Senior Finance Manager
About Lightsource bp
Lightsource bp, one of the world’s leading developers and operator of utility-scale solar and battery storage assets. With full ownership by bp, this will enable Lightsource bp to scale up and create additional value by applying bp’s complementary capabilities and strengths – including in finance and trading – fully to the business.
By joining the Lightsource bp team, you will “be the change” on the world’s energy transition to a more sustainable future and contribute to Lightsource bp’s continuing growth and high performance.
We pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit as we continue to push the boundaries of an ever-changing energy landscape. By choosing a career with us, you can expect a challenging and fulfilling role surrounded by people who are passionate and have brilliant ideas about sustainable technology, innovation and making the world a better place.
Duties and Responsibilities
Overall responsibilities:
- Responsible for ensuring the timely close of the accounting books for legal entities across a number of Central EMEA jurisdictions (Netherlands, Ireland, France, Germany and Poland) and the integrity of data contained in the financial records
- Provide accounting expertise, direction and guidance to the Finance Managers located across Central EMEA jurisdictions, as well as manage liquidity requirements
- Prepare, analyse and interpret financial information for reporting to senior management and Finance Director
- Provide informative interpretation and analysis of activities together with comparatives to budgets / forecasts
- Produce comprehensive financial and commercial information in an accurate and timely manner
- Act as the key bridge between the London HQ and the Finance Managers in Central EMEA, swiftly communicating any changes or developments, ensuring that both the Regional Finance Director and the Country teams are fully abreast at any time of significant events
- Contribute to the personal development of the team both from a technical and “soft skill” perspective
- Contribute to ensuring that performance management across the Central EMEA team is timely and effective.
- Role model Lightsource bp’s core values (safety, respect, integrity, sustainability, and drive)
Financial Accounting and Performance Management:
- Provide timely and accurate analysis to support senior management with the insight and data to inform decisions
- Ensure quality, timely finance reviews of projects/portfolios take place to enable timely corrective accounting entries to be made, when appropriate
- Contribute to the oversight and timely delivery of the management and statutory accounts for Central EMEA legal entities
- Help drive the annual local audit process and filing of statutory financial statements in a timely manner for relevant Central EMEA legal entities.
- Support as needed on the group audit to ensure we hit organizational goals for completing the group audit.
- Work closely across finance and the business to identify opportunities to improve processes
- Support the liquidity processes to help balance and manage cash requirements across the group
- Drive the budgeting and forecasting process in Central EMEA including laying out the timeline incorporating all reviews in the lead up to exec review and approval
Financial Compliance & Control:
- Assist the Regional Finance Director in improving processes that allow acceleration of month end activities providing more scope for review
- Support the Regional Finance Director in the roll out of new accounting processes, systems, and SOX-compliant protocols across the different countries within Central EMEA
- Support the Regional Finance Director in ensuring that effective reviews of financials take place every month, adjusting the accounts as needed.
- Ensure integrity of actual results against local statutory regulations, ensuring the development of and compliance with IFRS and local GAAP.
- Support the Regional Finance Director in providing responses to all external regulatory / statutory queries and surveys (for example, audit, tax and regulatory bodies ).
Business Partnering & Support:
- Support the regional Finance Director on strategic projects, as needed.
- Business Partner to relevant senior managers in EMEA region.
- Support divestment activity as required
- Support the regional Finance Director in challenging the organization to ensure delivery of the quarterly key performance indicators, forecast, budget and targets.
Team Leadership & Development:
- Lead and develop the direct team in the Central EMEA. Support their growth as individuals to help them meet their career aspirations
- Support the regional Finance Director in ensuring that the team all have active development plans that support their aspirations.
- Contribute to the wider team/function ambition of making Lightsource bp a wonderful place to work.
Work Skills & Experience
- Fully Qualified (ACCA, ACMA, ACA or equivalent) with significant post-qualified experience
- Good technical accounting skills, including experience of accounting under IFRS with demonstrable ability of learning and applying evolving accounting guidance
- A positive, resilient, and driven individual that partners with business stakeholders to achieve department and overall organization goals.
- A finance leader who delivers through others but with the ability to dig into the detail if required.
- Experience of leading teams, ideally including experience of leading geographically dispersed teams.
- Ability to build global relationships with people from finance and non-finance backgrounds
- Experience in the preparation and interpretation of budgets and forecasts
- Experience working with complex financing and company structures an advantage
- Previous experience working for an international, complex business with the ability to apply learning from previous roles to a fast-growing SME.
- Excellent written communication skills with experience of presenting financial information to senior stakeholders in finance and business roles.
General Skills/Attributes
- Help guide the team, driving a performance culture across the team.
- Organised with the ability to flex to changing demands.
- Excellent presentation and communication skills with the ability to distil the key facts for stakeholders.
- Curiosity to understand and challenge the business to drive value creation.
- Diligent and the drive to promote a “right first time” culture across finance.
- Eagerness to learn and grow with the business, and the desire to help shape the function and the business
Why you’ll want to work for us
Our company is a place where you can be yourself and grow; a place where your ideas and opinions matter.
Be you
We pride ourselves on being an inclusive community, where every individual is valued and treated with respect.
Be responsible
Our culture is driven by our core values. From operating safely to ensuring our solar projects are responsible and promote biodiversity.
Be recognized
Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a variety of benefits including annual bonus, retention bank, health insurance, pension and other local benefits.
Be inspired
Beyond your day-to-day working life at Lightsource bp, there’s a variety of initiatives that will contribute to your own personal development. Initiatives to get involved with including our charitable causes, supporting our solar honey project or our sustainability initiatives.
Our Core Values
Lightsource bp truly cares about creating a sustainable future through safe, responsible and meaningful low carbon energy projects. Our core values of Safety, Integrity, Respect, Sustainability and Drive are the guiding principles for everything we do.
https://www.lightsourcebp.com/careers/