Strategic Finance Partner for Agriculture & Operations

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

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.