Finance Director

This isn't a traditional in-house Finance Director position. Instead, you'll become the Finance Director for a portfolio of SME businesses, working alongside owners and leadership teams to provide strategic financial leadership and commercial support. This is a fully remote role, giving you the flexibility to work from home while building long-term relationships with your portfolio of clients. You'll need to be based in the North East, as regular travel to client sites and leadership meetings is an important part of becoming a trusted adviser and an extension of each client's management team. Each week will be different. You could spend one day presenting management accounts to a Board, another helping a business improve cashflow, another building a financial model to support an acquisition or investment decision, and another challenging operational performance with an MD. Rather than being brought in to simply report the numbers, you'll help businesses understand what the numbers are telling them and, more importantly, what they should do next. With clients spanning different sectors and stages of growth, you'll enjoy genuine variety whilst building long-term relationships with the businesses you support. What You'll Be DoingYou'll become a trusted adviser to a portfolio of SME clients, providing strategic financial leadership and commercial insight. Your responsibilities are likely to include: • Acting as the Finance Director for a portfolio of growing SME businesses. • Attending regular Board and leadership meetings, providing commercial challenge and financial direction. • Reviewing monthly management accounts, interpreting performance and explaining the key drivers behind the numbers. • Developing budgets, forecasts and financial models to support decision making. • Helping business owners improve profitability, cashflow and working capital. • Supporting businesses through periods of growth, investment, acquisitions and organisational change. • Designing meaningful KPI reporting and dashboards that enable better decision making. • Identifying financial and commercial risks and recommending practical solutions. • Mentoring finance teams, improving finance processes and strengthening financial controls where required. • Working collaboratively with colleagues to ensure clients receive an outstanding service. This isn't a role where you'll be expected to generate your own clients. The work is already there. New businesses are allocated to you as they join the portfolio, allowing you to focus on building relationships, understanding each client's business and delivering the strategic support they're looking for. The business has already secured a substantial pipeline of new client work, making this an important appointment to increase capacity within the team. Because of this, they're ideally looking for someone who is immediately available or able to start within two weeks' notice.