Senior Finance Business Partner (Overheads and Capex)

Location

Watford, Hertfordshire | United Kingdom

Job description

About us:

We are Allwyn UK, part of the Allwyn Entertainment Group – a multi-national lottery operator with a market-leading presence in Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus and Italy. We have been officially awarded the Fourth Licence (10 year licence) to operate the National Lottery starting February 2024.

‍We’ve developed ground-breaking technologies, built player protection frameworks, and have a proven track record of making lotteries better. Our aim is to create one of the UK’s most inclusive organisations – where people can bring the best of themselves, to do their best work, every day, for the benefit of good causes.

Allwyn is an Equal Opportunity Employer which prides itself in being diverse and inclusive. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or victimisation in the workplace. All employment decisions at Allwyn are based on the business needs, the job requirements, and the individual qualifications. Allwyn encourages applications from individuals regardless of age, disability (visible or hidden), sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

While the main contribution of the National Lottery to society is through the funds to good causes, at Allwyn we put our purpose and values at the heart of everything we do. Join us as we embark on a once-in-a-lifetime, largescale transformation journey to build a bigger, better, and safer National Lottery that delivers more money to good causes.

Role Purpose:

To provide all aspects of Commercial Finance support to the Directors and senior management of Allywn including;

• To build strong relationships across the Executive leadership team, in particular People, IT & Operations, Project Management and Finance
• Oversight of key financial processes including the annual budget, quarterly forecasts and period end. Delivery of key outputs including the Executive and Board reporting
• Management of capital investment governance process, ensuring that we remain within financial governance and implementing Post Investment Appraisals
• Management of the Headcount establishment with the People team, ensuring robust budgetary controls are in place
• To support the strategy and deliver critical and robust analysis and insight into progress towards achieving business and financial targets
• To provide effective oversight and leadership to a team of 6 including 3 direct reports
• Reporting to the Directors, the Board and external stakeholders (including the Gambling Commission and Distributors) on our financial

Team Description:

The Commercial Finance team provides all aspects of financial support in order to achieve our business goals and objectives, analysis of our financial performance and support for all financial decision making in the business, including:

• Budgeting and forecasting of Sales, Good Causes, Gross Margin, Operating costs and Cash flow
• Decision support, particularly through the development of financial business cases to support our commercial proposals
• Safeguarding our financial assets through control processes and ensuring that scarce resources are spent wisely including review of investment business cases
• Publication of our Financial results and forecasts to our Executive team, the Board, Gambling Commission and Distributors
• Day to day cost control / Management accounts reporting
• Ad hoc financial analysis
• Drive the business change agenda

Role Responsibilities:

As a Finance Business Partner specialising in Overheads and Capital Expenditure (Capex), this role plays a pivotal role in providing financial guidance and support to various functions across the organisation.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders across the business including C-Suite* budget holders (*In 4NL, operations is likely to include retail operations and other areas as the team aligns to the new Target Operating Model)
• Be an effective and trusted business partner and expert that the business relies on
• Oversee the annual budget and forecasting processes for all operating and capital expenditure (>£250m) including: developing the timetable for these processes, engaging with the Executive team as appropriate; coordinating activities across the commercial finance team to ensure all deliverables are met and producing key reporting for the Executive team and Board
• Develop and implement financial analysis and insight to optimize profitability and resource allocation (e.g. KPIs, trend analysis, cross-group OpCo and 3rd party benchmarking)
• For matters dealing with Costs, Capex, and / or related projects, support FP&A team in financial reporting (includes Management packs, Board reporting and Group reporting)
• Ensure reporting of results is accurate, timely and easy to digest by non-finance stakeholders and carry out ad hoc analysis which amongst other things adds to the understanding the key drivers of performance
• Oversee detailed financial analysis and review to support the decision-making processes of the business, including the production of business cases for player protection, integrity, technology and operations initiatives working closely with PMO, where relevant
• Working collaboratively with Business teams, responsible for delivery of robust business cases for Capex & Operational projects. This includes providing not only support but also challenge on assumptions, cost and benefit estimation, identify and quantify risks & opportunities,
• Financial lead to Roadmap Steering Group (or 4NL equivalent)
• Deliver a smooth and controlled period end close via working with Financial Accounts and Commercial Finance colleagues to ensure no surprises arise
• Business partner the HR director and HR function, jointly managing the Headcount establishment and ensuring that robust budgetary controls are in place when hiring into the business
• Key relationship with the Gambling Commission for all cost and capex reporting requirements, including cost defence (‘wasteful costs’) and compliance
• Manage a team of 6 including 3 direct reports, ensuring they are customer focused, motivated, effective and delivery is on time and right first time. Work with this team to ensure they receive appropriate support to enhance their development and performance in role
• Represent the Finance function’s voice clearly and pro-actively in multiple areas
• Challenge performance and be a driver for positive change
• Develop and maintain ways of working that promote clear communication across structures
• Continue to change ways of working to ensure simplification and efficiencies
• Support Ad Hoc projects especially as the business goes through 4NL Transition and Transformation through the Final Implementation Checkpoint and beyond.
• This includes playing a critical role as a senior leader within Commercial Finance working directly with the CFO and Sr Execs on enterprise-wide initiatives such as Game innovation/design, operational efficiency projects and implementation of a new forecasting and reporting tool – of which is already in our project plan for 2024.

Skills and experience:

• Qualified CIMA/ACCA/ACA accountant with at least 4 previous post qualification experiences gained in a commercial finance role
• Ability to manage complex tasks to tight deadlines with competing and changing priorities.
• Ability to produce reports and information to the highest standards, supporting FP&A. This includes the ability to draw out insights and key messages, create relevant materials and present in Executive meetings
• Commercially astute, able to analyse data in order to promote effective decision making.
• Advanced Excel Modelling Skills and systems literacy
• Passionate business partner who is result-orientated, analytical and has the ability to drive improvements
• Proactive and driven self-starter with gravitas to manage senior stakeholders
• A change agent who will contribute positively towards cultural change and ways of working and simplification
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written. The ability to present complex issues in a simple way
• Customer Focus – Maximises personal contribution to the business to deliver on time and right first time.
• Personal Integrity – Matches words with actions to build trust and respect.
• Drive – Strives to achieve results through determination and commitment. Keeps going when things are difficult.
• Strong leadership skills – has the ability to build a successful and high performing team that thrives on success and achievements
• Developing Self/ others – Creates and contributes to an environment in which self and others are motivated to learn and develop.
• Analysing and Decision Making – Analyses problems thoroughly and makes good timely decisions. Supports others’ decisions through insightful analysis
• Managing Performance – Proactively takes responsibility for personal development and that of direct reports. Supports and challenges individuals to achieve their full potential. Sets stretching objectives and measures progress against them. Manages resources effectively
• Managing Change – Champions, supports and delivers change to improve things. Helps others by overcoming barriers. Is a role model for the leadership agenda within the finance department
• Gaining Commitment – Energises and influences others to get the job done and uses relationships to deliver great results.

 Here is our list of benefits:

• 34 days paid leave (This includes bank holidays)
• 2 x Life Days
• 4 x Salary of Life Insurance
• Pension: We’ll contribute 8.5%
• BUPA
• £500 wellness allowance
• Income Protection

As part of our onboarding processes, all successful candidates will need to complete both a Pre-Employment Screening process and a Fit & Proper check by the Gambling Commission. These checks include a DBS (an enhanced check, which shows convictions and conditional cautions), credit and social media checks. As part of our application process, you will be asked to identify in advance if you have spent or unspent convictions that we need to be aware of.

Should you not disclose convictions at the application stage, not pass the Fit & Proper Check process or not complete your Pre-Employment Screening then unfortunately you may not pass our probation process.

All data will be handled in accordance with our data policies and treated with utmost confidentiality.

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Salary