About the Role
We are seeking an experienced and commercially minded Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) to lead financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, and performance reporting. This role will provide strategic financial insight, support senior-level decision-making, and drive robust planning processes.
Responsibilities
- Lead the annual budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning processes.
- Develop and maintain robust financial models to support strategic and operational decision-making.
- Deliver accurate forecasts across revenue, costs, cash flow, and profitability.
- Drive continuous improvement in forecasting accuracy and planning methodologies.
- Act as a trusted finance partner to senior stakeholders across the business.
- Support business leaders with financial analysis, insights, and recommendations to drive performance.
- Challenge assumptions and provide commercial guidance on key initiatives and investment decisions.
- Build strong relationships across Finance and the wider organisation.
- Lead a team of four data professionals, responsible for Smart's BI reporting and data analytics.
- Shape the team's strategic direction, focusing on shifting outputs up the analytics maturity curve from foundational to advanced and maximising value to the business.
- Drive efficiencies and improvements to ways of working, including responsibility for prioritising the relative importance of data requests from across the business.
- Anchor the data team to the rest of Finance, ensuring the quality and consistency of outputs.
- Produce high-quality management reporting, KPIs, and financial performance analysis.
- Provide clear commentary on financial results, trends, risks, and opportunities.
- Support Executive and Board reporting requirements.
- Drive a data-led approach to business performance management.
- Support the development and delivery of the organisation's strategic and financial plans.
- Evaluate commercial opportunities, investments, and business cases.
- Provide financial modelling and scenario analysis to support decision-making.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, profitability, and business performance.
- Drive enhancements to FP&A processes, systems, and reporting capabilities.
- Support the continued development and optimisation of financial planning tools and models.
- Promote best practice across budgeting, forecasting, and performance reporting activities.
- Lead and develop the FP&A team, fostering a high-performance culture.
- Provide coaching, support, and clear direction to ensure the delivery of high-quality financial planning, analysis, and reporting.
- Manage team priorities and resource allocation to meet business objectives.
Requirements
- Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent).
- Significant experience in Financial Planning & Analysis, Commercial Finance, or Strategic Finance roles.
- Proven experience leading budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning processes.
- Strong business partnering experience with senior stakeholders.
- Advanced financial modelling and analytical skills.
- Experience using Anaplan for planning, forecasting, and reporting.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex financial information into meaningful business insights.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Experience within a technology, fintech, financial services, or high-growth environment (Desirable).
- Exposure to financial due diligence, transactions, M&A activity or investment analysis (Desirable).
- Experience supporting business transformation or finance change initiatives (Desirable).
- Knowledge of business intelligence and reporting tools (Desirable).
Skills
- Financial Planning & Analysis
- Commercial Finance
- Strategic Finance
- Budgeting
- Forecasting
- Financial Planning
- Business Partnering
- Financial Modelling
- Analytical Skills
- Anaplan
- Communication
- Presentation Skills
- Stakeholder Management
- Influencing Skills
- Business Intelligence
- Reporting Tools
Location
- Remote
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- Senior
Education Level
- Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent)
Benefits
- 25 days’ holiday per year, increasing with length of service.
- £500 annual training budget for professional development.
- Extensive private healthcare, including dental, eyecare and EAP.
- Enhanced sick leave (three months’ pay per year).
- Enhanced maternity (6 months fully paid) and paternity (3 weeks fully paid).
- Death in service insurance cover.
- Fully-paid five-week sabbatical after five years of employment.
- In office wellbeing (manicures, massages, barbers).
- 50% discount on orders from sister company Arena Flowers.
About the Company
- Our mission is to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world.
- We work in partnerships with governments and financial institutions in the UK and internationally.
- Our cloud-native digital platform is revolutionising how people around the world think about, and save for, their retirement.
- We are a financial technology business focused on innovation and using the power of digital change to put the customer first.
- Working at Smart gives you the opportunity to play your part in developing world-class technological solutions, working with – and learning from – like-minded people.
- Colleagues love Smart’s culture and how what we do means better financial outcomes for savers.
- What we do, collectively, goes way beyond the nine to five of a typical working day.
Equal Opportunity
- At Smart, we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to do their best work.
- We believe that diverse perspectives help us lead the way in transforming retirement, savings, and financial wellbeing.
- We welcome differences in background, experience, thinking, and identity, and we recognise that innovation is strongest when it is built on inclusion and fairness.
- We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences and do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic.
- If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or in the workplace, we encourage you to let us know - we are committed to supporting you.
