Financial Close Transformation Lead - #2170825

Financial Close Transformation Lead

12-Month Fixed-Term Contract |Speke Liverpool, UK Hybrid Role 3 days office / 2 days home

Lead the Future of Finance Transformation

Are you an experienced finance transformation professional with a passion for driving change, improving processes, and leading high-performing teams?

We are seeking a Financial Close Transformation Lead to join our Accounting Services team on a 12-month fixed-term contract. This is a high-profile opportunity to lead the transformation of month-end close activities within a global SAP environment, delivering meaningful improvements in efficiency, controls, standardisation, and automation.

Reporting to the Accounting Services Lead, you will lead a team of eight Assistant Accountants while partnering with finance, technology, and business stakeholders across a global organisation to reshape financial close operations.

What You'll Be Doing

As the Financial Close Transformation Lead, you will:

• Lead and deliver finance transformation initiatives focused on SAP month-end close processes.
• Create and execute transformation roadmaps, programme plans, milestones, and governance frameworks.
• Drive global standardisation, simplification, automation, and continuous improvement across close and accounting activities.
• Partner with Financial Controllers, Technology teams, and business stakeholders to design future-state processes.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve controls, efficiency, data quality, and reporting.
• Lead change management and adoption activities, ensuring successful implementation and sustainable outcomes.
• Track project benefits, performance improvements, and delivery against agreed objectives.
• Support digital transformation through system enhancements and process optimisation.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and development to a team of eight direct reports.
• Coordinate internal and external audit activities, ensuring compliance and strong governance standards.

What We're Looking For

Essential Experience

• Degree-qualified in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years' experience within finance transformation, shared services, accounting operations, or change management environments.
• Experience managing transformation programmes, process improvement initiatives, or finance operating model changes.
• Previous experience leading teams, projects, or cross-functional workstreams.
• Strong understanding of financial close processes within SAP.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex change programmes in fast-paced, multinational environments.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills across multiple organisational levels.

Desirable

• Professional qualification such as ACA, ACCA or CIMA.
• MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification.
• Experience within pharmaceutical, life sciences, biotechnology, or shared service centre environments.
• Exposure to automation, process mining, continuous improvement methodologies, or finance technology transformation.

Key Skills & Competencies

We're looking for someone who can bring:

Strong transformation and change leadership

Strategic thinking with the ability to turn complex challenges into practical solutions

Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills

A continuous improvement mindset

Strong analytical and problem-solving capability

Programme governance, risk management and control expertise

Experience delivering sustainable business benefits

The ability to lead and motivate teams through change

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in transforming a critical finance function within a global organisation. You'll work with senior finance leaders, technology experts, and international stakeholders to deliver meaningful, lasting improvements while developing your leadership and transformation experience.

If you are passionate about finance transformation, process excellence, and leading people through change, we'd love to hear from you.

Location: Liverpool, UK

Contract: 12-Month Fixed-Term Contract

Function: Finance - Accounting Services