Senior Commercial Finance and FP&A Manager

We’re ZEISS Vision Care UK, based in Birmingham; an exciting place to work, where individuals make a real difference every day.  As part of the ZEISS group, we are an international leader in the field of optics, with over 46,000 employees across 50 countries around the globe.

As the branded leader in lenses, we offer premium and pioneering products; innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Our brand enhances the lives and vision of millions of people around the world. In fact, 2 people every second put their trust in ZEISS lenses.

We’re looking for a Senior Commercial Finance and FP&A Manager to join us in Birmingham (Hybrid 3 days a week in the office).

Your Role

This is a critical leadership role within the Carl Zeiss Vision UK (CZVUK) Finance team, responsible for leading the Commercial Finance Business Partnering team and driving the transformation of the Company's financial planning, reporting, data and insight capabilities.

As a key strategic partner to the business, you will combine strong financial and commercial judgement with a hands-on approach to transformation, helping to drive profitable growth, improve business performance and support informed decision-making across the organisation.

You will lead the evolution of Finance from manual, retrospective reporting towards more automated, connected and forward-looking financial insight, making effective use of data, technology and AI to deliver measurable business value.

Alongside this, you will oversee the Company's budgeting, forecasting and performance management processes, while playing a key role in supporting ZEISS's customer financing initiative, helping our customers achieve their ambitions through tailored financial support.

The role will involve line management of two qualified Commercial Finance Business Partners, providing leadership, coaching and development to build a high-performing, commercially focused team.

The role of Head of Commercial Finance & FP&A will involve:

• Leadership and Business Partnering: Lead, coach and develop the Commercial Finance Business Partner team, setting clear objectives, allocating responsibilities and driving a high-performance culture. Build strong relationships with senior commercial stakeholders, influencing decision-making through meaningful financial analysis, commercial insight and challenge.
• Commercial Performance and Strategic Decision Support: Provide financial and commercial insight across customer, product and channel performance, identifying opportunities to improve revenue, profitability, pricing, margin and productivity. Lead the development and review of business cases, investment appraisals and scenario modelling to support strategic initiatives and sustainable business growth.
• Customer Financing: Lead CZVUK's customer financing activity, acting as the key finance contact for internal and external stakeholders, including customers, commercial teams, legal advisers, auditors and senior management. Oversee financial due diligence, lending business cases, ongoing performance reviews and contractual compliance, ensuring robust governance and effective financial controls. Develop management information and reporting to monitor the financing pipeline, revenue opportunities and business case performance.
• Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A): Lead the annual budgeting process, rolling forecasts and medium-term financial planning, ensuring alignment between financial expectations and commercial and operational objectives. Develop integrated financial models, oversee commercial finance reporting and KPI frameworks, and provide clear performance updates and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Data, Reporting and AI Transformation: Lead the development and delivery of a finance transformation roadmap, improving data quality, reporting processes, systems and business intelligence capabilities. Identify opportunities to automate reporting and introduce practical AI-enabled solutions, such as predictive forecasting, anomaly detection and automated variance analysis. Ensure new technologies are implemented responsibly, with robust validation, appropriate controls and clear human accountability.
• Continuous Improvement and Governance: Drive improvements in financial processes, reporting standards and controls, ensuring accurate, consistent and accessible management information. Work collaboratively across Finance and the wider business to deliver transformation initiatives, encourage continuous improvement and embed a culture of analytical rigour and evidence-based decision-making.

Your Experience:

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent), with significant post-qualification experience in commercial finance, financial planning and analysis or a similar senior finance role.
• Proven experience leading and developing finance teams, with the ability to coach, motivate and build high-performing business partnering functions.
• Strong commercial acumen and experience partnering with senior stakeholders, influencing strategic decisions and translating complex financial information into clear, actionable business insight.
• Extensive experience in budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, performance management and delivering financial analysis to support business growth and profitability.
• Demonstrable experience leading finance transformation, improving reporting processes, enhancing data quality and implementing systems or automation to improve financial insight and efficiency.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to challenge assumptions, assess commercial risks and identify opportunities for sustainable business improvement.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence at all levels of the organisation.

It would be desirable if you had:

• Experience in customer financing, lending, credit assessment or financial due diligence, including the development and presentation of business cases for senior leadership or board approval.
• Experience using business intelligence, data visualisation and financial planning tools to improve reporting and forecasting capabilities.
• Exposure to AI-enabled finance solutions, predictive analytics and process automation, with an understanding of how these can be applied responsibly within a finance environment.

Your Benefits

If you join ZEISS, you will have access to a range of benefits, including:

• Salary benchmarked against the 400 biggest companies in the UK
• 10% Employer pension contribution (providing a 4 % employee contribution)
• Bonus Scheme
• Private Healthcare
• Free ZEISS lenses for you and discounted ZEISS lenses for your friends and family

Your ZEISS Recruiting Team:

Abbie Walters