Finance Director - Private Equity / Professional Services

Finance Director

£130,000 - £150,000 + Benefits
Gloucester

Are you a commercially minded Finance Director who understands how data can become a valuable business asset?

We're partnering with a successful, private equity-backed business entering its next phase of growth and looking for a Finance Director to join the leadership team.

This is a broad role with real influence. You'll work closely with the CEO, leadership team and investors, providing financial leadership while helping shape commercial decisions, improve performance and support the wider growth strategy.

A key part of the opportunity is how the business thinks about and uses its data.

The business has access to significant financial, operational and customer data and wants to explore how this can be brought together into a valuable data pool or lake that creates additional value for the business.

We're therefore looking for someone who understands the potential of data, can identify where the opportunities sit and, importantly, can lead the initiative from a commercial perspective. You won't need to build the technology yourself, but you will need to understand what good looks like, articulate the opportunity and work with the right technical people to make it happen.

The Role

You'll take ownership of the finance function while playing a wider strategic role across the business.

You'll be responsible for:

• Leading, developing and mentoring the finance team.
• Working closely with the CEO, leadership team and investors on strategic and commercial decisions.
• Delivering robust financial reporting, forecasting and budgeting.
• Improving financial processes, controls and reporting capability.
• Leading the data strategy initiative, identifying how existing financial, operational and customer data could be brought together to create additional value.
• Working with internal and external technical specialists to develop the appropriate data pool, lake or infrastructure.
• Identifying potential commercial applications for the data and how it could improve decision-making, performance and potentially create new value streams.
• Challenging the business around what data it captures, how it is structured and how it could be better utilised.
• Turning data into meaningful commercial insight and supporting better strategic decisions.
• Supporting business planning, investment decisions and wider growth initiatives.
• Working closely with the PE investors and leadership team to drive performance and value creation.

About You

We're looking for a qualified Finance Director, CFO or senior finance leader with strong commercial instincts and an understanding of the strategic value of data.

You don't need to be a data engineer or technical specialist. What's important is that you've recognised the commercial opportunity data presents and have led or been heavily involved in initiatives to unlock that value.

You'll ideally have:

• Previous experience within a PE-backed or high-growth business.
• Strong commercial and financial leadership experience.
• A demonstrable track record of using data to influence business performance or decision-making.
• Experience leading or sponsoring data transformation, data pool, data lake, BI or similar initiatives.
• The ability to articulate how different sources of data can be combined to create a valuable business asset.
• Strong commercial curiosity and the ability to identify opportunities beyond traditional financial reporting.
• The credibility to lead cross-functional projects involving finance, operations, technology and senior leadership.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence at Board and investor level.
• ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualification.

The Opportunity

This is an opportunity for a Finance Director who wants to shape more than the finance function.

You'll have a genuine opportunity to influence how the business uses one of its most valuable untapped assets, its data, and lead an initiative that could create significant additional insight and value.

If you understand the commercial potential of data and have the leadership skills to turn that opportunity into reality, we'd like to hear from you.