Senior Finance Business Partner

Serco Group plc; Hook; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading public service provider in the UK is seeking an experienced Senior Business Partner for their Custodial division. This role focuses on providing commercial and financial decision support to senior business leaders across multiple contracts. The ideal candidate will bring significant financial expertise, strong commercial acumen, and experience in contract management. The position offers competitive compensation and the opportunity to work in a dynamic environment with multiple important contracts.

Benefits

Competitive six figure salary

Bonus potential of up to 30%

Company car or car allowance

Qualifications

• Recognised professional qualification is strongly desirable.
• Significant experience in senior finance business partnering roles.
• Experience supporting bids and commercial negotiations.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted finance partner to business leaders.
• Support complex contracts and provide decision support.
• Proactively identify and manage financial risks.

Skills

Commercial acumen

Financial insight

Stakeholder influence

Problem-solving

Leadership

Education

Professional qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)

MBA or relevant alternative

Job description

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Senior Business Partner - Custodial, J&A
Location: United Kingdom (base location TBC)

Serco operates complex custodial services in a highly regulated and operationally demanding environment. Strong commercial insight and financial leadership are critical to delivering sustainable performance, supporting growth and maintaining trusted customer relationships.

The Senior Business Partner - Custodial provides dedicated commercial and financial decision support to senior business leaders across Serco's custodial portfolio. The role exists to improve profitability, manage risk and translate complex financial and operational information into insight that shapes decisions and drives performance. This role leads finance business partnering for Serco's evolving Custodial business, currently comprising five large prison contracts at different stages of the contract lifecycle, with a strong pipeline of future opportunities.

What you'll be doing

• Act as a trusted and visible finance partner to business leaders, providing commercial insight, challenge and decision support.
• Support complex contracts where business partnering intensity reflects contract size, lifecycle stage, payment mechanism complexity and delivery risk.
• Develop a strong understanding of customer drivers, contributing to commercial and financial negotiations including variable revenue, rebids, extensions and change notices.
• Provide insight into contract and service performance through ROI analysis, scenario modelling, KPI analysis and benchmarking.
• Proactively identify, assess and manage financial and commercial risks, ensuring mitigation actions are defined and delivered.
• Support portfolio strategy through market, competitor and portfolio analysis, informing market entry, exit and investment decisions.
• Provide decision support for bids and new business, working with Commercial, Pricing, Deal Architecture and Legal teams.
• Support operational delivery through identification of over- and under-performance, root cause analysis and corrective recommendations.
• Drive cost optimisation initiatives through profitability analysis and efficiency recommendations.
• Champion the use of technology, data and analytics to enhance financial insight and decision-making.
• Translate complex financial data into clear, compelling narratives for senior leaders and customers.
• Communicate proactively, manage competing priorities effectively and demonstrate resilience in a fast-paced environment.

What you'll need to succeed

• A recognised professional qualification is strongly desirable (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) or relevant alternative such as an MBA.
• Significant experience in senior finance business partnering roles within complex, contract-based or regulated environments.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to link financial and non-financial drivers to performance.
• Experience supporting bids, commercial negotiations and strategic decision-making.
• The confidence and credibility to influence and challenge senior stakeholders.
• Strong judgement when working with incomplete or ambiguous information.
• A collaborative leadership style, high emotional intelligence and strong personal integrity.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly within the UK.

What we offer

• Competitive six figure salary
• Bonus potential of up to 30%
• Company car or car allowance of £5860
• Exposure to high-profile, complex Justice & Immigration contracts
• A role with real influence on performance, strategy and outcomes

About Serco

At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services. We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks - SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Apply

Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment.

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the 'Ban the Box' pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.