Senior Manager FP&A

Zutari; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Zutari, a long-established engineering firm with a people-centric approach, is seeking a Senior Manager FP&A to lead budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting across the group. The role partners with operations to translate financial performance, risks, and opportunities into actionable plans, ensuring commercially relevant, timely finance support.

Reporting to the Group CFO, you will guide the PFA team, drive analytics, and embed finance into operations across multi-entity projects and

Qualifications

• Senior finance leadership with strong commercial acumen.
• Management accounting capability.
• Operational finance experience.
• Ability to translate financial data into actionable insights.
• Experience in multi-entity or multi-jurisdictional environments.

Responsibilities

• Act as the primary finance partner to operations, providing insight and support on financial performance.
• Lead budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting across the Group.
• Deliver forward-looking insights to the CFO and executive leadership.
• Oversee the PFA team and finance data/operational reporting capability.
• Drive governance, consistency, and decision-support practices in finance.

Job description

Description

Zutari: Co-creating an engineered impact.

Zutari is a well-established, management-owned engineering firm with almost 90 years' experience. As human-centred engineering consultants and advisors, we are trusted by our clients, business partners, communities and other stakeholders across Africa.

We co-create engineering solutions that have a positive impact and improve people's lives. Zutari values inclusion and recognises the importance of a diverse, talented workforce, believing that people need other people to succeed.

What kind of talent do we pursue?

We employ people with the right attitude and a positive mindset, who are motivated by doing the right thing, getting things done and share a sense of urgency. People who have an impact in our teams and broader community. People who think differently and connect with those around them to co-create new opportunities and leave a meaningful legacy.

About the role:

The Senior Manager FP&A - is responsible for leading Zutari’s planning, forecasting, operational finance, management reporting, business partnering, and performance insight capabilities across the Group. Reporting to the Group Chief Financial Officer, the role serves as the key finance interface into operations and plays a central role in linking financial performance, project performance, business drivers, and management decision-making. The role will lead the Project Finance Accountant (PFA) team and the finance data and operational reporting capability, ensuring that finance support to the business is commercially relevant, analytically strong, and operationally embedded. The role is responsible for driving high-quality budgeting, forecasting, performance analysis, management reporting, and financial insight, while helping operational leaders understand the drivers of business performance and make better decisions.

This role requires a senior finance leader with strong commercial acumen, management accounting capability, operational finance experience, and the ability to translate complex financial and operational data into actionable insight. The incumbent must be able to operate effectively in a multi-entity, project-based, and increasingly multi-jurisdictional environment, while building strong relationships across finance and the business.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Finance Partnering and Operational Support

• Act as the primary finance partner to operations, providing insight, challenge, and support on financial and business performance matters.


• Build strong relationships with operational leadership and project-facing teams to ensure finance is embedded in decision-making and performance management.


• Translate financial and operational information into meaningful insight that supports delivery, profitability, resource planning, and business improvement.


• Provide the Group Chief Financial Officer and executive leadership with forward‑looking insights on business performance, key risks, growth opportunities, and strategic trade‑offs..


• Strengthen the quality of finance engagement with the business by ensuring commercially relevant, timely, and practical support to operational stakeholders.

Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting

• Lead the Group’s budgeting and forecasting processes across business units and operational areas, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and operating realities.


• Drive robust planning assumptions, challenge inputs, and improve the quality, consistency, and credibility of budgets and forecasts.


• Coordinate forecasting cycles and ensure meaningful visibility of expected performance, risks, opportunities, and resource implications.


• Inform scenario planning, sensitivity analysis, and reforecasting to improve business responsiveness and decision-making.


• Work closely with business leaders and finance teams to ensure forecasts reflect operational plans, commercial realities, and emerging risks.

Management Reporting and Performance Insight

• Lead the preparation and continuous improvement of management reporting across the Group, ensuring reporting is accurate, insightful, timely, and decision-useful.


• Oversee monthly management accounts, performance packs, KPI reporting, and analytical reviews that explain financial and operational performance.


• Identify and communicate key performance drivers, variances, trends, risks, and opportunities to support proactive management action.


• Ensure management reporting is clearly linked to operational performance, project outcomes, business drivers, and resource utilisation.


• Provide the Group Chief Financial Officer and senior leadership with executive-quality reporting and analysis for business reviews and performance discussions.

Project Finance and Business Partnering Leadership

• Lead the Project Finance Accountant team and set clear expectations for high-quality finance business partnering across the organisation.


• Ensure PFAs provide effective support to project and operational leaders on profitability, project performance, forecasting, margin management, working capital, and financial discipline.


• Build consistency in how finance supports projects, operational units, and business leaders, including common standards, reporting disciplines, and decision‑support practices.


• Strengthen project and operational finance capability across the business through coaching, leadership, and performance management.


• Ensure the finance business partnering model remains responsive to the needs of a growing and increasingly complex organisation.

Data, Reporting and Analytics Leadership

• Lead the finance data and operational reporting capability, ensuring reporting outputs are relevant, reliable, user-friendly, and aligned with business needs.


• Oversee the development of dashboards, KPI reporting, and analytical tools that support management decision-making across finance and operations.


• Work with BI, systems, and reporting teams to define requirements for finance and operational reporting, including data models, business rules, reporting logic, and validation requirements.


• Ensure strong governance over the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of management information used across the business.


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