Finance Manager

The Oval Partnership; Peterborough; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The Oval Partnership are currently supporting a European manufacturing group to recruit an Operations Finance Manager to take end-to-end financial ownership of their UK factory site in the Peterborough area. In this critical role you will act as the Finance Business Partner to the Plant Manager and site leadership, translating operational metrics into financial strategy and driving cost-saving initiatives.

You will lead budgeting, forecasting and month-end close, perform costings and variance

Qualifications

• Experience: Factory / costings or operations finance experience within a manufacturing environment.
• Costing expertise: standard costing, manufacturing variance analysis, inventory accounting, cost centre management.
• Systems & analytics: strong Excel and experience with ERP environments (Infor M3, SAP, Oracle).
• Business partnering: ability to build credibility with non-finance stakeholders and challenge decisions.
• Education: Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Industrial Engineering; professional qualification desirable.
• Right to Work: UK indefinite eligibility.

Responsibilities

• Operations Business Partnering with Plant Manager and operational heads to improve site margins and cost management.
• Product Costing & Standard Costing: maintain standard costs, BOMs, routings, labour rates, overhead allocations.
• Variance & Performance Analysis: analyse costs, volumes, productivity, yield, scrap, OEE, labour efficiency.
• Inventory & Working Capital Oversight: governance across stock control and cycle counts.
• Controlling & Month-End Closing: oversee closing, journals, accruals, variances, reconciliations.
• Cost Reduction & Continuous Improvement: lead lean projects to track cost-saving benefits.
• Budgeting, Forecasting & Decision Support: lead Budgets/forecasts and evaluate CapEx ROI.

Skills

Factory/costing experience

Costing analysis

Budgeting & forecasting

Stakeholder partnering

Education

Degree in Finance/Accounting/Economics/Industrial Engineering

CIMA/ACCA/ACA or equivalent desirable

Tools

Excel

Infor M3

SAP

Oracle ERP

Job description

The Oval Partnership are currently supporting a European manufacturing Group to recruit an Operations Finance Manager to take end-to-end financial ownership of their UK Factory site in the Peterborough area.

In this critical role, you won't just be crunching numbers—you will act as the key Finance Business Partner to the Plant Manager and site leadership team. You will translate operational metrics into actionable financial strategy, influence cost-saving initiatives, and optimise manufacturing profitability from the factory floor up.

Key Responsibilities of the Finance Manager include:

• Operations Business Partnering: Partner directly with the Plant Manager and operational heads to provide financial insight, constructive challenge, and strategic recommendations to improve site margins and cost management.
• Product Costing & Standard Costing: Calculate, maintain, and update standard costs for finished and semi-finished goods. Ensure BOMs, routings, labour rates, and overhead allocations accurately reflect ERP parameters.
• Variance & Performance Analysis: Analyse manufacturing costs, production volumes, productivity, yield, scrap, OEE, labour efficiency, and conversion costs against budget and forecast.
• Inventory & Working Capital Oversight: Provide financial governance across stock control processes, review stock movements, manage slow-moving/obsolescence provisions, and validate physical cycle counts.
• Controlling & Month-End Closing: Oversee monthly closing activities, journal entries, accruals, variance postings, and reconciliations in coordination with Group Finance.
• Cost Reduction & Continuous Improvement: Partner with operations on continuous improvement and lean manufacturing projects to identify, validate, and track tangible cost-saving and efficiency benefits.
• Budgeting, Forecasting & Decision Support: Lead plant budgeting and re-forecasting cycles, build robust business cases for CapEx projects, and evaluate operational investments (ROI/payback).

What We Are Looking For

• Experience: Factory / costings or operations finance experience within a manufacturing environment
• Costing Expertise: Solid grounding in standard costing, manufacturing variance analysis, inventory accounting, and cost centre management.
• Systems & Analytics: Strong proficiency in Excel and experience with modern ERP environments (e.g., Infor M3, SAP, Oracle).
• Business Partnering Skills: Proven ability to build credibility with non-finance stakeholders (Plant Managers, Engineers, Operations Leads) and challenge status-quo decisions effectively.
• Education: Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Industrial Engineering. Recognised professional accounting qualification (CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent) is desirable.
• Right to Work: Must have full eligibility to work in the UK on an indefinite basis