Finance Business Partner - Pensions
Isio is expanding its commercial finance capability, building out the Finance Business Partnering and FP&A teams that support the Group. This role is the finance partner to Actuarial & Consulting, our largest business unit by revenue, with a defined consistency and assurance remit across Pensions Administration.
Actuarial & Consulting does not currently have dedicated finance support: commercial and financial activity sits within a hybrid operational role. This role takes that activity on, establishing genuine finance ownership for the business unit and giving Group a pair of eyes on the inside. It suits someone who wants to shape decisions rather than report on them.
Our DB pensions proposition spans two business units with common clients and common engagement leadership. Pensions Administration operates its own divisional finance team, which owns and builds its monthly reporting. The second part of this role is to work closely enough with that team to ensure the two business units report consistently and never contradict one another in front of the Executive or the Board.
What does the role entail?
Actuarial & Consulting: Business Partnering
• Act as the finance partner to the Actuarial & Consulting leadership team, building credible, trusted and challenging relationships.
• Own near-term business performance, supporting delivery of growth and profitability objectives.
• Transition the finance and commercial analysis activity currently sitting within the business unit into this role, establishing it as the finance owner for the business unit.
• Own business unit budgets and forecasts, built on genuine drivers and agreed with the business, not imposed on it.
• Lead the monthly business unit review: set the agenda, own the numbers, drive the actions and follow them through.
• Lead KPI reporting, analysis and performance insight, including fee income, utilisation, rate realisation, recovery, WIP and lock-up.
• Support pricing, rate card application, discounting governance and margin improvement.
• Work with the Chief Growth Officer and business unit leadership on sales pipeline reporting and its conversion into forecast revenue.
• Build business cases for investment, hiring and change initiatives, support bid and renewal activity, and track delivery against approval.
Pensions Administration: Consistency & Assurance
• Act as the Group commercial finance point of contact for Pensions Administration, working with its divisional finance team.
• Review the monthly divisional reporting built by that team for consistency with Group standards and definitions before it reaches Executive and Board reporting.
• Ensure the two business units present a coherent and non-contradictory picture, particularly on shared clients, shared engagement leadership and the combined DB pensions proposition.
• Provide a joined-up view of DB pensions performance across both business units to Group and the Executive.
• Build a close working relationship with divisional finance so that consistency is achieved collaboratively rather than imposed after the fact.
Reporting & Data
• Deliver succinct, accurate and timely reporting on your areas into Board and Executive level packs.
• Use and develop Power BI reporting for your business units, contributing to the quality of the underlying data.
• Apply Group reporting standards and definitions consistently, so that your numbers hold up wherever they are used.
• Contribute to Group-wide improvements in reporting, automation and best practice.
What we’re looking for?
Required Experience
• Fully qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA or equivalent) with meaningful post-qualified experience in commercial finance, FP&A or business partnering.
• Demonstrable ownership of a budget and forecast cycle for a business unit or equivalent.
• Track record of partnering senior non-financial stakeholders directly, not through an intermediary.
• Experience of establishing finance support where…