Senior IT Finance Business Partner in London, Greater London

Our FMCG Client is seeking an experienced, delivery-focused Senior Finance Business (IT) Partner to spearhead the development and implementation of Group-wide IT planning, governance, and cost recharge processes. In this strategic yet hands-on role, you will act as the primary finance business partner to the Group CIO and IT leadership team, reporting directly to the Group Head of FP&A.

A key differentiator for this contract is its focus on innovation: you will actively pioneer the identification and deployment of practical AI use cases and automation to redesign FP&A workflows, eliminate manual effort, and accelerate reporting cycles.

This is a highly autonomous contract position requiring a consultant who can navigate complex stakeholder environments, establish robust cost governance, and drive practical financial solutions from initial design through to final implementation.

Key Accountabilities

 Financial Governance & Cost Baseline

• Cost Base Transparency: Build a comprehensive baseline view of Group IT spend across recurring SG&A, project-related costs, capex, and exceptional items.
• Cross-Divisional Alignment: Collaborate with individual divisions and Group IT to extract detailed cost data and assign clear ownership to strengthen financial accountability.
• Head Office Oversight: Establish transparent reporting and tracking processes for other central Head Office functions to improve functional cost control and forecast accuracy.

 Budgeting & Recharge Methodology

• IT Budget Leadership: Act as the central financial bridge between Group IT and divisional finance teams to coordinate the end-to-end IT budget process (covering both recurring operations and project spend).
• Project Classification: Coordinate the review of the IT project pipeline, ensuring costs are accurately classified between EBITDA, capex, and exceptional items with appropriate finance sign-off.
• Recharge Framework Design: Design and implement a sustainable, practical Group recharge framework for IT costs across divisions, ensuring appropriate materiality thresholds and evaluating year-on-year performance impacts.

 AI Innovation & Systems Integration

• Workflow Redesign: Leverage AI agents and automated workflows to streamline recurring reporting outputs, reduce manual data manipulation, and improve data consistency.
• Systems Transformation: Support the upcoming Head Office IFS ERP go-live by ensuring all IT and Head Office cost reporting models are fully integrated and mapped smoothly into OneStream (the Group’s consolidation platform).
• Reporting Architecture: Ensure the future-state system environment is fully optimized to support actuals, budgets, forecasts, and recharge reporting.

Key Competencies & Attributes

• Professional Qualification: ACA, ACCA, or CIMA qualified accountant with a strong track record in interim FP&A, finance business partnering, or finance transformation roles.
• Cost Governance Expertise: Deep experience designing and implementing cost allocation, recharge methodologies, and robust corporate planning frameworks.
• Stakeholder Management: Proven capability to partner with, influence, and challenge senior leaders, including C-suite stakeholders (Group CIO).
• Systems Fluency: Strong systems capability, ideally with experience navigating complex ERP environments (e.g., IFS) and enterprise consolidation platforms (e.g., OneStream).
• AI & Automation Mindset: Prior technical AI experience is not required; however, you must possess a strong conceptual understanding of, and passion for, emerging AI solutions and how to practically apply them to finance workflows.
• Drive & Autonomy: A self-sufficient, delivery-focused mindset with the ability to manage change cross-functionally and translate design concepts into live, sustainable processes.