Commercial Finance Business Partner UK

As Commercial Finance Business Partner you will work within all business-related finance topics for our UK business. You will have a chance to work with a diverse and highly motivated cross functional team across a plethora of projects, and directly influence the success of the Helsing group. This is a rare opportunity to join the company at an exciting stage of its early development and to help set the conditions for rapid growth and success over the next few years.

• Operate as a Business Partner to several key operational areas.

• Act as primary financial focal point for the designated business areas providing the management team within that area with full financial support and information to enable timely and accurate decision making.

• Utilise financial techniques and tools to interpret, analyse and understand monthly performance information, the drivers behind any cost variances and support the preparation of mitigation and action plans to resolve any issues.

• Manage the monthly and quarterly financial forecasting process across your designated business areas.

• Evaluate the potential impact of risks and opportunities and support operational teams to identify and implement mitigation plans driving profitability.

• Report programme performance including progress to plan, performance taken, and remaining effort, including effects on Order Intake, Revenue, Margin & Cash.

• Support the development of performance reporting metrics and management information for use by programme leadership team. 

• Lead and develop other members of the team on all aspects of project controlling. 

• Establish strong relationships with external customers in the UK Ministry of Defence.

• Have experience with building and managing internal and external stakeholder relationships.

• Have excellent attention to detail, and the ability to work independently and as part of a team.

• Have an, or are studying towards, an accounting and/or commercial qualification or MBA.

• Strong technical background, with the ability to guide and develop the teams financial skills.

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.

• An adaptable and resilient character, able to cope with changing requirements and multiple priorities who can help their team remain effective.

• Experience in business partnering and influencing skills; able to explain and troubleshoot financial issues with non-finance professionals and inspire them to achieve greater financial performance.

• Experience of providing financial management within the defence sector.

• Demonstrable business & commercial acumen.

• Are business fluent in English.

Note: The above bullet points describe the ideal candidate. None of us matched all of these at once when we first joined Helsing. We encourage you to apply even if you believe you meet only part of our wish list.

This position may require the successful applicant to apply for and be granted local security clearance and potentially other NATO security clearance.

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns. 

• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world. 

• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward. 

• In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts.  

• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about. 

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking

• Competitive compensation and stock options

• Relocation support

• Social and education allowances

• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe