Business Partner jobs in Devon

Location: Exeter, with regular travel required to the Chester office
Reporting to: Group Finance Director
Business: Complete Aircraft Group

Role Purpose

The Group Finance Business Partner will be appointed on a fixed-term contract to support the Group Finance Director in addressing immediate finance and reporting priorities across Complete Aircraft Group.

This is a fixed-term position for an initial period of 6–12 months, offering an opportunity to make a tangible impact by addressing immediate finance priorities, improving existing processes and strengthening financial reporting across the Group.

The primary focus of the role will be to review, strengthen and improve existing financial processes, reporting and controls, ensuring the Group has accurate, timely and meaningful financial information to support effective management and decision-making.

Working closely with the Group Finance Director and operational leadership teams, the successful candidate will take a hands-on approach to identifying gaps and inefficiencies, resolving existing issues and implementing practical improvements across the finance function. This will include improving the quality and consistency of financial reporting, strengthening cost and margin visibility, and developing a clearer understanding of business performance and commercial drivers.

The role will also provide commercial and financial analysis to support short-term business priorities, highlight areas of financial risk or opportunity, and ensure management has the information needed to make informed decisions.

This is a delivery-focused, interim role suited to an experienced Finance Business Partner who can quickly understand the Group’s operations, work independently and make a tangible impact within a short timeframe. The emphasis will be on resolving immediate challenges, establishing more effective ways of working and leaving the Group with improved financial processes, reporting and insight.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial Finance & Business Partnering

• Act as a key finance partner to the senior leadership and management teams across Premier Jet Support, ELMS and Complete Aircraft Tooling.
• Develop a strong understanding of each business, including its operational model, customers, revenue streams, cost base and commercial objectives.
• Provide financial insight and challenge to support business decisions and improve commercial performance.
• Work closely with operational teams to understand financial performance and translate financial information into meaningful business insight.
• Challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and support management in making commercially sound decisions.
• Support business leaders with financial modelling, scenario planning and evaluation of potential business opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to improve revenue, margins, productivity and cost efficiency.

Financial Analysis & Performance

• Analyse monthly financial performance, identifying key trends, variances and underlying drivers.
• Produce clear and commercially focused analysis for senior management, highlighting the areas that require attention or action.
• Analyse revenue, gross margin, labour costs, overheads, utilisation, productivity and other key business drivers.
• Monitor performance against budgets, forecasts and business plans.
• Investigate significant variances and work with budget holders to understand the underlying causes.
• Turn financial and operational data into clear recommendations and actions for the business.
• Identify emerging trends and provide early visibility of potential financial or commercial issues.

Forecasting, Budgeting & Planning

• Support the Group Finance Director and senior leadership team with annual budgeting and forecasting.
• Work with budget holders to develop realistic and commercially driven budgets and forecasts.
• Maintain regular forecasts and provide analysis of changes in expected performance.
• Develop financial models to support business planning and decision-making.
• Support longer-term financial and strategic planning across the Group.
• Assess the financial impact of changes to operational plans, headcount, pricing, investment and other business decisions.

Commercial & Operational Insight

• Work closely with operational teams to understand the relationship between operational activity and financial performance.
• Analyse labour utilisation, overtime, productivity and departmental cost performance.
• Support management in understanding the profitability and financial contribution of different areas of the business.
• Analyse customer, project, contract and programme performance where appropriate.
• Support pricing and commercial decisions through financial modelling and margin analysis.
• Identify areas where processes, resources or expenditure could be improved.
• Support investment and capital expenditure decisions by providing financial analysis and business cases.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for an individual who is commercially minded and enjoys understanding how a business works and what drives its performance, rather than simply producing financial reports.

You will be confident working with senior stakeholders and operational teams, able to challenge constructively and communicate financial information in a straightforward and commercially relevant way.

Essential

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or equivalent relevant experience.
• Proven experience in a Finance Business Partner, Commercial Finance or similar senior finance role.
• Demonstrable experience reviewing, improving and embedding financial processes, reporting systems and controls.
• Strong financial analysis and management reporting skills, with the ability to interpret complex financial data and translate it into meaningful commercial insight.
• Strong understanding of cost control, profitability, margin analysis and financial performance drivers.
• Proven ability to identify financial risks, inefficiencies and opportunities, and implement practical solutions within tight timescales.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience using financial reporting systems and accounting software.
• Ability to work independently, prioritise competing demands and deliver tangible improvements within a fixed-term assignment.
• ·Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively with senior leadership and operational teams.
• A hands-on, pragmatic and solutions-focused approach, with the ability to quickly understand business operations and challenge existing ways of working constructively.
• Strong attention to detail combined with the ability to see the wider commercial picture.

Desirable

• Experience working within an engineering, manufacturing, aviation, aerospace or other technical/operational environment.
• Experience of working across multiple business units or companies.

Application question(s):

• Do you have previous experience in a Finance Business Partner role?
• Are you willing to travel occasionally to our office in Chester?

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Exeter EX5 2UX