Interim Finance Transformation Lead | M&A & Transactions
Location: Central London / Hybrid
Contract: 6 months
IR35 Status: Outside
Working Pattern: Full time
Start Date: ASAP
Reports to: CFO / COO
The Opportunity
We are looking for an exceptional senior finance professional to join a fast growing, entrepreneurial business for an initial six month assignment.
The role has two clear priorities:
1. Prepare the business for future transaction activity, with a particular focus on sell side readiness.
2. Transform and strengthen our finance infrastructure, ensuring our systems, reporting, forecasting, processes and data can support our next stage of growth.
Previous hands on sell side deal experience is essential.
We need someone who has personally been through a sale or investment process from within a business and understands what it takes to prepare for financial due diligence, build a robust data room and ensure financial information can withstand external scrutiny.
Just as importantly, we are looking for someone who understands a smaller, high growth environment.
This is not a large corporate business with layers of infrastructure and support. Things move quickly, priorities evolve and you will need to be comfortable getting into the detail, solving problems and delivering outcomes.
You will work directly with the CFO and COO, with regular exposure to the Chairman, CEO and wider senior leadership team.
What You'll Be Doing (M&A, Sell Side Readiness & Due Diligence)
This is the most important element of the assignment.
You will:
- Prepare the finance function and financial information for potential future transaction activity.
- Build and organise an investor ready financial data room.
- Work with the CFO, COO and external advisers through transaction preparation and financial due diligence.
- Prepare and respond to financial due diligence requests.
- Review EBITDA and identify potential normalisation and adjustment items.
- Analyse revenue quality, margins, working capital, cash flow, payroll, staffing costs and profitability.
- Ensure financial schedules and supporting information are accurate, reconciled and defensible.
- Identify potential diligence issues before they are identified by a buyer, investor or adviser.
We need someone who understands sell side preparation from inside a business, rather than someone whose experience has solely been advising clients externally.
Finance Transformation
Alongside transaction readiness, you will strengthen the underlying finance infrastructure.
You will:
- Review existing finance systems, reporting, processes and data flows and identify what needs to improve.
- Implement practical improvements across reporting, controls, processes and systems.
- Strengthen P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and working capital forecasting.
- Improve financial modelling, scenario analysis and management information.
- Improve visibility of revenue, margins, staffing, costs and profitability across a growing multi site business.
- Identify opportunities to use automation, AI and technology to remove manual finance activity.
- Build scalable finance processes and reporting capable of supporting continued growth.
Who We're Looking For
Your technical experience matters, but how and where you have operated matters just as much.
We want someone who has experienced the realities of working within a smaller, high growth or entrepreneurial business, where not everything is perfectly structured and the finance function needs to evolve quickly alongside the organisation.
You should be able to demonstrate:
- Hands on sell side transaction experience from within a business.
- Experience preparing for financial due diligence and building or managing a transaction data room.
- Strong understanding of EBITDA, normalisations, working capital, cash flow and transaction related financial analysis.
- Significant finance transformation experience across systems, reporting, processes, forecasting or automation.
- Experience operating within a smaller, high growth or entrepreneurial organisation.
- Strong financial modelling, forecasting and commercial analysis capability.
- The ability to operate credibly with senior leadership while remaining willing to get into the detail yourself.
A qualified accounting background is preferred, although we will consider an exceptional qualified by experience candidate with significant relevant deal and transformation experience.
Experience within a PE backed, investor backed, founder led or multi site business would be particularly valuable.
Experience with Xero, Power BI, Power Query, advanced Excel, automation or AI enabled finance tools would also be advantageous.
The Person
Culture fit is important to us. We are an ambitious, fast moving business and we want someone who shares that mindset. You will be:
- Driven: You take ownership and push things through to completion.
- Hands on: You are comfortable moving between Board level conversations and getting into the detail yourself.
- Outcome focused: You care about what has actually been delivered, not simply what has been recommended.
- Entrepreneurial: You are comfortable with pace, change and working without layers of corporate infrastructure.
- Passionate: You bring energy, curiosity and commitment to what you do.
- Values led: You care about how results are achieved as well as the result itself.
This is a hard working environment with high expectations, but also an opportunity to have significant influence and make a visible impact within a relatively short period of time.
What Success Looks Like
By the end of the six month assignment, we expect to have:
- A structured, investor ready finance data room.
- Reliable and reconciled financial schedules capable of supporting financial due diligence.
- Key EBITDA, working capital and transaction risks identified and addressed.
- Stronger financial reporting, forecasting and commercial visibility.
- Cleaner and more reliable financial and operational data.
- Reduced manual finance processes through better systems and automation.
- A stronger and more scalable finance infrastructure capable of supporting continued growth and future transaction activity.
Why Join Us?
You will have direct access to the CFO and COO, exposure to the Chairman, CEO and wider senior leadership team and a genuine mandate to make change happen.
We are not looking for someone to tell us what we could do. We are looking for someone who has done this before and can help us deliver it.
If you have personally supported a business through a sell side transaction, transformed finance within a smaller, high growth environment, and thrive in an ambitious, fast moving and outcome focused culture, we would like to hear from you.
Pay: £60,000.00-£80,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- Are you available to start a 6 month contract immediately, or within the next 2 weeks?
- Have you personally supported a business through a sell side transaction, sale process or investment event within the business?
- Please briefly describe your most relevant sell side transaction, including the size/type of business, the transaction and your personal involvement in the process.
Work Location: In person
