Company Description

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic, and labelling is accurate.

Eurofins is dedicated to delivering testing services that contribute to the health and safety of society and the planet, and to its corporate responsibility to protect the environment and ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entire network of Eurofins companies.

Job Description

Working hours are Monday - Friday, 9am-5pm.

This is a hybrid working position.

The purpose of this position is to work with the Managing Director (MD) in ensuring that the business strategy is financially stress tested and challenged, integrated into budgeting processes and tracked/delivered against appropriate financial review mechanisms.

The position will assume full responsibility for all financial aspects of the Eurofins Food & Water Testing business within the U.K. and additionally assess, recommend and deliver financial tools/best practices for cluster/BU leaders to optimise their performance in conjunction with Group.

Within this role, the Head of Finance (Business Controller) will be responsible for financial control, reporting, forecasting including financial analysis and commercial support.   This position will support various Business Units and entities located across the UK, guiding those senior management teams in planning and managing their site/ departmental budgets with the support of a Finance Manager.

• Work with the Managing Director and Leadership team to develop a short / medium / long term strategic financial plan to underpin business performance and deliver on rigor and controls required to run an efficient business.
• Work with the Board to continually develop, test and approve a 3-5 year business strategy creating the supporting financial information required as part of the wider business case
• Lead the financial due diligence processes surrounding potential acquisitions incorporating assessments relating to likely synergy benefits and risks plus accurate budgeting on first year within the network in conjunction with the acquisition director for the UK.
• Work with the finance manager to continually improve finance related processes including raising of POs, managing working capital, improving cost control and tracking profit improvement projects.
• Provide the Leadership team with advice and support on the financial implications of business activities and support planning initiatives.
• Ensure timely and accurate production of monthly and annual reporting alongside analysis of budgets to allow for effective and rapid decision making.
• Provide business with financial trends and forecasts as needed alongside insights to help the board drive their businesses forward.
• Lead and oversee preparation of annual budget process and preparation of top-down targets and ensure the accuracy of business and cost-centre budgets throughout the process. 
• Monitor cash-flows, accounts and other financial transactions providing a forward view of pending cash requests and funding requirements.
• Provided narratives and recommendations where required for Group reporting.
• Develop and oversee the risk management process.
• Lead and mentor the finance manager and credit control team .
• Attend the monthly Board meetings adding value through updates and insight to support business improvement.
• Work with Learning & Development to shape finance training for senior managers.
• Represent finance in any necessary project or transformation programmes within the business or as needed connected to our National Service Centre (NSC).
• Compliance and internal control activities as needed with reporting on non-financial information to support business thinking.
• Establish strong collaborative ties with the NSC.
• Be the champion for appropriate Group tools that link to financial data/reporting (i.e. EbIS).
• Project work as necessary

Qualifications

• Qualified finance professional ACA,CIMA or ACCA or equivalent
• Strong track record in a similar role financial / business controller role
• Financial experience gained as a large site or multi-site Financial Controller
• Sound understanding of financial and strategic planning
• Strategic thinker with excellent interpersonal skills and attention to detail
• Ability to manage financial risk and control activities in a complex business
• Proven team leading experience and ability to motivate and inspire team members
• Strong technical background with previous experience of managing monthly reporting and month end processes
• Advanced excel skills
• Experience working with finance systems
• An experienced and skilled communicator who also inspires confidence, influences and motivates others
• Problem solving and decision making skills, with the ability to analyse complex-information to identify key factor and drive change / resolution
• Positive attitude and able to work in a manner aligned to key company values such as integrity, customer focus, quality and team competence & spirit

Additional Information

Benefits

At Eurofins we are growing, innovating and always learning. We celebrate the achievements of our employees through annual long service awards, recognise our colleagues special life events, and we are committed to charitable causes through global fundraising activities.

As a Eurofins employee you will benefit from:

• Life Assurance (4 times annual salary)
• Holiday Purchase Scheme
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay Scheme 
• Company Pension Plan
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24/7 confidential support.
• Free car parking
• Worldwide career opportunities
• Everyone who joins our team also gets access to Perkbox, allowing you to save money all year round. Whether its supermarket savings or days out, the daily coffee or a summer holiday – there’s something to suit everyone’s lifestyle.

What Happens Next
Our people are the backbone of what we do, so it's incredibly important we find the right individuals to join us. As a potential new recruit you'll be invited to meet the team in the form of an assessment centre or a staged interview process dependent on the role and it's requirements, this will give you the opportunity to see what working for Eurofins is really like and enable us to get you know your key skills and strengths. 
 
Your data 
As part of any recruitment process, the company collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The company is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
 
Closing Date
We reserve the right to close or extend this position depending on application numbers. Therefore we would urge candidates to submit an application as early as possible.
 
Due to the high volume of applications we receive please be aware that if you do not receive a response within 4 weeks of the vacancy expiry date unfortunately, on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful. 

We support your development! Do you feel you don’t match 100% of the requirements? Don’t hesitate to apply anyway! Eurofins companies are committed to supporting your career development.

We embrace diversity! Eurofins network of companies believe in strength and innovation through diversity, being an Equal Opportunity Employer. We prohibit discrimination against employees or applications based on gender identity and/or expression, race, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything else that makes employees of Eurofins companies unique.

Sustainability matters to us!  We are well on our way to achieving our objective of carbon neutrality by 2025, through a combination of emission reduction and compensation initiatives. We encourage our laboratory leaders to make sustainable changes at their local level, and in addition to their initiatives we also count on our dedicated carbon reduction team to help us to achieve this goal!

Find out more in our career page: https://careers.eurofins.com/