Senior Manager, Commercial Finance Advisory

Manchester (hybrid) | c£70,000 - £80,000 plus benefits

If you are in industry and slightly bored, read this bit first

You know the shape of the year before it starts. You know what happens in January. You know what the board will ask before they ask it. You are good at it, and that is precisely the problem, because nothing is going to surprise you again.

The reason most people in that position stay put is that the alternative looks like going backwards. This role is the alternative that is not.

What the job actually is

A UK top 25 professional services firm is building out its commercial finance advisory function in Manchester. You would take a portfolio of SME, owner-managed and scaling clients across a dozen sectors, and for each of them you would do four things at once.

Deliver. Month end and close, management information, reconciliations, reporting packs. Real hands-on delivery, done properly and on time. This is not a role that floats above the numbers and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Own. Your own clients and the relationships that come with them. You are their finance person. They ring you, and they ring you about things that are not on the engagement letter.

Advise. What the numbers mean and what to do about them. Cash, funding, forecasting, board-level input. The part you only get to do credibly once you own the delivery.

Transform. Systems selection and implementation, process redesign, post-deal integration, building finance functions that work. Project work with a beginning and an end, running alongside the monthly rhythm.

The end point is that you become their trusted external adviser. In industry you are one voice in a finance team; here you own the client outright, and ownership is what earns that standing.

Why practice, and why now

If you trained in practice and then moved into industry, you may have written off going back. Worth reconsidering in this case, because this function exists specifically because clients wanted advisers who had sat inside an operating business. Someone who has only ever reviewed a month end cannot run one under pressure, or tell a founder which of their three problems is the one that matters.

Your industry experience is the qualification here, not something to explain away.

This is also a genuinely early opportunity. The firm is growing quickly, is backed by a major institutional investor, and this function is being built out rather than inherited. There is scope to work on projects with colleagues in other regions from the start, and business development is part of the role rather than something you graduate into.

Who this suits

ACA or ACCA qualified, practice trained, with real time spent in an operating business since
Strong on UK GAAP and IFRS, and unbothered by a messy set of books
Comfortable being the most senior finance voice in a room where nobody else has the answer
Enjoys the first ninety days with a new client more than the ninth month
Wants business development rather than tolerating it

Who it will not suit

Anyone who wants a defined remit and a predictable rhythm
Anyone expecting to be handed a portfolio rather than help build one
Anyone who thinks winning work is somebody else's job
Anyone moving primarily for money

Being straight about the package

£70,000 to £80,000 depending on experience, hybrid working in Manchester city centre with genuine flexibility for the right person, private healthcare and dental extending to family, and a wider benefits package we can talk through.

If you are currently a Financial Controller, Senior Finance Manager (or even Head of in an SME) in industry, this is a career pivot that will pay off financiall and professionally.

What you are buying is variety, client ownership, and a progression route that is not blocked by the person above you.

Next step

An initial call to set the scene, enough to work out whether this is worth your time.

We have produced a full candidate pack on this role covering the firm, the team, the work and the honest trade-offs. Happy to send it over.

Javed Bobat, Co-Founder, iFF Talent jav@ifftalent.com | 07471 155006

iFF Talent is a trading name of Ingham Frankland Fide Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15574782.

Senior Manager - Finance Advisory | Outsourced Financial Leadership