Strategic Finance Business Partner

Strategic Finance Business Partner Location: Southampton Rate: £42.70 per hour Are you a qualified accountant who enjoys influencing strategic decisions rather than simply reporting on them? We're recruiting for an experienced Strategic Finance Business Partner to join a large, complex organisation undergoing significant transformation. This is an opportunity to become a trusted advisor to senior leadership, helping shape financial strategy, influence major investment decisions and support the delivery of high-profile programmes. This is far more than a traditional business partnering role. You'll operate as the senior finance lead for a significant operational area, providing commercial insight, challenging decision-making and ensuring strong financial governance across both revenue and capital budgets. Responsibilities: The Role Working as part of the senior finance leadership team, you will: • Act as the lead finance partner for senior operational directors and executive stakeholders. • Provide strategic financial advice, challenge and commercial support to aid key business decisions. • Lead financial planning across revenue, capital expenditure and long-term financial forecasting. • Support the development of medium-term financial plans and major transformation programmes. • Produce high-quality financial modelling, business cases and investment appraisals. • Analyse financial performance, identify trends and provide meaningful recommendations to improve outcomes. • Drive value for money initiatives, cost improvement programmes and commercial opportunities. • Lead and develop a high-performing finance team, providing coaching, mentoring and professional development. • Work collaboratively with wider corporate functions including HR, Procurement, IT and Legal to deliver joined-up business support. About You We're looking for someone who can combine technical accounting expertise with strong commercial judgement and exceptional stakeholder management. You'll ideally have: • A recognised CCAB professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or equivalent). • Experience leading finance business partnering within a large, complex organisation. • A proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and challenge constructively. • Strong experience of budgeting, forecasting, financial planning and management reporting. • Experience producing financial models, business cases and investment appraisals. • Previous management experience, with a passion for developing and mentoring finance teams. • Excellent communication skills with the confidence to work alongside executive leadership. Why Apply? This is an opportunity to join an organisation where finance plays a genuine strategic role. You'll have significant exposure to senior decision-makers, work on complex financial challenges and help shape the future direction of a large organisation. If you're looking for a role where your commercial insight can genuinely influence business outcomes while leading a talented finance team, we'd love to hear from you.