Group Director of Finance Shared Services

Are you an experienced Director of Finance Shared Services, fully versed in setting up centres of excellence?

Looking to take on your next interim challenge of supporting Advantage Smollan with harmonising finance operations across multiple european entities?

Passionate to lead and shape change, whilst maintaining operational control?

Fixed Term Contract (Interim 6-9months), full-time

Salary: £90,000 – £100,000 per annum + company bonus

Working: Monday – Friday, 35 hours per week

Location: Hybrid – (HQ – Winnersh RG41)

This is a senior role within the ASL finance team, reporting to the ASL Group Financial Director. It focuses on developing a shared services centre (SSC) for ASL Group finance which is envisaged to include account payable, account receivable, general ledger, fixed assets, operational treasury, and month-end accounting.

The key responsibility is to manage the financial operations, accounting and other related activities of ASL Group, starting with the UK entities and then expanding to ASL’s European entities. The accounting policy and other control procedures for such activities will be agreed and signed off by the Group FC and other relevant colleagues in that team (e.g., Group Tax Manager).

The Head of Finance Shared Services will take on responsibilities for certain finance teams, processes, and systems on day 1 of joining the organisation. Over time, more teams and processes will be migrated over under their control. It is then the responsibility of the HoSSC to manage these teams/processes and implement necessary changes as per an agreed plan to achieve the necessary operational and financial efficiency improvements.

Any SSC setup needs to fully comply with SOX requirements set by ASL’s parent and or the group financial control framework.

• Implement European finance shared services for finance operations through “lift and shift” and then transformation over time.
• Establish correct spans and layers, processes, documentation, taxanonomy, controls and KPIs
• Establish reporting lines and operating procedures for accounting teams across Europe and align key processes / controls.
• Drive automation and efficiency within the shared services centre.
• Develop SLAs for transaction processing and their reporting to management.
• Manage and develop the UK SSC team.
• Ensure compliance with legalisation like UK modern slavery act and sustainability rating/KPIs like Ecovadis to the extent relevant for finance operations

• 5-10 years of shared service or finance operations managerial experience, preferably in a global organisation.
• Demonstrate experience of new process design and system implementation for a centralised finance function of global business.
• Demonstrate experience to create and maintain robust SOX controls within centralised finance operations.
• Demonstrate experience managing a finance transaction processing function.
• Passion for automation and building efficient processes.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Attention to detail and focus on meeting deadlines
• Control oriented mindset.
• Dynamics 365 finance experience