The Crown Estate
Senior Finance Manager – Portfolio Operations and Cost Governance
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Advert Closes: Monday 17th August
Are you ready to shape how one of London’s most iconic portfolios runs, delivers value and invests for the future?
We’re looking for a Senior Finance Manager to lead Portfolio Operations finance and cost governance across Urban. This is a senior business partnering role with real influence, guiding operational decision-making, bringing clarity to cost performance, and ensuring value for money across a complex, high-profile portfolio.
If you’re motivated by impact, visibility and meaningful collaboration across operational teams, this role offers an outstanding opportunity to shape how our portfolio operates today and evolves for the long term.
What You’ll Do
Business Partnering – Portfolio Operations
- Act as the primary finance partner to the Head of Portfolio Operations and their leadership team.
- Provide clear commercial insight and challenge across operational cost performance, risks and opportunities.
- Lead monthly performance reviews and deliver compelling financial narratives for senior stakeholders.
- Support operational decisions with insight on cost drivers, resourcing, service levels and contract management.
- Partner with Property Management to manage service charge budgets, recoveries and variances, ensuring alignment with the Urban P&L.
- Deliver forecasts that are transparent, well understood and accurate, particularly around voids, recoveries and operational risk.
- Lead the annual operating cost budget and develop a three-year operating and capital cost plan.
Urban Cost Governance
- Own the full Urban cost base including headcount, controllable costs, project support costs, allocations, discretionary spend and overheads.
- Build and maintain a single source of truth for all Urban costs, including dashboards showing run-rates, risks, opportunities, trends and efficiencies.
- Lead all budgeting, forecasting and cost-reporting cycles.
- Ensure cost discipline, early escalation of risks and high-quality, transparent reporting.
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BAU Capex & Operational Investment
- Oversee BAU Capex reporting, ensuring all spend, progress and forecasts are accurately tracked.
- Review completed works and ensure lifecycle and compliance obligations are met.
- Challenge assumptions, scope changes, contractor variations and unexpected cost pressures.
- Support long-term asset and lifecycle planning with clear financial insight.
Reporting & Insight
- Produce high-quality monthly, quarterly and annual reporting with clear, actionable commentary.
- Provide forward-looking insight including trends, sensitivities and scenario modelling.
- Drive improvements in P&L reporting, cost ownership and transparency.
- Support monthly reporting packs, QBRs and annual planning cycles.
Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence
- Lead, mentor and support team members with clear priorities and development goals.
- Foster collaborative relationships with Property Management, FM, Hard Services, Development, Real Estate and central functions.
- Role-model effective financial control, clear challenge and thoughtful business partnering.
- Work effectively within a matrix environment and build trust across multiple teams.
Ready to take the next step?
Apply now to shape cost governance, strengthen operational performance and influence the future of our Urban portfolio.
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Our Offering / benefits:
As well as a competitive salary, pension and performance related bonus offering, we have a wealth of benefits available ranging from flexible working; market leading family policies and shopping discounts in the West End, to private healthcare; life and critical illness cover and 28 days holiday with the option to buy more. We value work life balance and your wellbeing highly, enabling you to be your best self to work.
Disability Disclaimer:
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.
The Crown Estate is a unique business with a distinct heritage and a portfolio unlike any other.
It includes some of central London’s best places to work, shop and spend time, retail and leisure destinations across the country, and a substantial rural portfolio. As manager of the seabed and half the foreshore around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we play a role in the UK’s world-leading offshore wind sector as well as marine aggregates, cables and pipelines. We are also responsible for the Windsor Estate, including the world-renowned Windsor Great Park.
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