Head of Commercial Finance

Our Client is a well known FMCG company looking to hire a Head of Commercial Finance. The role is based in London and is office based 4 days a week.

Role Purpose

The Head of Commercial Finance will provide strategic financial leadership and commercial insight across the business, partnering closely with Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Procurement and senior leadership to drive profitable growth and improve business performance.

The role will lead the commercial finance agenda, ensuring robust financial planning, forecasting, performance management and decision support. A key responsibility will be translating financial and operational data from SAP and other business systems into clear, actionable insights that support commercial decision-making.

The successful candidate will combine strong technical finance expertise with a highly commercial mindset and the ability to influence senior stakeholders in a fast-paced FMCG environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. Commercial Finance Leadership

• Lead the Commercial Finance function and establish a high-performing, commercially focused finance team.
• Act as a trusted finance business partner to the Commercial Director, Sales Director, Marketing Director and wider leadership team.
• Provide financial challenge and insight to support profitable revenue growth.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key commercial stakeholders.
• Translate financial performance into clear business implications and recommended actions.
• Support management in balancing revenue growth, margin, market share and cash generation.

2. Sales & Customer Finance

• Provide financial leadership across customer and channel profitability.
• Analyse customer, channel, product and SKU profitability.
• Support commercial teams in evaluating customer contracts, tenders, promotions and trading terms.
• Review customer investment, rebates, discounts, promotional spend and other commercial expenditure.
• Establish appropriate frameworks for measuring return on investment from customer and promotional activity.
• Challenge commercial assumptions and ensure decisions are supported by robust financial analysis.
• Support annual customer negotiations and strategic account planning.

3. Pricing, Revenue Growth & Margin Management

• Lead financial analysis of pricing and revenue growth initiatives.
• Monitor gross margin performance and identify key drivers of margin movement.
• Analyse the impact of price increases, promotions, mix, inflation, FX and cost changes.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to develop effective pricing and promotional strategies.
• Develop scenario modelling to assess the financial impact of commercial decisions.
• Identify opportunities to improve gross-to-net revenue and profitability.
• Establish and monitor KPIs relating to revenue, gross margin, trade investment and profitability.

4. Budgeting, Forecasting & Business Planning

• Lead the commercial elements of the annual budgeting and strategic planning processes.
• Own the commercial finance forecasting cycle and ensure forecasts are accurate, timely and commercially realistic.
• Develop rolling forecasts and scenario analysis.
• Challenge revenue, volume, pricing, promotional and margin assumptions.
• Provide clear explanations of variances against budget, forecast and prior year.
• Identify emerging risks and opportunities and communicate these to senior management.
• Support the development of long-term financial plans and strategic business cases.

5. Management Reporting & Performance Analysis

• Own the commercial finance reporting agenda.
• Produce insightful monthly performance reporting for senior management.
• Develop dashboards and KPIs covering revenue, volume, gross margin, customer profitability, trade spend and other commercial measures.
• Analyse performance by customer, channel, brand, category, product and geography as appropriate.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, consistent and aligned with business objectives.
• Move the finance function beyond historical reporting towards forward-looking commercial insight.

6. SAP & Data

• Act as a key finance business owner for commercial data and reporting within SAP.
• Ensure SAP master data and transactional data support accurate commercial reporting.
• Use SAP data to analyse sales, pricing, customer profitability, inventory, costs and margins.
• Partner with IT / Data teams to improve reporting automation, data quality and financial systems.
• Identify opportunities to improve the use of SAP reporting and analytics capabilities.
• Support implementation, enhancement or migration projects involving SAP ERP/SAP S/4HANA and related reporting platforms.
• Ensure appropriate controls are in place over commercial finance data.

7. Business Partnering

• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Procurement and Operations.
• Provide constructive challenge while maintaining a collaborative approach.
• Explain complex financial information in a clear and commercially relevant manner.
• Influence decisions without relying solely on formal authority.
• Develop a strong understanding of the FMCG market, customers, brands, channels and competitive environment.
• Support cross-functional initiatives designed to improve profitability and operational performance.

8. Strategic Projects & Investment Appraisal

• Lead financial analysis for major commercial and strategic initiatives.
• Prepare robust business cases for new products, customers, markets, pricing initiatives and investment proposals.
• Evaluate potential acquisitions, partnerships or other strategic opportunities where required.
• Assess payback, ROI, NPV and other relevant financial metrics.
• Conduct post-investment reviews to assess whether expected benefits have been delivered.
• Provide scenario and sensitivity analysis to support senior management decisions.

9. Cost & Margin Improvement

• Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement and Operations to identify margin improvement opportunities.
• Analyse the financial impact of commodity costs, manufacturing costs, logistics, warehousing and other cost drivers.
• Support initiatives to improve gross margin and operating profitability.
• Track delivery of cost-saving and margin-enhancement initiatives.
• Ensure financial benefits are appropriately quantified and reflected in forecasts.

10. Controls & Governance

• Ensure robust financial controls are maintained across the commercial finance environment.
• Ensure appropriate accounting treatment of rebates, promotional spend, customer incentives and other commercial arrangements.
• Partner with Financial Control and Internal Audit where required.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, accounting standards and internal governance requirements.
• Identify and mitigate financial and commercial risks.

Person Specification

Essential Experience

• Qualified accountant: ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent.
• Significant post-qualification experience in commercial finance.
• Strong experience within FMCG, consumer goods, retail or another fast-moving commercial environment.
• Proven experience partnering with senior Sales, Marketing and/or Commercial leadership.
• Strong understanding of revenue, gross margin, pricing, promotions and customer profitability.
• Experience leading budgeting, forecasting and strategic planning processes.
• Demonstrable experience managing and developing finance teams.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills.
• Experience working with SAP or a comparable ERP system.
• Excellent Excel and financial reporting skills.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with SAP BW, SAP Analytics Cloud or similar business intelligence tools.
• Experience managing trade spend / customer investment.
• Experience with revenue growth management or net revenue management.
• Experience in a multi-country or international FMCG organisation.
• Experience supporting SAP implementation or transformation programmes.
• Experience working with Power BI or similar data visualisation tools.