Head of Financial Operations - #2197335

Your New Company

A highly successful and growing professional services organisation is seeking an experienced Head of Financial Operations to join its senior leadership team.With a strong reputation in its sector and ambitious plans for continued growth, the business is investing in its finance operations capability to ensure its billing, Lead-to-Cash (L2C) / Order-to-Cash (O2C), accounts receivable and wider transactional finance processes remain scalable, efficient and commercially focused.

This people-centric organisation prides itself on providing exceptional service to its clients whilst fostering a collaborative and supportive working culture for its employees. With a strong emphasis on continuous improvement, accountability and development, the business offers an excellent environment for an experienced finance operations leader looking to make a significant impact.

Operating a flexible hybrid working model, the company provides a modern and collaborative working environment alongside an attractive benefits package.

Your New Role

Reporting to the Finance Director, you will take direct ownership of the day-to-day Finance Operations function, with a particular focus on the end-to-end Lead-to-Cash / Order-to-Cash lifecycle, billing, accounts receivable, revenue assurance and working capital performance.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring someone who understands complex billing operations and can lead transactional finance teams while driving improved service levels, controls, automation and operational performance.

You will oversee the end-to-end billing lifecycle, ensuring accurate and timely invoicing, strong revenue assurance and effective cash collection. A key priority will be improving working capital performance and optimising DSO, while ensuring operational teams consistently deliver against agreed SLAs and KPIs.

Leading and developing transactional finance teams, including Billing and Accounts Receivable, you will create a high-performance culture with clear accountability, effective performance measures and a strong focus on service delivery.Alongside operational leadership, you will drive continuous improvement across the function, identifying opportunities to automate processes, strengthen controls and make better use of finance technology and data.

You will work closely with senior operational and commercial stakeholders to ensure the Finance Operations function effectively supports the continued growth of the organisation.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Taking direct ownership of the end-to-end Lead-to-Cash / Order-to-Cash process, from billing through to collections and cash application.
• Leading the billing lifecycle, ensuring invoices are accurate, complete and produced within agreed timescales.
• Driving revenue assurance, identifying revenue leakage and strengthening controls across billing and income processes.
• Improving cash collection and working capital performance, with a strong focus on DSO optimisation.
• Directly leading and developing transactional operational finance teams, including Billing and Accounts Receivable.
• Establishing and monitoring clear SLAs and KPIs, driving accountability and consistent operational performance across Finance Operations.
• Identifying bottlenecks and areas of inefficiency across billing and O2C/L2C processes and implementing sustainable improvements.
• Driving finance transformation initiatives focused on process optimisation, automation and continuous improvement.
• Reviewing and enhancing financial controls, governance and risk management across Finance Operations.
• Leveraging enterprise systems and technology to improve billing processes, reporting and operational efficiency.
• Using automated reporting and data visualisation tools such as Power BI or Tableau to provide meaningful insight into operational performance.
• Working with systems such as Oracle, Salesforce or comparable enterprise billing and CRM platforms to improve integration, automation and data quality.
• Managing cash flow and working capital while providing senior stakeholders with clear insight into performance.
• Partnering with operational and commercial leaders to improve efficiency and customer outcomes.
• Leading change management activity and ensuring successful adoption of new processes and ways of working.
• Supporting wider growth, transformation, acquisition and integration projects where required.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Finance Operations leader who enjoys getting underneath operational processes, leading teams and using technology, data and continuous improvement to enhance performance.

What You'll Need to Succeed

For this appointment, hands-on Finance Operations and Lead-to-Cash / Order-to-Cash experience is essential.You will ideally have held a role such as Head of Finance Operations, Head of Financial Operations, O2C Manager, Lead-to-Cash Manager or Billing Operations Lead, with direct responsibility for transactional finance teams and operational performance.

You will bring:

• Direct ownership of an end-to-end billing and O2C/L2C lifecycle, rather than purely oversight as part of a broader finance leadership position.
• Strong experience of billing operations, Accounts Receivable, collections, revenue assurance and DSO optimisation.
• Demonstrable success improving working capital and cash collection performance.
• Experience directly line-managing transactional operational teams, particularly Billing and/or Accounts Receivable.
• A track record of establishing and improving SLAs, KPIs and operational performance measures.
• Practical experience working with enterprise billing and finance architectures, ideally including platforms such as Oracle and Salesforce, or comparable systems.
• Experience using Power BI, Tableau or similar automated reporting and data visualisation tools to improve operational insight.
• Strong understanding of finance systems, processes, controls and data flows across the billing lifecycle.
• Demonstrable experience improving and automating Finance Operations processes.
• Experience leading finance change, transformation or continuous improvement programmes.
• A track record of modernising Finance Operations and driving measurable improvements in efficiency and service delivery.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across Finance, Operations, Commercial and Technology teams.
• A proactive and solutions-focused approach with strong organisational, analytical and leadership capability.
• A recognised accounting qualification such as ACA, ACCA or CIMA essential alongside the required Finance Operations experience.

Candidates without substantial hands-on Finance Operations and O2C/L2C experience are unlikely to have the operational depth required for this position.

What You'll Get in Return

• Opportunity to join a well-established and growing professional services business.
• A high-profile leadership position with significant influence across the organisation.
• The opportunity to shape and improve the organisation's Finance Operations capability.
• Exposure to strategic decision-making, transformation and business growth initiatives.
• A supportive and collaborative working culture.
• Salary up to £85,000 plus discretionary bonus.
• Hybrid working, with four days in the office and one day working from home.
• 26 days' holiday plus bank holidays.
• 7% employer pension contribution.
• Birthday off.
• Additional wellbeing day.

What You Need to Do Now

If you're interested in this role and have the required Finance Operations, billing and O2C/L2C leadership experience, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now for a confidential discussion.

If this job isn't quite right for you but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.

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