General Manager - Finance Operations

The Organisation
One of Australia’s largest and most complex operational organisations, the business operates at multi-billion-dollar scale, employing thousands of people across an extensive national footprint, supported by a substantial fleet, asset and infrastructure base.

The organisation is well established and continuing to invest in its network, technology and operating capability. Its scale creates considerable opportunity to improve performance through better use of data, stronger commercial decision-making, greater asset utilisation and closer alignment across its operating businesses.

Finance has an important role to play in realising that opportunity.

The Role
Working closely with the CFO, COO and senior operational leadership, the General Manager – Finance Operations will hold a broad leadership mandate across the organisation’s operational businesses.

This is not a traditional financial reporting role. It sits at the intersection of strategy, finance, commercial performance and operations, with responsibility for ensuring financial and operational insight translates into better decisions and stronger business performance.

Leading a substantial team across Finance Management, Commercial Business Partnering and Administration, the role will:

• Lead budgeting, forecasting, business planning and performance management across Operations
• Translate organisational strategy and business plans into clear commercial priorities, targets and performance outcomes across Operations
• Design and embed a consistent performance framework across business units, with clear targets, KPIs and value drivers
• Provide commercial challenge and decision support to the COO and senior operational leaders
• Improve visibility of the drivers of revenue, margin, cost, cash, productivity and operational efficiency
• Use data, business intelligence and scenario analysis to identify trends, emerging risks and opportunities, and support timely decision-making
• Drive network optimisation through improved internalisation, asset utilisation, operational flows, footprint and network resilience
• Influence investment decisions, capital allocation and resource prioritisation
• Identify opportunities across business units that may not be visible when considered independently
• Strengthen the business partnering model, commercial capability and financial accountability across Operations
• Drive continuous improvement across systems, processes, data and business intelligence

The expectation is that Finance understands the operations, identifies where value can be created and works alongside the business to deliver it.

Leadership
People leadership and capability development will be central to the mandate.

The General Manager will lead an established, multidisciplinary function and continue developing its structure, capability and ways of working. This includes developing strong leaders, building succession and capability, and creating a culture of commercial curiosity, accountability and genuine partnership with Operations.

The successful executive will be a trusted partner to the CFO, COO and senior leadership while remaining close to the business to understand what is happening operationally.

The Executive
We are looking for an accomplished senior finance or commercial leader who has operated within a large, complex and operationally intensive organisation.

You will bring:

• Proven senior leadership experience across finance, commercial finance or business performance
• Experience within a large, multi-site, network or asset-intensive operating environment
• Strong people leadership capability across sizeable and multidisciplinary teams
• A track record of partnering with senior operational executives and influencing business performance
• Depth across planning, forecasting, performance management and commercial decision support
• Exposure to productivity, asset utilisation, capital allocation and operational improvement
• The ability to translate complex financial and operational information into clear commercial action
• A track record of strengthening governance and commercial capability, and leading change, transformation or continuous improvement
• The commercial judgement and curiosity to challenge established ways of working
• The presence and credibility to operate effectively with a CFO, COO and senior executive group

Relevant backgrounds could include transport and logistics, infrastructure, industrial services, manufacturing, resources, utilities, aviation or other large-scale operational environments.

The strongest candidates will be able to demonstrate where their financial and commercial leadership has changed how an operating business performs, not simply how its performance is reported.

This is a senior appointment with genuine enterprise influence, organisational scale and the opportunity to shape the commercial performance of a major Australian organisation.

Perigon Group has been exclusively engaged to manage this executive search.
For a confidential discussion or further information regarding the opportunity, please contact Haydn Furness at Perigon Group via haydn.furness@perigongroup.com.au