Finance Business Partner

Intro

Cedar is partnered with a private equity-backed infrastructure business near Knutsford to appoint an Interim Finance Business Partner. This is a 6-month contract offering a day rate of £450-475 per day.

The Company

This established PE-backed infrastructure business operates across large-scale, project and contract-led environments, with a significant focus on commercial performance, working capital and cash generation.

Following continued development under private equity ownership, the finance team is looking to strengthen its commercial capability, with particular emphasis on short-term cash visibility, budgeting and financial insight across the business.

The Role

The Interim Finance Business Partner will work closely with the Finance Director and commercial and operational teams, providing hands-on support across cash flow, revenue, budgeting and business performance. A major focus will be ownership of the 13-week cash flow forecast, alongside improving visibility over revenue, contract balances and working capital.

Key responsibilities include:

• Owning and maintaining the 13-week cash flow forecast, improving visibility over short-term cash requirements.
• Tracking actual cash performance against forecast, investigating variances and improving forecast accuracy.
• Partnering with Commercial, Operations, AR and AP around billing, collections and payment assumptions.
• Monitoring revenue-related balance sheet positions, including contract assets, contract liabilities and receivables.
• Understanding and analysing the relationship between revenue recognition, billing and cash collection.
• Supporting budgeting, forecasting and periodic reforecasting.
• Providing analysis of performance against budget and forecast, highlighting risks and opportunities.
• Business partnering with commercial and operational teams around contract and project performance.
• Providing commercial challenge around revenue, margin, working capital and cash conversion.
• Supporting improvements in financial insight and decision-making across the business.

Your Profile

• Qualified accountant - ACA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent.
• Strong commercial finance or Finance Business Partnering experience.
• Demonstrable experience owning or developing 13-week cash flow forecasts.
• Strong understanding of working capital, revenue recognition and cash conversion.
• Experience of budgeting, forecasting and financial analysis.
• Comfortable partnering with and challenging commercial and operational stakeholders.
• Infrastructure, construction, engineering, energy, utilities or another project/contract-led environment would be advantageous.

Compensation & Benefits

The day rate for this Interim Finance Business Partner role is £450-475 per day. The role is based near Knutsford, with hybrid working requiring 3 days per week in the office. This is a 6-month opportunity to take ownership of key cash and commercial finance workstreams within a sizeable private equity-backed infrastructure business.