Financial Manager - Operations

Financial Manager - Operations

Company: Entire Location: South Melbourne Work Type: Full-time Work Arrangement: Onsite

This newly created position is designed to closely align with operational performance, connecting service and fabrication delivery with financial insights. Reporting directly to the Financial Controller and collaborating with division leaders, the Finance Manager – Operations will serve as the principal financial partner for these divisions. A secondary responsibility includes supporting the developing prefabrication business unit. The successful candidate will be adept at managing a range of tasks, from monitoring KPIs and managing working capital to conducting detailed ground-level analysis. This is a commercial role focused on driving financially informed decisions through challenging and influencing division leaders, rather than a purely compliance or reporting function.

Key Responsibilities

• Utilise internal dashboards to monitor KPIs and metrics, preparing reporting packs and management reports that offer actionable insights across the business.
• Contribute to forecasting, budgeting, and financial analysis, covering labour, materials, cash flow, profitability margins, and working capital reporting, integrating risks and opportunities into forecasts.
• Act as the primary financial partner across the divisions, understanding performance, identifying trends, and providing commercial recommendations.
• Analyse financial performance, including monthly status, WIP & debtor days, and variances to plan and forecast, delivering clear insights and commentary to support General Managers' decision-making.
• Lead rolling forecasts for both divisions, encompassing labour, materials, subcontractor costs, and overhead analysis.
• Monitor working capital, debtor days, and creditor exposure, promptly escalating risks and maintaining cash flow visibility for the Financial Controller.
• Perform data extraction, validation, and reconciliation across Levesys and supplementary systems to ensure reporting accuracy and data integrity.
• Review monthly costs and accruals, ensuring accurate cost capture and variance analysis against forecasts.
• Maintain robust financial records, audit trails, and documentation to support internal and external audit requirements.
• Conduct scenario modelling and ad-hoc analysis to support strategic decisions, new contract bids, and capital expenditure proposals.
• Drive continuous improvement through enhanced reporting, automation, and process optimisation, leveraging internal dashboards and tooling to reduce manual effort.

About You

This is a singular finance position embedded within an operational business, without an analyst to support overflow tasks. You will be comfortable managing diverse responsibilities, such as resolving a billing discrepancy one morning and presenting a margin waterfall to a General Manager in the afternoon, and in fact, you will prefer this dynamic.

We seek an individual with a proactive attitude who takes initiative, assumes responsibility for challenges, and can engage credibly with service General Managers and C-suite executives. If this resonates with you, we encourage you to apply.

Qualifications & Experience

• CPA or CA qualified, or in the final stages of completion.
• 4+ years of experience in a commercial finance, FP&A, or operational finance role; the quality of experience is prioritised over the number of years.
• Demonstrated capacity to function as a genuine all-rounder, hands-on with financial data and credible with senior stakeholders.
• A background in facility management, service businesses, or high-volume transactional environments is an advantage.
• Experience within a multi-entity group utilising an ERP system is preferred; Levesys experience is a bonus but not required.

Technical Skills

• Ability to interpret metrics that drive behaviour, rather than solely reporting historical data.
• Exposure to AI, automation, or analytics tools in a practical business setting is valued.
• Comfortable with extracting, reconciling, and validating data across multiple systems, as this role operates at the intersection of various systems.

Personal Attributes

• A "roll-up-your-sleeves" mindset; no task is considered beneath you if it requires completion.
• Equally comfortable presenting to the C-suite and discussing job-level details with service teams, adapting communication style instinctively.
• Proactively identifies issues, proposes solutions, and follows through without constant oversight.
• Commercially curious, aiming to understand the underlying reasons for financial outcomes, not just report them.
• Maintains composure under competing deadlines without compromising quality.
• Strong communicator adept at translating financial complexity into easily understood language for operational personnel.

Application Instructions: Please submit your application.