Finance Operations Lead

Job description

Job title: Finance Operations Lead Location: Tewkesbury (Hybrid) Salary: £55,000 to £60,000 per year Status: Permanent Working Hours: Mon to Fri - 37.5 hours per week HCML is the UK’s leading provider of rehabilitation, case management, occupational health, and workplace wellbeing services. We’re proud to be recognised as a 2025 UK’s Best Workplace for Wellbeing and for Best Workplaces in Healthcare™ 2026, reflecting our commitment to supporting the growth, development, and wellbeing. We are seeking an experienced Finance Operations Lead to manage and develop our accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, credit control and transactional finance teams. This is a key role in the evolution of the finance function as we move from entity-specific, manually intensive processes towards a more scalable group finance operating model with clearer ownership, stronger controls and improved management information. This role will suit someone who is hands-on, structured and improvement-focused, with experience running similar teams in a complex or high-volume environment. Experience of Business Central would be advantageous, together with an interest in using automation and AI-enabled tools to improve efficiency, data quality and operational performance. The successful candidate will bring strong practical finance operations experience, excellent people management skills and a proven ability to improve processes, controls and reporting. They will be expected to build KPI suites and operational reporting that help manage team performance, improve cash collection, strengthen supplier management and reduce manual intervention. Above all, the right person will be an effective Team Player, capable of managing positively through change whilst working within the wider team to achieve longer term goals. Purpose of Role: The Finance Operations Lead will be responsible for leading the group’s transactional finance operations across accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, credit control and related operational finance processes. The role is being introduced as part of the transition from a historically entity-specific and manually intensive finance model towards clearer group functional ownership, stronger controls, improved management information and scalable finance operations. The successful candidate will bring strong practical knowledge of high-volume finance processes, controls, systems, reporting and people management. They will be expected to improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of operational finance outputs, reduce manual intervention, strengthen accountability and build the reporting and KPI suites needed to manage team performance. Practical experience of identifying, developing and implementing appropriate automation and artificial intelligence tools within finance operations will be a key feature of this role. This should be combined with genuine curiosity about emerging technologies, and an adaptability to continually explore how new capabilities can improve process efficiency, control, data quality, reporting and team capacity. Key Responsibilities: Leadership of finance operations • Lead and manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, credit control and transactional finance teams. • Establish clear ownership, accountabilities and service standards across transactional finance processes. • Build a culture of accuracy, accountability, continuous improvement and timely issue resolution. • Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, development and performance management for team members. • Support the move from fragmented entity-specific activity to a group finance operations function with clear role ownership. Accounts payable • Own the end-to-end accounts payable process, including supplier onboarding, invoice processing, approval workflows, payment runs, supplier reconciliations and aged creditor reporting. • Ensure payment processes are controlled, efficient and aligned with delegated authority and cash management requirements. • Improve supplier reconciliations, query management and the consistency of issue resolution. • Identify opportunities to reduce manual invoice handling, duplicate processing and avoidable supplier queries. Accounts receivable, billing and credit control • Own end-to-end accounts receivable and billing processes, including invoicing accuracy, billing timeliness, credit control, cash allocation and aged debt management. • Drive improvements in billing discipline, debtor reporting, cash collection and query resolution • Support stronger working capital management through better visibility over debt, types of debt, billing exceptions, collection performance and operational blockers. • Ensure finance operations provide actionable information to improve cash collection and customer query resolution. Process ownership and controls • Document, own and improve key transactional finance processes across AP, AR, billing, credit control, cash allocation and reconciliations. • Strengthen controls, approval points, reconciliations, exception reporting and month-end cut-off discipline. • Work with financial control to ensure transactional outputs support accurate month-end reporting, balance sheet integrity and reliable group reporting packs. • Reduce reliance on manual reconciliations and key individuals by introducing standard operating procedures and control routines. Reporting, KPIs and performance management • Design, build and maintain operational finance reporting packs and KPI suites covering AP, AR, billing, credit control and team productivity. • Develop dashboards and reporting to track performance, identify bottlenecks and support management action. • Produce regular reporting on aged debt, cash collection, billing timeliness, invoice processing volumes, query backlogs, payment accuracy, supplier reconciliations, overdue items and team throughput. • Use KPI reporting to improve daily, weekly and monthly management of finance operations. • Evidence genuine ability to build reports, interpret data and use KPIs to manage people, process quality and operational performance. Systems, data and automation • Act as the key finance operations process owner for transactional workflows within Business Central and connected operating systems. • Work with finance, IT and operational teams to improve data flows into finance and reduce manual correction. • Identify and implement opportunities to use automation, workflow tools, AI and better reporting to reduce repetitive tasks, improve data quality and increase team capacity. • Maintain a practical understanding of how transactional data flows through operational systems into finance systems and reporting outputs. Continuous improvement • Lead initiatives to simplify, standardise and automate transactional finance processes. • Identify root causes of recurring issues and work upstream with operational teams to prevent errors entering finance processes. • Move the team from reactive problem solving and manual correction to preventative controls, better source data and standardised processes. • Track benefits from improvements, including reduced processing times, fewer errors, cleaner data, improved working capital metrics and reduced manual intervention. Person Specification: Essential • Significant experience leading accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, credit control or broader transactional finance teams. • Strong people management experience, including coaching, performance management, workload planning and team development. • Proven ability to run high-volume operational finance processes in a controlled and disciplined way. • Strong understanding of process design, financial controls, reconciliations, approvals, month-end cut-off and exception management. • Evidence of having built or significantly improved KPI reporting, dashboards or operational finance reporting packs. • Comfortable using data to manage team performance, identify bottlenecks and drive improvement. • Strong systems awareness and ability to understand how operational processes feed finance systems and reporting. • Experience improving processes, reducing manual work and embedding more scalable ways of working. • Strong communication skills, with the ability to work across finance, operations, systems and senior management. • Practical, hands-on approach with the ability to operate effectively during transition and change. Desirable • Experience using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or similar finance systems. • Experience in a multi-entity or group finance environment. • Experience supporting finance transformation, systems implementation or post-implementation process improvement. • Experience using reporting tools, workflow tools, automation or AI-enabled solutions to improve finance operations. • Experience in healthcare, insurance, professional services, outsourcing or other high-volume service environments. Company Benefits: Medicash Health Cash Plan: Which includes ability to claim back dental, optical, and chiropody costs. Plus, add your dependent children for free! + 24/7 Digital Health: Round-the-clock access to a virtual GP helpline and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) + Mental Health Support: Up to 8 fully funded face-to-face counselling or CBT sessions Pension Scheme & Pension Salary Sacrifice Peace of Mind: Rest easy knowing your loved ones are protected with a Death in Service benefit equal to 4x your base salary Payroll Giving: Support the causes you love directly from your gross pay Annual Leave: 25 days + BH, plus Birthday Leave to celebrate your special day Flexibility: Option to buy or sell up to 3 days of holiday each year Giving Back: Up to 2 fully paid Volunteering/Community days per year Family First: Enhanced, generous Maternity and Paternity policies, alongside comprehensive Company Sick Pay Professional Development: We fund professional subscriptions and registrations post-probation, alongside internal promotion and secondment opportunities Rewarding Excellence: Annual pay reviews, discretionary bonus schemes, and regular staff awards to celebrate your hard work plus a regular events and activities throughout the year Equal Opportunities Statement: HCML is committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.