience in grower pools, supplier settlement, consignment accounting, or commercial licence and royalty frameworks will be highly regarded.
• Advanced financial modelling capabilities with the ability to independently build robust 5-year business cases and capital proposals.
• Demonstrated track record of identifying, quantifying, and delivering cost reduction initiatives, with measurable impact on financial performance.
• Strong proficiency with Excel, modern ERP/finance systems and business intelligence tools (Power BI, Tableau).
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, with the confidence to constructively challenge operational managers and build collaborative relationships.

Why This Role

This high-visibility role offers direct access to senior leaders and meaningful influence over operational strategy, asset development and value creation across a growing horticultural business. It is an opportunity to combine commercial finance expertise with hands-on operational partnering in a complex, multi-site environment.

Additional information

• A strategic advisory role with genuine executive influence
• Work for an industry leading agriculture business
• Located in Central Queensland