FP&A and Commercial Finance Lead

The business brings together leading operators in immersive entertainment, live events, hospitality and experiential tourism, with a clear ambition to build a leading international platform in a sector where audience experience, creativity and commercial performance go hand in hand. Backed by an experienced investor group, it is embarking on an exciting phase of acquisitive growth along with operational investment, while ensuring that each business in the portfolio retains its own distinct character.

The Role

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a commercially minded finance professional to join the group at this early and formative stage. Reporting to the CEO, you will play a central role in building the financial planning, performance-management and finance business partnering capabilities required to support a rapidly expanding multi-site group.

This is a genuinely commercial role, combining group-level financial planning with hands-on support to individual operating businesses. You will work closely with entrepreneurial management teams, helping them drive commercial performance through meaningful analysis, while also consolidating performance into a clear and insightful group view for the CEO, Board and investors.

The successful candidate for this FP&A and Commercial Finance Lead role will be comfortable operating in an environment where systems and processes are still maturing. You will need the judgement to work through imperfect information, the credibility to challenge constructively, and the drive and interpersonal skills to implement improvements that make a visible difference to decision-making and business performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate budgets, business plans, rolling forecasts and reforecasts across operating businesses, ensuring timely delivery, clear assumptions and appropriate challenge.

• Consolidate financial plans, cash-flow forecasts and KPIs into a clear, reliable group-level view.

• Analyse and explain performance against plan, identifying the underlying drivers, risks, opportunities and actions required.

• Prepare high-quality analysis and presentations for management, the Board and investors.

• Partner directly with local management teams to improve budgets, forecasts, financial models and commercial analysis.

• Assess gaps in systems, data and reporting, then design and implement practical improvements alongside operating teams and external providers.

• Develop and roll out dashboards, defining KPIs and reporting routines that give leadership reliable visibility of performance.

• Support the evaluation of pricing, capital expenditure and other commercial initiatives through financial modelling and scenario analysis.

• Help onboard acquisitions into group planning, establishing finance processes that can scale with the organisation.

Candidate Profile

Candidates for this FP&A and Commercial Finance Lead role need to hold a professional accounting qualification, with proven experience in commercial finance. Experience could include a combination of Big Four transaction services experience along with time spent in an in-house FP&A or commercial finance, in a fast fast-moving environment. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in one of either a multi-site, consumer facing or private equity-backed environment.

You will have had direct experience of owning budgets, forecasts and cash-flow models, with a strong understanding of the commercial drivers behind revenue, margin and cash. Practical experience improving commercial finance reports, dashboards, systems or planning processes will be highly valued, as will a track record of building trusted relationships with operational colleagues.

Advanced Excel and financial modelling skills are essential, alongside strong PowerPoint and familiarity with Power BI or a comparable business-intelligence tool. Experience with cloud accounting software and FP&A platforms would be advantageous. You should be methodical and detail-driven, but also resourceful, pragmatic and able to make progress where local resources and systems are still developing.

Candidates should have a genuine interest in leisure, hospitality, live events, entertainment and experiential businesses, although direct sector experience is not essential. European language skills would also be considered a plus.

Apply

This is a rare opportunity to join a growing leisure and entertainment platform at an early stage, working directly with experienced leadership and entrepreneurial operators. The role offers exceptional breadth, meaningful responsibility and the chance to build capabilities whose impact will be visible in the performance of the businesses they support. As the group expands, there will be significant scope to broaden your remit and progress within the organisation.

To apply for this FP&A and Commercial Finance Lead role, please use the apply button.

Please note that, due to the expected volume of applications, we will only be able to respond to candidates whose experience matches our client’s requirements. If you have not heard from us within the next ten days, please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

Walker Hamill has been a specialist finance and strategy recruiter for approaching 40 years. We have an extensive client group, including major multinational listed organisations, private equity backed businesses and privately owned companies. We recruit across all sectors and have particularly strong client relationships in private equity, media, retail, pharma/biotech, technology, property/real estate, leisure and business services. Headquartered in London, we have additional offices in continental Europe.