Felbridge Partners
Deputy Chief Financial Officer
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Deputy CFO – Financial Services Role
Our client is a well-established, privately owned financial services business with decades of expertise. Specialising in a niche sector of the broader market, it serves select and sophisticated clients, renowned for quality, discretion, and consistent performance. After slow but steady growth, the firm now enters a transformative phase, deepening client relationships and investing in its people while strengthening its internal infrastructure.
The finance function is evolving alongside the business, with this newly created role at the heart of that effort. The firm’s culture is close-knit, high-performing, and built on long-term thinking, with a senior leadership team deeply committed to long-term success and often vocal about career progression opportunities.
About the Role
This is a newly created Deputy CFO position, reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer. The role was designed with a clear succession purpose in mind: the CFO is actively seeking their successor. The ideal candidate will partner closely with the CFO from day one, progressively absorbing key finance responsibilities and positioning themselves to eventually take the CFO role when the time arises.
Key Responsibilities
Finance Modernisation & Technology
- Identify opportunities to modernise and enhance the finance operating model, optimising proven processes while introducing robust controls, governance frameworks, and scalable infrastructure where needed.
- Drive the adoption of finance technology, automation, and AI-powered tools to:
- Improve operational efficiency
- Reduce manual intervention
- Elevate financial analysis and reporting quality
- Implement and oversee financial controls, governance frameworks, and reporting standards compliant with the firm’s senior leadership, board, and external stakeholders.
- Eliminate legacy inefficiencies and replace with scalable, data-driven solutions suitable for the firm’s next strategic phase.
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Financial Reporting & Control
- Oversee the month-end close process, management accounting, and financial reporting cycle, ensuring:
- Accuracy
- Timeliness
- High-quality presentation for senior leadership
- Lead the preparation of statutory financial statements across all firm entities, managing external auditors and accountants’ engagements.
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive suite of KPIs to provide real-time financial and operational visibility for leadership.
- Own the cash flow and liquidity management framework, including short and medium-term forecasting.
Planning, Analysis & Commercial Finance
- Lead the annual budgeting, forecasting, and business planning cycle, fostering collaboration with senior management to align finance strategies with strategic objectives.
- Provide high-quality financial analysis and commercial insights to support data-driven decision-making, including:
- Cost management
- Scenario modelling
- Revenue analysis
- Act as a trusted senior finance business partner for operational and functional leaders across the firm.
Regulatory, Tax & Compliance
- Manage regulatory reporting obligations across jurisdictions, ensuring compliance with advisers and internal teams.
- Oversee tax planning and compliance for the firm’s corporate structure, liaising with specialist advisers as required.
- Ensure the firm’s financial governance framework remains robust and up to speed with compliance as it scales.
Leadership & Team Development
- Build and develop a high-performing finance team, fostering a culture of:
- Accountability
- Continuous improvement
- Professional excellence
- Manage outsourced finance and accounting providers, ensuring their service levels meet the firm’s quality and governance standards.
- Work closely with the CFO on a day-to-day basis, systematically absorbing knowledge and progressively taking financial ownership in preparation for a seamless succession.
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Experience & Qualifications
The ideal candidate will be a qualified accountant (e.g., ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with:
- Deep technical financial capability
- Strong commercial acumen
- A proven leadership presence suitable for a senior role
We are particularly seeking:
- Significant post-qualification experience in financial services, ideally at a smaller or mid-sized firm, where finance requires multi-disciplinary ownership.
- A track record of acting as a senior finance leader or deputy, showing a commitment to taking ownership in succession planning or stepping into a CFO role.
- Strong expertise in both management and statutory reporting, ensuring sophisticated, compliant financial oversight.
- Demonstrable experience with data-driven tools, automation, or AI-enabled technologies in improving financial processes and reporting.
- Experience managing or mentoring finance teams, with both the skills and credibility to inspire, lead, and develop individuals at all levels.
- Balanced experience in operational finance and strategic business partnering—equally capable of navigating detailed execution and high-level strategic decision-making.
- Operating within regulated financial services, with experience handling compliance obligations as an advantage.
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