About the Company

Our client is a well-regarded, mid-sized Sydney professional services firm that has grown quickly over the past couple of years, including through acquisition. There is a clear growth agenda ahead of them, and the finance function needs to catch up with it.

Senior finance leadership is newly in place and the appetite for change is coming from the top. That matters, because the mandate for this role is already agreed rather than something you would need to go and win.

About the Role

This is a six month contract owning the nuts and bolts of finance, with a team of around ten to fifteen around you. You would run the close, the controls and the reporting rhythm, reporting to the CFO with the COO close to the detail.

The seat exists for the change agenda rather than the maintenance. Growth has outpaced the finance function, with more than one system in play and a team that has been working reactively rather than to a set routine. The first stretch is about understanding and documenting how things actually run today, putting a proper monthly and weekly rhythm in place, and getting people's time pointed at the right work.

Worth being straight about it: this is a build rather than a caretaker seat. It suits someone who has worked inside a finance function that needed sorting out, is comfortable being the one to bring structure to it, and can do that while bringing an established team along. If that is the work you enjoy, it is a good six months and a solid piece of change work on the CV.

Responsibilities

• Full ownership of the month-end close, including timetable, journals, reconciliations and reporting to the CFO;
• Balance sheet integrity and control account ownership across a multi-entity structure;
• Oversight of a transactional finance team, including workflow, capacity and development;
• Cash, working capital and lockup reporting, including WIP, billing cycles and debtor days;
• Statutory and compliance obligations across the group;
• Documenting how the function operates today, then rebuilding the monthly and weekly routine around it;
• Redirecting team capacity away from ad hoc work and toward structured, repeatable tasks; and
• Supporting the rationalisation of legacy finance systems.

Ideal Background

• CA / CPA qualified;
• Financial Controller or senior Finance Manager experience, with hands-on ownership of close, balance sheet and a transactional team;
• Experience improving a finance function that needed it;
• Professional services background is ideal, particularly a WIP, billing and lockup driven environment, though the client is open on sector for the right person;
• Comfortable in a business where cash and working capital are watched closely;
• Able to lead and redirect an established team and bring them with you; and
• Available at short notice.

Benefits

• A contract where the work you do changes how the function operates, not six months of holding the fort;
• Direct access to senior leadership who are genuinely invested;
• Sydney CBD location, three days onsite and two from home;
• Start as soon as you are available.

For a confidential discussion, please contact David Stuart-Watt on 04•• ••• 325 or at ••••@acquiretalent.com.au.