Interim Finance Director
Location: Hertfordshire
Duration: 6-9 months
Day Rate: Circa £1,000 per day, outside IR35
The Opportunity
We are seeking an exceptional Interim Finance Director to join a high-growth, international business with revenues in excess of £120m. Operating in a fast-paced, highly commercial and acquisitive environment, the business is looking for a hands-on, commercially astute finance leader who can provide robust financial stewardship while supporting continued growth and driving performance.
This is a pivotal role, partnering closely with the Managing Director and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to balance an ambitious, sales-driven growth agenda with strong financial discipline, margin improvement and effective cost management.
The successful candidate will be comfortable leading multi-site, multi-entity finance teams within a complex international business, ensuring financial reporting, controls and billing processes remain rigorous, consistent and scalable as the business continues to evolve through organic growth and M&A activity.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic commercial partnering: Work closely with the Managing Director and SLT to drive business performance, support strategic decision-making and translate financial insight into actionable commercial outcomes.
- Full financial ownership: Take responsibility for the full P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, ensuring strong financial oversight, visibility and accountability across the business.
- Leadership of multi-site teams: Lead, develop and motivate geographically dispersed finance teams, creating a high-performing, collaborative and accountable finance function.
- Financial reporting and controls: Maintain and enhance the rigour, accuracy and timeliness of financial reporting, management information, financial controls and billing processes across multiple entities and international operations.
- Margin and profitability improvement: Maintain a relentless focus on protecting and improving margins, challenging costs and ensuring commercial growth translates into sustainable bottom-line performance.
- M&A integration and synergies: Support the business's acquisitive growth strategy, ensuring financial consistency, effective integration and the identification and realisation of synergies across acquired businesses.
- Performance management: Provide clear, insightful financial analysis and challenge to drive accountability, improve decision-making and support operational performance.
- Cash flow and working capital: Maintain strong oversight of cash generation, working capital and financial discipline in a fast-moving, commercially demanding environment.
- Continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to strengthen processes, improve financial visibility and build scalable systems and controls to support the next phase of growth.
The Ideal Candidate
We are looking for a credible, commercially minded Finance Director who combines strong technical and financial leadership with the pace, pragmatism and low-ego approach required to succeed in a dynamic, sales-led business.
You will ideally bring:
- Proven experience operating at Finance Director level within a high-growth business with turnover of £120m+.
- A strong track record of leading multi-site, multi-entity finance teams, ideally within an international environment.
- Experience in a fast-paced retail, distribution, FMCG or similarly commercially driven sector.
- A strong commercial mindset, with the ability to partner effectively with senior stakeholders while constructively challenging decisions, costs and performance.
- Experience operating in acquisitive businesses, including post-acquisition integration, financial controls and synergy realisation.
- Strong ownership of P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, management reporting and financial control.
- The ability to balance the demands of a highly sales-oriented organisation with a clear focus on margin, profitability and sustainable growth.
- The gravitas to influence and challenge at SLT level, coupled with a hands-on, pragmatic leadership style.
- The ability to operate at pace, navigate complexity and bring clarity and structure to a changing environment.
GRG Executive Search is committed to encouraging and celebrating applicants from different backgrounds, whatever their gender, ethnicity, race, religion, education, socioeconomic background, disability or sexual orientation to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
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