Senior Finance Business Partner

Role OVO-View

Team: Finance

Salary banding:  £62,210 - £80,000 

Experience: Expert

Working pattern: Full-Time

Reporting to: Ella Pedler Head of Finance Business Partnering

Sponsorship: Unfortunately we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

This role in 3 words: Bold, Tenacious, Resilient

Top 3 qualities for this role: Stakeholder Engagement. Collaborative. Decision maker

In the words of the team, you should leave your current role for this one because….

“You’ll be joining an established high performing team with great development opportunities”

Where you’ll work:

At OVO, we understand that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why we created the OVO Way of Flexibility.

All our roles are hub based (Bristol, Glasgow or London), providing a dedicated space for collaboration, connection and teamwork. Ideally, we're looking for candidates who can access our Bristol or London office on a weekly basis. You'll also have the flexibility to work from home.

Everyone belongs at OVO

At OVO, we are on a mission to solve one of humanity's biggest challenges, the climate crisis. And we know it takes all of us to change the world. That's why we need diverse people from all abilities, gender identities, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, life experiences and backgrounds to join us.

Teamworking for the planet

Everything we do here spins around Plan Zero. So, naturally, the team you’ll be joining plays a gigantic role in making that happen. Here’s how:

The OVO finance team consists of around 130 people and is split into three pillars:

Pillar 1: Foundations,

Pillar 2: Business partnering

Pillar 3: Strategic & corporate finance

This role will sit in Pillar 2 as the Senior Finance Business Partner in the finance business partnering team. The role reports into the Head of Finance Business Partnering, who in turn reports into the VP Finance (who is the leader of pillar 2). 

The finance business partnering team works closely with the following finance teams: FP&A, Procurement, Supplier Relationship Management, Management Accounting, and Commercial Finance.

This role in a nutshell:

You will collaborate with stakeholders, developing compelling insight and presentations that influence partners on the path to value creation. You’ll support with pragmatic problem solving and be seen as a responsible thought leader in finance who is unafraid to challenge the business on course correction. You’ll be forward thinking and be able to anticipate, challenge and plan for changes within financial outlooks. 

You’ll be self sufficient, make the harder judgement calls and know when to escalate. Your focus on delivering the right message and 

You will understand the competitive landscape and bring a financial lens to strategic decision making & influence, and encourage scalable solutions with focus on long term financial health.

If you lead a team, you will enable rapid growth and identify areas for development. You’ll remain responsible but delegate responsibility and foster empowered thinking within a controlled framework / guiding set of principles.

Your key outcomes will be:

Partnering

• Partner with C-suite and LTs (VPs, Directors, HoDs) providing financial insight and challenge into strategic and tactical decisions as well as past business performance
• Maintain a monthly cadence for an outlook, connecting with the People & Procurement teams for full, well rounded reviews. Advising the business on course correction if actual costs stray from budget, including working with the OVO leadership team to devise plans to converge back to budget.
• Working collaboratively with senior business leaders to prepare analysis to support and constructively challenge financial decision making. This is both as requested by the business, and also ad hoc where the business partnering team spots potential opportunities.

Budgeting

• Contribute to the financial semi-annual budgeting process, working between the Business, people partnering and FP&A to ensure robust financial & FTE plans are delivered in line with agreed timescales, balancing stretch and credibility. 
• Working with the business through annual medium term strategic outlook processes to develop 3-5 year forecasts, and in particular supporting business leaders to develop industry leading team structures which allow for best-in-class operational leverage.
• Understands and devises opportunities for cost base improvements, and presents these to the finance leadership team and the OVO leadership team.

Investment appraisal & cost governance

• Owning and leading the investment appraisal process, including business casing, pre-investment appraisal and post-investment reviews. Setting return on investment hurdles and ensuring cost governance over material projects.
• Working with the tax team and the business to support R&D tax claims.

Representing the finance team

• Representing the finance team in regular conversations with the business and liaising back with the individual specialist areas of the finance team on matters arising around the business. The candidate will update the finance leadership team on a regular basis on matters which they have become aware of and which impact the finance team.
• Striving to improve the business and our finance processes to allow better insight and more focus on value adding activities

Systems: Excel / google sheets, Workday, Adaptive Planning

You’ll be a successful Senior Finance Business Partner here at OVO if you…

• Finance professional with experience of solving business issues of similar scale and complexity  
• Ability to Interpret and assimilate multiple data sources to provide meaningful insight and appropriate recommendations and clear actions
• Effectively communicating financial performance to operational colleagues to embed financial understanding within the business
• Influence strategy and translate this into actionable programmes, opportunities or activities that result in improved profitability or risk mitigation
• Able to manage multiple complex projects/processes simultaneously Commercially focused on ability to make fair returns from our customers

Let’s talk about what’s in it for you

We’ll pay you between £62,210 and £80,000, depending on your specific skills and experience. If your expectations are a little different, have a chat with us!

We keep our pay ranges broad on purpose to give us, and you, flexibility to match your experience to our zero carbon mission.

You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal. 

We also offer plenty of green benefits and progressive policies to help you feel like you belong at OVO…and there’s flex pay.  It’s an extra 9% of your salary on top of your core pay to use as you like. You can take it as cash, add to your pension, or choose to spend it on a huge range of flex benefits.

Here’s a taster of what’s on offer: 

For starters, you’ll get 34 days of holiday (including bank holidays).

For your health
With benefits like a healthcare cash plan or private medical insurance depending on your career level, critical illness cover, life assurance, health assessments, and more

For your wellbeing
With gym membership, gadget, travel and cyber insurance, workplace ISA, will writing services, DNA testing, dental insurance, and more

For your lifestyle
With extra holiday buying, discount dining, culture cards, tech loans, and supporting your favourite charities with give-as-you-earn donations

For your home 
Get up to £300 off any OVO Energy plan (when you pay by Direct Debit), plus personal carbon offsetting and great discounts on smart thermostats and EV chargers

For your commute
Nab a great deal on ultra-low emission car leasing, plus our cycle to work scheme and public transport season ticket loans

Want to hear about our full range of flexible benefits and progressive people policies? Our People Team can tell you everything you need to know.

For your Belonging

To find better ways to support our people, we need to listen to each other’s experiences and find ways to build a truly inclusive and diverse workplace. As part of this, we have 8 Belonging Networks at OVO. Led by our people, for our people - so when you join OVO, you can play a part - big or small - with any of the Networks. It's up to you.

Oh, and one last thing...

We’d be thrilled if you tick off all our boxes yet we also believe it’s just as important we tick off all of yours. And if you think you have most of what we’re looking for but not every single thing, go ahead and hit apply. We’d still love to hear from you! If you have any additional requirements, there’s a space to let us know on the application form; we want to make the process as easy and comfortable for you as possible..