Interim Head of FP&A

INTERIM HEAD OF FP&A SURREY - 3 DAYS OFFICE / 2 DAYS FROM HOME - 3-MONTH INTERIM - OWN THE BUDGET AND PLANNING CYCLE THROUGH A KEY HANDOVER £500-700 per day (inside IR35) Are you an interim FP&A lead who enjoys owning a budget cycle from first cut to final plan? Can you build forecasts people trust when the data is inconsistent and the requests keep changing? We Do Group are supporting a multi-site food manufacturing and retail business, recruiting an interim Head of FP&A. The current Head of FP&A leaves at the end of October and the permanent successor joins in December. You'll bridge that gap, overlapping with the incumbent for a couple of weeks to learn the models and the business, then running budgeting and strategic planning through to year end. The 9+3 forecast is done and the first cut of the budget is due at the end of October - that's when the debate between the top-down ask and the bottom-up view begins... you'll own that process. Once the permanent hire arrives, you'll stay on and work alongside them through year end and the final plan. The data and systems are a work in progress and there's no single source of truth, so a lot of the job is pulling inconsistent data together in Excel and turning it into proper insight. Requests don't always follow a set rhythm either. You'll have one analyst reporting to you, so this suits an experienced FP&A lead who's happy to be in the models themselves and wants to own the numbers. WISH LIST

• Strong FP&A experience owning budgeting, forecasting and planning end-to-end
• Excellent Excel skills, with the ability to build credible models from data that sits in several places and doesn't always agree
• Robust and adaptable, comfortable juggling competing and last-minute requests while getting stuck into the detail yourself THE ROLE
• Take a two-week handover from the outgoing Head of FP&A, getting to grips with the models, files and business drivers
• Own the annual budget process from the first submission through challenge, rework and final sign-off
• Lead the strategic planning cycle and the medium-term plan
• Manage the risks and opportunities process, quantifying and tracking both
• Build and improve forecast models, working through inconsistent data to land numbers that hold up
• Produce the monthly performance review pack
• Deliver variance analysis and commentary, linking the forecast back to actuals
• Work with the Financial Controller and accounting team so the forecast is built on a proper understanding of the actuals
• Partner with budget holders across retail, operations, supply chain and marketing, gathering inputs and challenging assumptions
• Lead and develop one FP&A Analyst
• Hand over to the permanent Head of FP&A in December, then work alongside them through year end YOUR PROFILE
• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CA, CIMA)
• Effective communicator - written & verbal
• Advanced MS Excel
• Manufacturing experience advantageous, not essential
• Available to start by Monday 12th October SALARY & BENEFITS
• £500-700 per day (inside IR35)
• 3 days in the office (Surrey), 2 from home
• Around 3 months, starting Monday 12th October and running through year end