Commercial Finance Business Partner

Helsing; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A defence AI company in Greater London is seeking a Commercial Finance Business Partner to manage financial operations. This role involves working closely with diverse teams to influence the company's growth during an exciting stage of development. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in financial management, particularly in the defence sector, and experience in business partnership. Benefits include competitive compensation and relocation support, contributing to meaningful technological advancements in democratic defense.

Benefits

Competitive compensation and stock options

Relocation support

Social and education allowances

Regular company events

Qualifications

• Experience in managing internal and external stakeholder relationships.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated provision of financial management within the defence sector.
• Strong understanding of cost management.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Experience in business partnering and influencing with non-finance professionals.

Responsibilities

• Operate as a Business Partner to key operational areas.
• Provide financial support to the management team for decision making.
• Analyse monthly performance information to identify cost variances.
• Engage with teams on cost-effective design solutions.
• Lead implementation of cost engineering framework.
• Report programme performance including progress and remaining effort.
• Support development of performance reporting metrics.

Skills

Stakeholder relationship management

Cross-functional team leadership

Financial management in defence sector

Cost engineering & financial principles

Attention to detail

Excellent communication skills

Adaptability and resilience

Business partnering and influencing

Education

Accounting and/or commercial qualification or MBA

Job description

Who we are

Helsing is a defence AI company. Our mission is to protect our democracies. We aim to achieve technological leadership, so that open societies can continue to make sovereign decisions and control their ethical standards.

As democracies, we believe we have a special responsibility to be thoughtful about the development and deployment of powerful technologies like AI. We take this responsibility seriously.

We are an ambitious and committed team of engineers, AI specialists and customer‑facing programme managers. We are looking for mission‑driven people to join our European teams – and apply their skills to solve the most complex and impactful problems. We embrace an open and transparent culture that welcomes healthy debates on the use of technology in defence, its benefits, and its ethical implications.

The role

As Commercial Finance Business Partner, you will work within all business‑related finance topics for our business. You will have a chance to work with a diverse and highly motivated cross functional team across a plethora of projects and directly influence the success of the Helsing group. This is a rare opportunity to join the company at an exciting stage of its early development and to help set the conditions for rapid growth and success over the next few years.

The day‑to‑day

• Operate as a Business Partner to key operational areas
• Act as primary financial focal point for the designated business areas providing the management team with full financial support and information to enable timely and accurate decision making
• Utilise financial techniques and tools to interpret, analyse and understand monthly performance information, the drivers behind any cost variances and support the preparation of mitigation and action plans to resolve any issues
• Actively engage and implement innovative approaches together with Design, Manufacturing, Procurement and Aftermarket that will determine the future success of our products and services
• Influence cost effective design solutions as part of a cross‑functional team (Design to Cost)
• Ensure cost transparency and cost control across the product portfolio by leading the implementation of a functioning cost engineering framework including tools, governance, and reporting
• Identify and analyse cost drivers to effectively support & influence supplier negotiations
• Partner with commercial teams to lead supply chain mapping, execute lean cost improvement workshops and support sourcing strategy creation with cost insight
• Manage the monthly and quarterly financial forecasting process across your designated business areas
• Evaluate the potential impact of risks and opportunities and support operational teams to identify and implement mitigation plans driving profitability
• Report programme performance including progress to plan, performance taken, and remaining effort, including effects on Order Intake, Revenue, Margin & Cash
• Support the development of performance reporting metrics and management information for use by programme leadership team
• Lead and develop other members of the team on all aspects of project control including providing coaching and support to development leads in adopting cost‑centric design and planning
• Build strong trust with engineering teams by framing cost not as a constraint, but as a performance driver
• Establish strong relationships with external customers in the German Ministry of Defence

You should apply if you

• Have experience with building and managing internal and external stakeholder relationships
• Have experience leading cross functional teams
• Can demonstrate experience of providing financial management within the defence sector
• Design process, sourcing, product cost management & commercial awareness; good understanding of Cost Engineering & Financial principles
• Have excellent attention to detail, and the ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Have an, or are studying towards, an accounting and/or commercial qualification or MBA
• Strong technical background, with the ability to guide and develop the teams' financial skills
• Possess excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Are an adaptable and resilient character, able to cope with changing requirements and multiple priorities who can help their team remain effective
• Have experience in business partnering and influencing skills; able to explain and troubleshoot financial issues with non‑finance professionals and inspire them to achieve greater financial performance

Note: We operate in an industry where women, as well as other minority groups, are systematically under‑represented. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications; ability and impact cannot be summarised in a few bullet points.

Join Helsing and work with world‑leading experts in their fields

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns
• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world
• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward
• In our domain, success is a matter of order‑of‑magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts
• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about

What we offer

• A focus on outcomes, not time‑tracking
• Competitive compensation and stock options
• Relocation support
• Social and education allowances
• Regular company events and all‑hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe

Helsing is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.

Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here.