The Head of Commercial Finance is a senior, business-facing finance role that serves as the primary finance partner across Business Development, Product, Delivery and Sales. The role provides financial leadership and commercial finance support throughout the deal lifecycle, partnering with business stakeholders to evaluate commercial opportunities, develop robust financial analyses, support commercial decision-making, and monitor project profitability. The role also supports strategic investment decisions through business case development and financial modelling while providing finance guidance on commercial structures, pricing, contracts and related financial matters.

Embedded within the commercial and delivery organization while retaining a permanent reporting line into Finance and the COO Office, the role works collaboratively with Sales, Delivery, Product and Accounting teams to strengthen financial governance, improve commercial outcomes, support revenue recognition considerations, and contribute to strategic initiatives, FP&A and Business Management Office activities as required.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Cases & Investment Analysis

• Develop, review and maintain business cases for strategic initiatives including market expansion, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), product investments, major technology initiatives and other corporate investment opportunities.
• Prepare financial models, scenario analyses and investment appraisals to support executive decision-making, including NPV, IRR, payback, sensitivity and profitability analyses where applicable.
• Partner with business leaders to evaluate strategic initiatives, validate financial assumptions and provide recommendations on investment priorities and expected financial returns.
• Support post-investment reviews by comparing actual performance against approved business cases.

Commercial Finance Support: Deal Analysis, Contracting & Project Profitability

• Support the commercial deal review and governance process by acting on behalf of finance as the lead for all financial evaluations, ensuring robust financial analysis, documentation and commercial discipline throughout the deal lifecycle.
• Prepare, review and maintain the financial analysis underpinning commercial opportunities, including NPV of cash flows, P&L projections, IRR, payback analysis, profitability and other investment metrics, providing recommendations to support commercial decision-making.
• Serve as the Finance point of contact for commercial contracting support, providing financial analysis and guidance on commercial structures, taxation, revenue recognition implications, internal costing, margin expectations and other financial considerations.
• Support financial modelling to evaluate cash flows and commercial viability while partnering with Sales and Delivery teams to develop commercially competitive and financially sustainable proposals.
• Provide financial guidance on internal charge-out rates, and commercial policies to support consistent and profitable deal structuring.
• Monitor and maintain post-award project profitability analysis, comparing actual performance against approved business cases and highlighting risks, variances and opportunities for improvement.
• Maintain financial tracking for commercial engagements, including sales commissions, selling and marketing costs, commercial investments and other costs below Gross Margin, ensuring accurate visibility into deal profitability and commercial returns.
• Partner with Sales, Delivery and Finance teams to provide financial insight and analysis throughout the opportunity and project lifecycle.

Support on Revenue Recognition & Capitalization Matters

• Support the revenue recognition and capitalization agendas in close partnership with the Accounting teams, who retain the primary responsibility for these areas.
• Provide commercial input on deal structuring to help anticipate accounting and recognition implications early in the deal lifecycle.

Finance Business Partnering

• Act as the one-stop finance point of contact embedded strategically within Delivery and Sales, providing timely, decision-useful financial insight.
• Build trusted relationships with commercial and delivery leadership, translating financial analysis into clear, actionable guidance for non-finance stakeholders.

Cross-Functional & Strategic Contribution

• Work cross-functionally across teams and stakeholders on multiple concurrent strategic projects.
• Leverage the role across wider priorities including strategic initiatives, FP&A and Business Management activities, as and when required, to maximize overall value to the organization.
• Lead, mentor and develop re-allocated team member(s) assigned to the commercial finance function.

Organizational & Reporting Structure

• Permanent (solid-line) reporting into Finance leadership (Global EVP – Financial Planning & Business Management, with alignment to the COO Office.
• Dotted-line relationship into Product, Delivery and Sales leadership, reflecting the embedded nature of the role within the commercial organization.
• At least one existing Finance team member is expected to be re-allocated into this role’s reporting line.
• The selection panel will include assessment from Delivery / Sales leadership to whom the role is dotted-line aligned.

Qualifications & Experience

• Professional accounting or finance qualification (e.g., ACCA, CA, CFA, MBA-Finance).
• Substantial post-qualification experience in commercial finance, strategic projects, deal reviews and structuring, FP&A or finance business partnering, ideally within technology, software / SaaS, fintech or technology-services environments.
• Demonstrable track record leading deal review and governance, business casing, pricing and commercial contract analysis.
• Experience of assisting accounting teams on revenue recognition, capitalization and other required matters.
• Experience partnering with senior, cross-functional stakeholders across sales, product and delivery functions.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance growth, margins and risks.
• Advanced financial modelling, business casing and commercial analysis skills.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills across finance and non-finance audiences.
• Sound working knowledge of revenue & cost recognition principles and their commercial implications.
• Clear, structured communication; able to simplify complex financial concepts for decision-makers.
• Self-starter able to manage multiple priorities and operate effectively in a matrixed, embedded role.

Indicative Success Measures

• A consistent, well-governed and timely deal review process adopted across the business.
• Improved quality, consistency and reliability of business cases and commercial decisions.
• Finance recognized as a trusted, single point of contact by Delivery and Sales.
• Effective collaboration with accounting teams on revenue recognition and capitalization matters.
• Productive help on FP&A, Business Management and other strategic matters as and when required.