Finance Process Excellence and People Lead

Responsibilities: 

Responsibilities include: 

Process Mapping, Diagnosis & Insight 

• Lead detailed “as-is” mapping across key finance processes. 

• Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, duplication, and opportunities for automation. 

• Proactively escalate significant process risks, issues, or dependencies to the Finance Innovation & Transformation Lead for inclusion in programme governance. 

Future-State Process Design & Operating Model Alignment 

• Develop streamlined, future-state processes aligned to best practice and system capabilities, with clear documentation and standard operating procedures. 

• Define clear process ownership, control points, and accountability frameworks including RACI where appropriate). 

• Ensure processes support the future finance operating model and are aligned with the transformation programme’s objectives. 

• Embed measurable control and performance checkpoints within redesigned processes. 

System Enablement, Data & Integration Support 

• Align process design with system configuration, workflows, reporting structures and master data requirements. 

• Support system design workshops, testing cycles, and data requirements identification; contribute to test scenarios and acceptance criteria. 

• Help embed controls and reporting into new system-enabled processes, ensuring auditability and compliance. 

• Coordinate with relevant teams to support integration and delivery, minimising disruption to operations. 

People, Capability & Organisational Change 

• Develop high-quality process documentation, SOPs, and training materials tailored to different user groups. 

• Work with the People team (HR Business Partners and Learning & Development) to support capability building, training plans, and behavioural adoption, including identifying change champions and coaching needs. 

• Support organisational readiness, go-live planning, and post-go-live stabilisation, including hyper care and adoption monitoring. 

• Support stakeholder engagement and communication to drive adoption of new ways of working. 

Continuous Improvement & Collaboration 

• Facilitate cross-functional workshops, process reviews, and feedback cycles to capture insights and improvement opportunities. 

• Encourage innovation and continuous improvement within finance; establish cadence for benefit tracking and retrospectives. 

• Work with colleagues to embed new ways of working and share best practices across teams. 

• Capture and escalate continuous improvement ideas and lessons learned to the wider transformation team for consideration and implementation. 

Direct Reports: 

This role reports to: 

• Finance Innovation & Transformation Lead 

There are no direct reports into this role. 

Qualifications & Certifications: 

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field MBA or advanced degree preferred. 

• Fully qualified accountant with a recognised UK professional designation. 

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in finance, with a strong focus on process improvement and transformation. 

Skills & Experience Required: 

Essential skills: 

• Experience in process improvement, operational excellence, or finance transformation. 

• Strong understanding of finance operations, controls, and workflow design. 

• Ability to map and redesign processes using recognised methodologies. 

• Skilled facilitator with excellent communication and collaboration abilities. 

• Understanding of change management principles and people-centred change; ability to drive behavioural adoption. 

Desirable skills: 

• Lean Six Sigma or continuous improvement certification. 

• Experience of ERP/financial management system implementations and workflow/automation enablement. 

• Background in behavioural change, training or organisational development. 

• Experience in shared services, outsourcing, or cross-functional process improvement. 

• Exposure to analytics/BI tools for performance measurement and reporting.