Strategic Finance Partner for Business Performance

South East Water UK; Snodland; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stakeholder pension

5 weeks holiday + bank holidays

Flexible annual leave

Volunteer days

Cycle to work

Health cash plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

South East Water is seeking a highly skilled Senior Finance Business Partner to join our team in the United Kingdom. You will act as a strategic partner to the senior management team, delivering insightful financial information, guidance, and commercial support to drive efficiency and manage risk across project activities.

Reporting to the Financial Performance Manager, you will lead budgeting, forecasting, KPI analysis and financial modelling, partnering across functions to enable sound

Qualifications

• Fully qualified accounting qualification (CIMA, ACCA, ACA).
• Ability to review complex financial data, conduct variance analysis, and leverage Workday Finance and advanced Excel.
• Understand business operations, commercial drivers and market dynamics to translate into actionable insights.
• Anticipate challenges and opportunities, develop proactive, solutions-oriented mindset, and keep clients informed.
• Excellent verbal and written communication to present complex financial information with authority.
• Proven ability to influence stakeholders and act as a trusted advisor.
• Champion Lean and Six Sigma to drive efficiency and reduce waste.
• Experience delivering finance transformation, process improvements, and system implementations with cross-functional teams.
• Extensive experience in a strategic finance business partner role guiding ROI outcomes.
• Expertise in end-to-end financial planning cycles including long-range planning, budgeting, and rolling forecasts.
• Experience leading cross-functional projects, ideally with capital projects, to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
• Proven ability to develop and inspire a high-performance finance team.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic financial planning, budgeting and forecasting aligned with objectives and controls.
• Provide strategic analysis with insights to influence decisions and optimise performance.
• Define and analyse financial KPIs to drive accountability and improvement.
• Drive value creation through financial and commercial support during contract negotiations and strategy execution.
• Develop dynamic financial templates with forecast scenario analysis for uncertainty.
• Conduct feasibility studies evaluating new finance and operational processes for returns.
• Lead business transformation initiatives, including digital and automation projects, for reporting and efficiency.
• Act as trusted advisor to senior management translating data into actionable insights.
• Maintain integrity of financial data with internal controls and regulatory compliance.
• Collaborate with auditors to manage risks and ensure transparent reporting.
• Motivate and mentor a high-performing finance team and support junior members.
• Deliver targeted training to elevate financial acumen across the organisation.

Skills

Workday Finance

Advanced Excel

Stakeholder management

Variance analysis

Financial planning

Strategic partner

Lean Six Sigma

Cross-functional leadership

Commercial awareness

Cost optimization

Education

CIMA/ACCA/ACA qualification

Tools

Workday Finance

Excel

Job description

South East Water is seeking a highly skilled Senior Finance Business Partner to join our team in the United Kingdom. You will act as a strategic partner to the senior management team, delivering insightful financial information, guidance, and commercial support to drive efficiency and manage risk across project activities.

Reporting to the Financial Performance Manager, you will lead budgeting, forecasting, KPI analysis and financial modelling, partnering across functions to enable sound