Job Description
This is a genuinely interesting opportunity for an experienced commercial finance professional who enjoys getting underneath the numbers and asking the questions that make a difference.
20–24 hours per week | Minimum 3 days per week
Office based initially, with some flexibility potentially available longer term
Working within a successful, specialist project-led business, you’ll take ownership of the commercial performance of a varied portfolio of projects and help the business understand not simply what margin has been achieved, but why.
Why are some projects significantly more profitable than others? Where is scope creeping beyond the original quotation? Are all legitimate costs and variations being recovered? Could pricing have been approached differently from the outset – and what can previous project performance tell us about future opportunities?
These are the kinds of questions we’d like you to explore.
This isn't a traditional accounting role and you don't necessarily need to be a qualified accountant. We're much more interested in finding someone commercially astute, analytical and naturally curious who can bring fresh thinking around pricing, margins and profitability.
What You’ll Be Doing
Working closely with the Managing Director, Project Managers and Accounts Manager, you’ll become a key commercial influence across the project portfolio.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Reviewing projects ahead of monthly invoicing, looking at budgets, hours consumed, WIP, recoverability, scope and forecast margin.
- Analysing profitability across projects, clients, service areas, teams and markets.
- Identifying where revenue or margin may be leaking and recommending practical action.
- Spotting additional billing, scope creep and variation opportunities.
- Constructively challenging Project Managers around overruns, underbilling and changes in expected margin.
- Developing early-warning measures so potential issues are identified before budgets are exceeded.
- Using historical project information to support better pricing, quotations and commercial decisions at the front end.
- Helping the business understand what drives its most profitable work – and where things could be done differently.
- Developing meaningful commercial analysis using Excel and Power BI.
- Providing the Managing Director with a concise monthly view of commercial performance, highlighting where attention or intervention may be needed.
- Working alongside the Accounts Manager, with a clear distinction between commercial/project performance and the core accounting and financial control function.
As your understanding of the business develops, there will also be scope to contribute to wider commercial decision-making and help shape how performance is measured and rewarded.
Who We’re Looking For
There isn't one prescribed background for this role.
You may currently work in commercial finance, pricing, FP&A, project commercial management or finance business partnering. Alternatively, you might come from a highly commercial consumer, professional services, consultancy, engineering or project-led environment where understanding pricing and margin has been central to your role.
More important is how you think.
We’re looking for someone who:
- Instinctively wants to understand the story behind the numbers.
- Is commercially minded and naturally interested in pricing, profitability and margin improvement.
- Has the confidence to question and constructively challenge experienced colleagues.
- Can move comfortably between detailed analysis and the bigger commercial picture.
- Is highly capable with Excel and ideally has experience using Power BI.
- Understands project economics, pricing, margins, WIP and revenue recovery.
- Can turn analysis into practical recommendations rather than simply producing reports.
- Is comfortable working closely with an entrepreneurial Managing Director.
- Enjoys having genuine ownership and the freedom to improve how things are done.
You don't necessarily need to be a qualified accountant. Commercial judgement, analytical ability and the confidence to influence will be every bit as important.
Why Consider This Opportunity?
For the right person, this offers an unusual combination – a senior, commercially influential role working just 24 hours per week, with direct access to the Managing Director and the opportunity to make a visible difference to business performance.
It could particularly suit someone with considerable commercial experience who no longer wants a conventional five-day senior corporate position but still wants challenging, meaningful work where their experience and ideas will genuinely count.
Rather than inheriting a rigid finance function, you'll have the opportunity to help shape how the business understands and manages its commercial performance going forward.
Hybrid working can be accommodated, although with the nature of the position and the close working relationships involved, there is a preference for someone who is happy to spend a good proportion of their 24 hours working with the team in the office.
If you enjoy looking at a set of numbers and immediately thinking “there’s an opportunity here”, we'd particularly like to hear from you.