Head of Finance - Commercial & Corporate Functions

MCLAREN AUTOMOTIVE LIMITED; Woking; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading luxury automotive manufacturer in the UK seeks a Head of Finance to drive financial performance across commercial operations and corporate functions. This role demands a professionally qualified accountant with extensive experience in commercial finance. Responsibilities include leading budgeting and financial strategy, partnering with various departments, and managing a finance team. A comprehensive benefits package is offered, supporting growth and well-being.

Benefits

Structured career development framework

25 days' holiday plus bank holidays

Enhanced company pension scheme

Discretionary annual bonus

Private medical insurance

Generous parental leave policies

Qualifications

• Significant experience in commercial finance leadership roles.
• Deep understanding of luxury automotive commercial drivers.
• Proven skills in budgeting and forecasting cycles.

Responsibilities

• Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning.
• Act as finance business partner to global commercial departments.
• Ensure budgetary control and identify efficiency opportunities.
• Lead and develop a team of 3 direct reports.
• Uphold strong financial governance and streamline reporting processes.

Skills

Financial planning & strategy

Commercial partnering

Cost control

Leadership

Communication skills

Education

Professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or MBA in Finance

Tools

SAP ERP

Power BI

MS Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

What to Expect

The Head of Finance - Commercial, Corporate Functions & Racing is a strategic and hands-on finance leader responsible for driving financial performance across McLaren's central commercial operations, corporate support functions, and Racing liaison activities.

Reporting to the Commercial Finance Director, the role ensures robust financial planning, governance, and business partnering across areas including Marketing, Motorsport, Events, MLP (McLaren Licensing & Partnerships), Aftersales, Commercial Operations, Product Strategy and Licensing. It also partners with executive leaders in Finance, HR, Legal, Transformation, and Quality, while serving as the key financial interface with McLaren Racing to manage cross-company transactions and cost sharing compliance.

The role balances strategic oversight with operational execution, enabling informed decision-making and delivering financial outcomes aligned with business objectives.

What You'll Do

Financial Planning & Strategy: Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning across all covered commercial areas and corporate functions, consolidating global commercial performance into coherent financial plans. Commercial Partnering: Act as finance business partner to central global commercial departments (Marketing, Motorsport, Events, MLP, Aftersales, Commercial Ops, Product Strategy, Licensing), providing insights, evaluating business cases, and driving initiatives to maximize revenue and margins. This role also requires support on the consolidation of the total commercial and MS operations for reporting, planning and delivering deep insights to enable swift decision making. Corporate Functions Support: Partner with corporate function leaders (Finance, HR, Legal, Transformation, Quality, etc ) to manage their budgets, support strategic initiatives, and enforce financial discipline in overhead cost management. Performance Monitoring: Monitor and report on monthly financial performance for all areas, providing variance analysis and executive-level commentary to inform decision-making. Cost Control: Enforce budgetary control and cost management, ensuring spend remains within plan and identifying efficiency opportunities across both commercial projects and corporate overheads. Racing Liaison: Liaise with McLaren Racing on intercompany charges and cross-company finance matters, ensuring accurate handling of shared costs and compliance with all applicable regulations. Team Leadership: Lead and develop a team of 3 direct reports (2 Senior Finance Managers, 1 Finance Manager), fostering collaboration, capability growth, and high performance within the finance team. Process & Governance: Uphold strong financial governance, streamline reporting and planning processes, and champion the adoption of systems (SAP, Power BI, MS PPT, Excel) for improved analytics and efficiency.

What You'll Bring

• Qualifications & Background: Professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or MBA in Finance with significant experience in commercial finance leadership roles.
• Industry & Business Acumen: Deep understanding of the luxury automotive industry's commercial drivers and corporate function cost structures; able to align financial strategies with business objectives.
• Planning & Analysis Expertise: Proven skills in financial planning & analysis, scenario modeling, investment appraisal, with a strong command of budgeting and forecasting cycles in a complex, multinational environment.
• Systems Proficiency: Advanced proficiency in SAP ERP, MS Office, Excel, PowerPoint and Power BI for financial analysis and reporting; ability to leverage these tools for data-driven insights and process automation.
• Leadership & Communication: Track record of leading teams and ability to demonstrate strong leadership and stakeholder management capabilities, with excellent communication skills to influence and collaborate across functions and with senior executives.
• Financial Control: Track record of maintaining robust financial controls, ensuring audit readiness, and driving process improvements in finance operations.
• Strategic & Results-Driven: Balanced strategic thinker and detail-oriented executor, with a results-driven mindset, high integrity, and the agility to adapt in a fast-paced environment.

What We'll Do for You

We offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days' holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years' service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don't simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath-taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.