Strategic Finance Business Partner - Development

Are you an experienced Finance Business Partner with expertise in providing commercial financial advice and insight?

Do you have experience within Social Housing or Real Estate?

We have a fantastic opportunity to join our Investment and Development Finance team in this new role as Strategic Finance Business Partner – Development, supporting SNG's Investment & Development activities in our London & Hertford region. Working in partnership with the Regional Managing Director and senior management team in Investment & Development, you'll formulate the regions finance agenda, contributing to strategic decision making, performance management and risk mitigation planning.

Based from our offices in Wembley, you'll share your time between the office and home, as well as some travel being required between our offices.

It's a really exciting time to join us as Sovereign have joined forces with Network Homes to form SNG (Sovereign Network Group). Together we provide over 84,000 homes and invest in communities across London and the South of England – our purpose being to provide quality affordable homes and places that people love for generations.

The Role

Reporting into the Investment & Development Finance Director, you'll lead commercial finance decision support and performance management for the region, managing financial performance of c.£250-300m of Capex per annum, sales proceeds of c.£50-75m per annum and overall £1bn development pipeline.

You'll be providing timely, accurate and comprehensive financial performance reporting, commercial financial advice, scheme appraisals, KPIs and financial analysis to managers and the senior executive team in relation to development activity. Key Responsibilities include:

• Providing commercial and financial advice and insight into the regional development programme, considering overall portfolio risk and impact, contingency planning and alignment with regional strategy
• Communicating complex technical accounting and tax information and guidance, working collaboratively with wider finance technical experts to interpret financial and tax impacts and give advice on the optimum approach to development proposals
• Providing concise insight briefings to senior managers, focusing on deal structure, tax implications, key risks and mitigations, and return measures such as residual land value, profit margins, peak debt, ROCE, IRR, NPV and sales profile
• Leading financial decision support for new project submissions, challenging assumptions, identifying risks and any areas for outperformance
• Driving financial performance and managing risk by business partnering with the regional development team and delivering insightful forward looking Management reporting
• Leading regional budgeting and forecasting, challenging assumptions and ensuring accuracy and completeness

What we need from you

You'll be a fully Qualified Accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA) with significant experience providing commercial financial advice, strategic decision support, and financial appraisal modelling within the wider the Real Estate or Social Housing sectors. You'll also have:

• An excellent track record in business partnering, performance reporting, financial planning and stakeholder management
• Strong, clear working knowledge of processes and controls surrounding budgeting, forecasting and management reporting preparation, including detailed report writing and analysis
• An understanding of planning, construction and development risk and appropriate mitigation plans
• High Commercial and financial acumen with strong analysis skills and excel modelling experience
• Knowledge of corporate structuring, tax and accounting for development schemes to interpret and provide advice on development proposals
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to build trusting relationships with key stakeholders and influence at senior level
• Knowledge of PowerBI would be advantageous

Your Benefits

We have some great benefits at SNG, including: 

• £450 yearly flexible benefit pot to use against benefits of your choice
• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays (with an extra day every year up to 30 days)
• Chance to buy or sell holiday as part of our flexible benefits package
• Generous matched pension scheme up to 12% and Life cover at 4x salary 
• Options for private medical insurance, dental insurance and critical illness cover
• Wellbeing discounts, including Gym Memberships and access to a 24/7 virtual GP service

At Sovereign Network Group, we are passionate about inclusion for all and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive. We are committed to our Equality Diversity and Inclusion strategy and believe that you can truly be yourself at SNG. Take a look at our careers site to learn more about us and our values.

If you would like the opportunity to make a real impact within our changing and growing organisation, we would love to hear from you!