Group Head of Financial Control

Advert Closes: Monday 25th May

Do you thrive in complex environments where financial accuracy, judgement and transparency matter at every level? As Group Head of Financial Control, you will shape how financial control, reporting and governance operate across the Group. You will bring clarity to complexity, ensure financial information is decision ready, and help create confidence in the Group’s financial position.

Working closely with executive leadership, the Audit Committee and senior stakeholders, you will play a pivotal role in safeguarding the Group’s financial environment while shaping how it evolves through finance transformation and ERP change.

The Group Head of Financial Control provides enterprise wide leadership for financial integrity, governance and reporting. The role is accountable for setting direction and ensuring delivery of effective accounting, reporting, tax, treasury and internal control frameworks that support executive decision making, audit outcomes and responsible stewardship of the Group’s financial environment.

Spanning the full finance lifecycle, from transaction processing through to Audit Committee engagement, the role champions simplification, control discipline and data quality, and leads key Financial Control contributions to Finance Transformation and ERP implementation.

• Provide Group wide leadership for Financial Control, covering accounting, financial reporting, technical accounting, tax, treasury, sustainability reporting and internal controls.

• Be accountable for the integrity, accuracy and completeness of the Group general ledger, profit and loss account and balance sheet.

• Oversee disciplined close execution supported by KPIs, control evidence and clear ownership.

• Ensure delivery of accurate, timely and high quality group, statutory and external reporting, including consolidation and disclosures.

• Act under delegated authority from the Group Finance Director for financial control matters, including approval of accounting positions, key judgements and close outputs.

• Recommend Group and statutory financial statements for Executive and Audit Committee consideration.

• Act as policy owner for Group accounting standards, leading judgement on complex or non-routine transactions and ensuring consistent application across all entities and joint ventures.

• Own the Group internal control framework aligned to enterprise risk, including segregation of duties, testing, remediation and audit readiness.

• Lead internal, joint venture and Group audits end to end, maintaining senior auditor relationships and driving reliable outcomes.

• Chair and contribute to financial governance forums, setting expectations for control discipline, early issue escalation and transparency.

• Provide senior oversight of sustainability reporting in partnership with specialist teams and non-financial data owners, ensuring disclosures are well governed, aligned with financial reporting and regulatory requirements, and supported by effective controls and data quality.

• Provide strategic oversight of tax across all taxes, with a particular focus on VAT compliance, risk management and technical guidance.

• Provide executive oversight of treasury activities, including liquidity, cash management, forecasting and contractual compliance.

• Lead, inspire and develop a multi-disciplinary team of approximately 20, ensuring capability, engagement and succession.

• Provide Financial Control leadership into Finance Transformation and ERP programmes, ensuring processes, controls and reporting are embedded by design and transitioned successfully into business as usual.

• Partner closely with the Group Finance Director, Audit Committee and senior stakeholders, offering insight and challenge on financial integrity, governance and control effectiveness.

• Senior leadership experience in Financial Control, Financial Reporting or Technical Accounting within a complex organisation.

• Deep technical accounting expertise and confidence applying professional judgement to complex transactions.

• Experience leading audits and engaging at senior level with external auditors and governance forums.

• Knowledge of general accounting, balance sheet governance, consolidation and oversight of tax and treasury.

• Experience contributing to or leading finance transformation and ERP enabled change.

• Credibility with Executive level Finance leaders and Audit Committee stakeholders.

• Sets a high bar for financial integrity, rigour and professionalism.

• Confident decision maker who balances technical detail with enterprise level judgement.

• Executive presence with the ability to influence, challenge and advise senior stakeholders.

• Inclusive leader committed to developing senior talent.

• Governance and risk focused, with a commitment to assurance and transparency.

• Pragmatic and improvement driven, able to simplify complex environments.

If this role aligns with your experience and career ambitions, we would welcome your application

We are a proud disability confident employer and operate the offer of interview scheme Disability Confident employer scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We are happy to offer alternative application methods or formats and can be flexible on our process to enable you to have the best opportunity.

If you have any questions about our recruitment process or would like to talk about adjustments, please contact us directly, or at careers@thecrownestate.co.uk

Please note that if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close this advert early. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible.