Blair West
Finance Director
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Blair West are delighted to be supporting SMD with the appointment of a new Finance Director.
SMD is a Newcastle-headquartered engineering business designing and manufacturing subsea equipment and services for energy, offshore wind and telecoms. Working closely with the on-site executive team, alongside parent company, the successful candidate will drive financial and commercial insight, challenge decision-making, and help maximise performance across a complex, project-based engineering environment operating on an international scale. It operates in the UK and Shanghai as part of CRRC Group.
The opportunity:
- Lead the financial & economic strategy and forecasting, highlighting performance levels, efficiency, and resource allocation, and recommending any changes necessary.
- Financial reporting to CEO, shareholders, and banks.
- Preparation of year-end accounts, liaison, and relationship management of business auditors.
- Cash flow management.
- Support the business with financial monitoring and reporting as well as providing information for decision-making.
- Support CEO with development of business strategy.
- Develop, implement, and monitor functional policies, systems, and standards across the business.
- Leadership and development of all teams within the Finance Director’s remit.
- Represent the company by networking in the local business community.
- Establish effective working relationships with external bodies as necessary.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
You’ll be the ideal candidate for this role if you have:
- Broad commercial and finance leadership and management experience, ideally with experience at Director level.
- A suitable PQE (ACA, ACCA, or CIMA) able to lead a small, stable finance function.
- A team focus with good communication skills.
- Confidence managing a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong strategic and commercial skills to enable effective guidance of the future direction for business as well as excellent financial analysis and control abilities.
- A commercially astute approach with excellent negotiation skills.
- Excellent presentation skills.
- The ability to deal with and resolve issues quickly and effectively.
- Demonstrable experience in an international environment, familiarity with Chinese parent company would be an exceptional advantage.
- Familiarity with a listed environment and plc reporting requirements.
- Experience working with industrial/technical company with strong experience across project-based accounting & cash flow management.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
The benefits included with this opportunity:
- Flexible, hybrid working arrangements.
- Participation in senior management bonus scheme.
- 25 days annual leave plus public holidays.
- Pension (3% employer, 5% employee) company will match up at 6%.
- Life assurance.
- Private healthcare.
Our Commitments:
Blair West is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and inclusion at every stage of the recruitment process. We are committed to fairness, equality, and ongoing diversity training for our team to give our candidates and clients a feeling of belonging during their experience with us. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during their experience with us, please speak to their consultant.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills