Finance Business Partner - Europe - Commercial & Service

Smiths Group; Slough; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A global leader in mission-critical solutions in Slough is seeking a Commercial Finance Manager. This role involves leading financial performance reporting and providing strategic support to regional directors. Candidates should possess a finance degree, relevant qualifications, and over 10 years of experience in similar roles. The position offers an opportunity to influence business decisions in a cutting-edge industry with competitive compensation and benefits.

Benefits

Competitive compensation

Employee resource groups

Recognition awards

Qualifications

• Proven track record in senior finance roles, preferably in commercial and operational contexts.
• Experience in multi-national, multi-cultural settings.
• 10+ years of relevant professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead performance reporting and investment decision support.
• Business partner with Region Senior Sales Director.
• Support regional decision-making for revenue growth.

Skills

Financial modelling

Analytical skills

Strategic planning

ERP systems proficiency

Communication skills

Education

Degree in Finance, Economics, or Mathematics

Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/ACMA/CFA)

Tools

SAP

Oracle

Job description

Company Description

John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies.

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards.

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial.

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries.

Job Description

This role provides commercial finance support for the Europe Commercial region & Service network (with primary focus on the commercial aspects of the business). Reporting to the Director Finance, Commercial and Service, the individual will lead the performance reporting, investment decision support, budget/forecasting process, strategic planning support and general financial market intelligence for the Europe region and service network.

You will also business partner the Regional Senior Sales Director and Global Senior Service Director and are expected to provide incisive financial reporting coupled with recommendations for improvements and critical challenge where required. The individual will be key to ensuring delivery of the strategic roadmap for the region by ensuring the integrity of execution of our market and commercial strategy, creating, and supporting an unambiguous accountability for delivering end-to-end results.

Key Responsibilities

• Ownership of all monthly consolidated data for the Europe region and the service network, financial planning process for all quarterly, annual, and strategic financial plans, including delivery of supporting materials.
• A strategic partner to their Commercial & Service Regional Senior Director providing leadership, direction and problem solving to address any fundamental issues that may deter from ultimately growing the core and profitability of the business within a strongly controlled environmentli>
• A strategic partner to the Global Service Senior Director providing support through the transition of sites to Customer Operations as well as providing analytics and reporting capabilities to better understand service centre profitability and drive efficiency across the network.
• Supports regional decision making to maximise revenue growth, working capital usage and service centre /manufacturing excellence and profitability.
• Acts as a regional expert understanding the drivers and nuances of the local business, providing timely, independent insight and updates to the Director Finance, Commercial & Service.
• Provides recommendations for reporting improvements, influences support across the globe and implements those enhancements where appropriate.
• Collaborates closely with the regional financial controller and individual country controllers to ensure a united yet efficient finance function is maintained.
• Inputs to the creation and presentation of the Commercial & Service financial strategy.
• Owns the initial financial assessment, post implementation reviews and regular reporting of the portfolio of Strategic Investments across the John Crane business.
• Financial consolidation and planning across the service centre network.
• Implementation and oversight of cost control policies across the service centre network.
• Strategic financial evaluation of service centre network projects.
• Enhanced decision support for manufacturing and service activities across the service centre network.
• Supports ad-hoc John Crane initiatives, projects or M&A activities including integration and information requests as directed by the Director Finance, Commercial & Service.

Qualifications

Candidates must have a proven track record of success in progressively more senior finance roles preferably including commercial and operations environments. Previous experience of working with a high-performing team in a multi-national, multi-cultural business is preferred.

The following experience, skills and personal attributes are key:

• Degree educated (minimum 2;1), ideally in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, or a related analytical discipline. A Master's qualification is advantageous.
• Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / ACMA / CFA) with 10+ years of relevant professional experience with a strong focus on Commercial, Operational and or Strategic Business Analysis preferably in a large multi-national business.
• Demonstrated proficiency in financial and economic modelling and investment appraisal techniques.
• Demonstrated proficiency in ERP system utilisation (SAP, Oracle etc).
• Deep analytical capability, intellectual curiosity, and ability to operate strategically and hands-on.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and build strong trusted working relationships with internal and external business customers.
• Demonstrated ability to persistently pursue and achieve results. Uses data / analytics to proactively monitor and review plans to hit or exceed targets and drives continuous improvement.
• Ability to make good judgments in an increasingly complex global business by effectively sourcing and analysing critical information and making effective, timely recommendations whilst considering the needs and impacts on business stakeholders.
• Work closely with other areas of the business to develop a clear understanding of the implications their decisions have both in the short and long term.
• Self‑starter with flexibility and willingness to balance multiple, changing priorities and work independently under tight deadlines.
• Effective written, verbal and presentation skills.

Additional Information

With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross‑business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity.

Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network.

Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future.

All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.