Finance Director (Iberia) – Industry & Manufacturing In Madrid | SZL-182

GT Linkers is looking for a strong, hands-on, strategic Financial Director for Spain and Portugal to join a leading, multinational industrial company in Madrid.

Mission:

As an Executive Committee / Board Member, you will be responsible for providing Strategic Direction & Operational Delivery to ensure Group's financial priorities are met, ensuring efficient and effective delivery of the processes with robust Control and Compliance mechanisms: Drive and articulate the Iberia's financial strategy through insights and data-driven decision-making. You will be a key driver in the strategic & organizational transformation of the Finance function (through the creation of hubs dedicated to each financial area such as Internal Audit, Credit Controlling, etc).

Key Responsibilities:

1. As the Country Finance Director, you will manage and oversee the preparation of the company's financial statements to ensure they are accurate and timely, as well you will reinforce locally the implementation of accounting policies and financial controls, providing local oversight to the core finance functions.
2. You will support the strategic direction of the Group while leading the finance representatives in Spain and Portugal, proactively escalating local accounting and business matters to Group functions and working collaboratively to resolve them.
3. Accountable for the entire Iberian market with direct accountability for delivery of regional finance activity & priorities (independent of activity location); whilst proactively contributing to Group Finance priorities. Finance activity includes, but not limited to, Management and Financial reporting, Budgeting and Forecasting, adoption of company’s Policy and Standard Operating Procedures (including technology enablers), ensuring sound financial management and control of the company's business.
4. Provide financial guidance, data and support through in-depth knowledge and expertise to in-country finance managers, sales and operational staff to enable them to achieve their objectives.
5. Own and manage Service Delivery of Finance Operations across multiple geographies within the region, fulfilling requirements such as Regulatory (e.g. management of local authorities, submission of reports etc.), Language (e.g. local language requirements for invoice processing, reports etc.), System (e.g. local system requirements for accounting, invoicing etc.), Business (e.g. local management / teams requirement) and Administrative (e.g. specific local customer documentation, paperwork etc.).
6. Responsible for hiring, managing and steering the Finance team, setting and monitoring of annual performance plans, coaching, learning and training and career development, to facilitate the team's motivation and development to ensure seamless day-to-day business operations and continuous learning.
7. You will be one of the leaders in the upcoming change (General Process Implementation), fully aligned with the Process Standardization Department, including the deployment of corporate rollouts (e.g., the new global ERP – an evolved SAP system).
8. Work closely with the Global Business Services / GBS team to ensure processes across the geographies are performed in a consistent and high-quality manner.
9. Adopt groups core process & technology standards and ensure proactive engagement in Finance Governance. Foster collaboration with and drive reporting to group's shareholders.
10. Ensure compliance by overseeing and monitoring internal and external audits (to be managed for both management accounts -IFRS Financial Statement- and statutory accounts -Local GAAP-), as well as responding to local statutory audits.
11. As the Finance Business Partner, you will be reporting to the Managing Director in Iberia, as well as to the Regional CFO (Southern Europe), being part of the Finance Leadership team.

Requirements:

1. Experience: We are looking for a solid and creative, people-oriented, business-oriented and data-driven CFO, able to act as a change leader across the organization, from Strategy to Execution (need to be really hands-on), with 15+ years of experience in multinational, collaborative, matrix environments (with Industrial Operations / Manufacturing Plants) in a Finance function including in leadership roles, with country or regional scope, operating and delivering financial objectives in mature finance setup (global, complex and matrix organization) which includes a Global Business Services delivery, as well as Group Finance, GPOs and local teams. Process-orientation & leadership, promoting a collaborative team environment.
2. Having evolved from a product-based company to a service, solutions or project-based one would be a big plus as this is exactly the moment the company is facing.
3. Used to report both local -working very closely to Managing Director- and globally, complying to strict timings for consolidations. Data-driven through accurate financial data management, he/she would need to structure team and reporting to optimize workflows, for a better internal client orientation.
4. Experience working with SAP and other ERPs (within a complex IT environment).
5. Strong business acumen and strategic skills (including P&L management) as well as strong analytical ability to generate insights, business cases and investment decisions.

Soft Skills:

1. Ability to work collaboratively both upwards and at peer level with functional and business colleagues in various stakeholder groups (e.g. Sales, Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, other Group functions) and locations (not only in Iberia, Spain and Portugal, but also with international stakeholders).
2. Excellent people management skills, including fostering long-term development and managing Controlling (Plant & Sales), Credit Control & Accounting teams across locations & countries (10 people approx). Able to define tasks and generate an "ownership" and service-orientation mindset.
3. Passionate and driven to succeed in business and to convey the company's vision.

Languages:

1. Fluent in English & Spanish. Other European languages being a plus.

Education:

1. Bachelors degree with a focus in Business, Finance or Economics, as well as professional Financial qualification related to Chartered Accounting or Management Accounting (Accounting certification).

Other Skills & Attributes Required:

1. Commercially minded and product focused, as well as demonstrable experience of understanding relationships between key financial and non-financial business value drivers, translating business requirements into open, honest and transparent insight to solve business challenges. Internal service mindset is a must.
2. Ability to understand and interpret complex financial data, relevant financial legislation and regulations translating the impacts to senior business leaders with accurate financial data (proven track record of collaborating with business leaders in a complex business environment).
3. Superior understanding of accounting principles and financial analysis, as well as integrated business and scenario planning to improve understanding and tracking of financial performance (growth, cost efficiency, investment, cash flow, EBITDA, gross profit, CM), with a strong focus on KPIs and metrics to challenge all functions on continuous improvement and evolvement.
4. Evidence of ability to challenge, influence, listen to and resolve conflicts with key decision makers, building and maintaining strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders acting as a trusted business advisor.
5. Excellent communication and presentation skills, catered to a wide variety of audiences, being able to highlight risks, offer innovative and practical mitigations, and drive through their execution.
6. Ability to implement steps required to be compliant with relevant legislation and regulations as well as continuous improvement of Finance process controls.
7. This role will require regular travel to different locations in Spain and Portugal.

What we offer:

1. Full-time position with a competitive total compensation package, including annual group bonus, company pension, company car and other attractive benefits.
2. To start as soon as possible.
3. Agile but demanding recruitment process, including 3 interviews (including at least 2 in English) + GT Linkers evaluation and references check.