Finance and Operations Transformation Lead

Finance Operations & Transformation Lead

£90,000 - £100,000 + Bonus & Benefit

London (Hybrid, 3 days in office)

Are you a Finance Operations or Transformation leader who has redesigned a high-volume finance function, automated the manual work and reshaped the team around a better operating model? Aila Recruitment is exclusively supporting one of the UK's leading residential property management businesses in the search for a Finance Operations & Transformation Lead on a permanent basis.

About the Company:

• A large residential business, well established with a large and growing portfolio
• London HQ with a large head office finance and client accounting function supporting developments nationwide
• A business committing serious investment to modernising its finance operations

The Role:

Reporting to the CFO, you'll take senior leadership of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Treasury and Credit Control, and lead a significant transformation programme across all four. This is a genuine change mandate: review how the function is structured and run today, design the future operating model, then deliver it.

You'll also act as a senior figure in the finance function and work closely with the Head of Client Accounting, with a permanent remit to embed and continuously improve the model once the heavy lifting is done. It suits a leader who is comfortable making difficult people decisions, challenging established ways of working and taking a team with them through change.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and delivery of a future Finance Operations operating model across AP, AR, Treasury and Credit Control, including the future organisational structure
• Review existing processes, systems, controls, workloads and team structures, identifying where capacity can be released and cost-to-serve reduced
• Build and deliver a prioritised transformation roadmap, balancing value, risk, cost and customer impact
• Drive automation and AI across manual, high-volume and rules-based activity, including bank statement imports, reconciliations, case allocation and reporting
• Lead a programme to materially reduce unallocated cash, improving payer identification, cash allocation and ownership of residual balances
• Transform Credit Control into a data-led collections operation, with debt segmentation, differentiated arrears strategies and clear KPIs
• Establish a controlled invoice-to-pay model in AP, with supplier statement reconciliations, payment-run discipline and fewer duplicate payments and queries
• Strengthen financial controls, escalation routes and service standards, introducing daily and weekly performance reporting
• Lead, develop and hold to account the existing managers and teams, building a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement

The Ideal Candidate:

• Significant experience leading finance operations or finance transformation in a complex, high-volume environment
• A proven track record of people-led transformation, delivering measurable efficiency and headcount savings, not just process mapping
• Hands-on experience implementing automation and technology within finance
• Strong working knowledge of AP, AR, Treasury and Credit Control, including cash management and debt collection
• A track record of improving financial controls and operational performance using MI
• Strong people leadership, with the resilience to lead teams through significant change and the credibility to challenge established ways of working
• Excellent stakeholder management across Finance, Technology and senior leadership
• Able to operate at both strategic and operational levels, with strong analytical and commercial judgement

What they offer:

• Salary of c.£90,000 - £100,000
• Discretionary Bonus
• Private Medical Insurance
• A senior, high-visibility role with a clear transformation mandate and direct influence over the future shape of the function
• Hybrid working, 3 days a week in the Vauxhall office

How to Apply:

We want to hear from you if you're excited about this opportunity and believe you have what it takes to excel in this role. Apply now for further information.

About Aila Recruitment:

Aila is a specialist finance recruitment business dedicated to providing the best jobs to the best people. We operate as an extended arm of our client's business and a career coach for our candidates' ongoing development.

Not quite the right role for you? Contact us to discuss other opportunities and start a partnership with a finance agency that puts you first.