Senior Finance Business Partner

Arriva Group; North East; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading transport service provider in the UK is seeking a Senior Finance Business Partner to oversee financial reporting and drive performance across business units. This role demands a qualified accountant with strong analytical skills and the ability to influence senior management decisions. The ideal candidate will connect financial data to provide actionable insights and maintain financial integrity. Competitive salary and potential for growth are offered.

Qualifications

• Strong financial professional with extensive knowledge.
• Proven knowledge of technical accounting concepts relevant to commercial contracts.
• Experience in providing cyclical Financial MI.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic financial guidance and support to business units.
• Deliver core cyclical Financial MI relevant to Group/OU/BU.
• Ensure appropriate and timely decision making and financial governance.

Skills

Ability to challenge and influence senior leaders

Strong communication skills

Ability to connect data and information

Resilience

Education

Qualified accountant

Tools

Tagetik or similar financial consolidation/reporting system

Power BI or similar data visualisation tools

Excel

Job description

Arriva is a leading provider of passenger transport across Europe, employing around 34,400 people and delivering around 1.6 billion passenger journeys. With buses, trains, coaches, trams, waterbuses, bike-sharing systems, on-demand transport solutions and a rolling stock leasing company, Arriva proudly connects people and communities safely, reliably and sustainably across 11 countries, delivering these services in a better way, every day.

We have strong roots dating back to 1938, an ambitious growth agenda, and a continuously developing relationship with our new shareholder I Squared Capital who acquired Arriva in May 2024.

The Senior Finance Business Partner is responsible for providing strategic financial guidance and support to the business units and operating units (as well as to Group where necessary). This position requires a deep understanding of financial principles, sophisticated analytical skills, and the ability to make complex judgements. The Senior Finance Business Partner will work closely with senior management to drive financial performance, identify opportunities for growth, and develop innovative solutions to complex financial challenges.

The role will provide advice and guidance to leadership, influencing decisions by challenging where necessary and utilising detailed analysis to support strategic guidance.

This role will be working directly with OUs excluding Netherlands, for all cyclical Financial Management Information (MI) processes and related reporting. The role is primarily responsible for the creation and delivery of all such reporting and acts as a key interface between Group, OUs and BUs, producing the required reporting to ensure appropriate and timely decision making and financial governance.

They consequently supply the Corporate Reporting team with relevant financial information and insight (where necessary) such that they can ensure all MI reporting requirements are met, e.g. Arriva International Holdings Ltd (AIHL) Board reporting, BU reporting, etc. For the avoidance of doubt the ownership and delivery of all reporting resides with the Senior Finance Business Partner.

They will supply the same Financial MI (see accountabilities below) to Business Units (BUs) Managing Director and BU Finance Director (FD), on a cyclical basis and work in their roles as a finance business partner to ensure all financial needs are met.

Direct Responsibilities

Provision and integrity of core cyclical Financial MI relevant to Group/OU/BU including the following processes:

• Management accounts, e.g. actuals reporting and associated issue based reconciliations (IBR), incl. relevant schedules incl. profit and loss (P&L), balance sheet, debt and cashflow (incl. link to treasury liquidity forecasts), working capital, normalised/ underlying trading, reporting of material provisions, investment (incl. Capital Investment) and associated commercial assumptions, relevant KPI reporting
• Forecast, bi-annually, as above
• Budget, annually, as above
• Business Plan (BP), annually, as above incl. any relevant Group level or BU level pre BP process
• Financial risk and opportunity (R&O) reporting, twice annually incl. once annually R&O for the BP period. This also requires, where relevant alignment and reconciliation to OU Enterprise Risk reporting (occurs in parallel to financial R&O reporting)
• Order Book, twice annually, revenue and pertinent contract level information to support analysis
• Communication and explanation of reporting timetable and relevant process assumptions
• Supporting information for STI/ LTI scheme performance
• Creation (where relevant) and agreement / reconciliation of cross OU recharges
• Deliver corporate and divisional specific processes and reporting requirements
  
  

Accountable for provision of Financial MI to support financial reviews completed by BU MD and FD. For the avoidance of doubt the Financial MI provided should be consistent, on format and content, with reporting provided to the CFO, ExCo and Board.

Any other ad-hoc requirements as they occur in relation to cyclical Financial MI requirements of the Group/BU

Systems

Knowledge, skills and experience

Knowledge of Tagetik or similar financial consolidation/ reporting system. Knowledge of Power BI or similar data visualisation tools. Excel, Powerpoint, Word or equivalent.

Experience

Qualified accountant with relevant experience to perform the roles key accountabilities. Strong financial professional with extensive knowledge who has proven knowledge of technical accounting concepts relevant to commercial contracts.

Skills

• Ability to challenge and influence senior leaders to ensure integrity of information relied on by Management and Board
• Ability to plan (own time) and deliver quality information requirements to relevant timetable
• Ability to connect data and information, integrate and appraise findings to enable quality of Financial MI produced
• Demonstrate flexibility to work across organisational structures
• Demonstrate resilience
• Ability to identify improvements to Financial MI processes and deliver on improvements within scope of role
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal, and proven ability to distil complex financial data and techniques into relevant Financial MI Stakeholder relationships
  
  

Key Stakeholders

• Head of Corporate Reporting
• BU Finance Directors and teams
• BU Management Directors
• OU Finance Directors and teams
• OU Management Directors
  
  

This job description sets out the main duties and responsibilities of the job-holder. It does not constitute an exhaustive or comprehensive description of duties and the job holder will be required to carry out any additional tasks as and when requested to do so by their manager. Responsibilities and duties may also change in light of future business needs and personal development.

The closing date for applications is Monday 28th July 2025 but Arriva reserve the right to close this earlier if required.