European Finance Director/ EMEA CFO

Finatal; Barcelona; On-site; EUR 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Finatal, partnering with a leading international PE-backed industrial group, seeks a European Finance Director/EMEA CFO to transform the European finance function and establish a Finance Centre of Excellence. You will lead across multiple countries and work closely with the Group CFO.

You will balance strategic finance leadership with hands-on control, reporting, systems, and post-merger integration, while on-site engagement with plant leadership and operations across Europe.

Qualifications

• Significant finance leadership in industrial/manufacturing environments.
• Proven multi-country European finance leadership experience.
• Strong finance transformation capability with process improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the European finance organisation across a multi-country, multi-site manufacturing environment
• Assess and restructure the existing finance organisation, addressing capability gaps and establishing clear ownership and accountability
• Build and establish a Finance Centre of Excellence, creating a scalable centralised finance structure
• Strengthen financial controls, reporting quality, data integrity and governance across the European businesses
• Take ownership of finance transformation across processes, systems, automation and reporting infrastructure
• Improve inventory reporting and controls, ensuring stronger alignment between financial records and physical plant operations
• Build reliable financial and operational data to improve management insight and support commercial and operational decision-making
• Partner closely with plant leadership, spending significant time on-site to understand operational issues and implement practical solutions
• Drive the digitisation and automation of manual finance processes, improving efficiency, consistency and visibility across the region
• Support the integration and standardisation of legacy and acquired businesses, establishing scalable structures for future M&A and post-merger integration activity
• Provide financial insight around production allocation, strategic sourcing, manufacturing performance and wider operational decisions
• Act as a senior finance partner to the Group CFO, European leadership team and Private Equity shareholders

Skills

Finance leadership

Multi-country finance

Finance transformation

Manufacturing finance

Data and systems

Controls & governance

Accounting background

Private Equity experience

Stakeholder management

Fluent English

European travel

ERP systems

Data analytics tools

Education

Accounting qualification

Tools

ERP systems

Data analytics tools

Job description

Ref: CR1164

We are partnering exclusively with a leading international, Private Equity-backed industrial organisation to appoint a European Finance Director/EMEA CFO. This is a senior finance leadership position responsible for transforming the European finance function, strengthening operational control and building the infrastructure required to support the next phase of growth.

Reporting directly to the Group CFO, the European Finance Director/EMEA CFO will lead a team across multiple European countries and establish a new Finance Centre of Excellence. The role will combine strategic finance leadership with significant hands‑on involvement across manufacturing operations, controls, reporting, data, systems and finance transformation.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and develop the European finance organisation across a multi-country, multi-site manufacturing environment
• Assess and restructure the existing finance organisation, addressing capability gaps and establishing clear ownership and accountability
• Build and establish a Finance Centre of Excellence, creating a scalable centralised finance structure
• Strengthen financial controls, reporting quality, data integrity and governance across the European businesses
• Take ownership of finance transformation across processes, systems, automation and reporting infrastructure
• Improve inventory reporting and controls, ensuring stronger alignment between financial records and physical plant operations
• Build reliable financial and operational data to improve management insight and support commercial and operational decision-making
• Partner closely with plant leadership, spending significant time on-site to understand operational issues and implement practical solutions
• Drive the digitisation and automation of manual finance processes, improving efficiency, consistency and visibility across the region
• Support the integration and standardisation of legacy and acquired businesses, establishing scalable structures for future M&A and post-merger integration activity
• Provide financial insight around production allocation, strategic sourcing, manufacturing performance and wider operational decisions
• Act as a senior finance partner to the Group CFO, European leadership team and Private Equity shareholders

Candidate profile

• Significant finance leadership experience within an industrial, manufacturing or similarly operational environment
• Proven experience leading a multi-country or multi-site finance function, ideally across Europe
• Strong finance transformation experience, with a track record of restructuring teams, strengthening controls and improving finance processes
• Strong understanding of manufacturing finance, including inventory, plant operations, costing and operational performance
• Experience improving financial data, reporting infrastructure, systems and process automation
• Recognised accounting qualification, ideally combined with an audit or strong technical accounting foundation
• Experience operating within a Private Equity-backed or similarly fast‑paced, high‑accountability environment
• Experience supporting business integration, transformation or post‑merger integration would be highly advantageous
• Hands‑on and pragmatic leadership style, with the willingness to work directly with local finance teams and manufacturing sites rather than operating purely at a corporate level
• Strong commercial judgement and the confidence to challenge senior operational and business stakeholders
• Comfortable operating in an international environment with significant European travel
• Fluent English; Spanish, German, French or additional European language capability would be advantageous