Interim Head of Finance

Interim Head of Finance

2 month contract

Cambridge - Hybrid

£450 - £500 p/d (umbrella)

Overview

This Head of Finance role sits at the centre of the business, helping to steer performance, inform key decisions, and maintain strong financial discipline. Reporting into the CFO, you'll combine commercial insight with hands-on financial oversight and performance analysis.
Working closely with teams across the organisation, you'll turn financial data into clear, actionable insight, support core reporting cycles, and play a key role in shaping future growth through effective planning and analysis.

About You

You're a commercially aware finance professional who enjoys playing an active role in business performance. You're comfortable switching between detailed analysis and big-picture thinking, and you take a proactive, hands-on approach to getting things done.
You're confident working both independently and cross-functionally, using insight to influence decisions, challenge assumptions, and highlight both risks and opportunities. You bring energy and ownership, helping to push key initiatives forward and deliver tangible results.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted partner to commercial, operational, and marketing leaders to improve financial outcomes and drive accountability


• Deliver meaningful analysis and reporting, highlighting trends and key drivers across revenue, cost, and profitability


• Build and enhance performance reporting tools, including dashboards and KPI tracking, to improve visibility across the business


• Coordinate the month-end close in partnership with an offshore finance team, ensuring outputs are accurate, timely, and continuously improving


• Present monthly results and variances to senior stakeholders, offering clear commentary and recommendations


• Lead the end-to-end planning cycle, including budgets, forecasts, and longer-term financial outlooks


• Drive efficiencies by identifying and implementing improvements across finance processes and reporting


• Contribute to strategic initiatives such as investment cases, pricing decisions, tender support, and profitability analysis


• Oversee the integrity of balance sheets across business units, working with the regional Financial Controller to investigate and resolve issues


• Take ownership of payroll outsourcing arrangements


• Manage and support a small in-house finance team (2 direct reports) across transactional and admin activities


• Maintain strong oversight and governance over all work delivered by the outsourced accounting function

• Fully qualified (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)


• Background in Commercial Finance or Finance Business Partnering, supported by strong management accounting experience


• Proven ability to analyse complex data, extract key messages, and build impactful reporting and tools


• Experience spanning FP&A, analytics, and business-facing finance roles


• Strong Excel capability and experience with visual reporting tools


• Confident communicator with the ability to engage, influence, and challenge stakeholders


• Well-organised and able to manage competing priorities effectively


• Familiarity with Oracle systems is advantageous

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