Head of Finance

Role Overview

Our client seeks a Country CFO for Ireland, a newly created position overseeing finance operations across the entire country with flexible location options. Reporting to the Managing Director and Group CFO of a global organization, this role leads the Finance & Accounting team, Payroll, Credit Control, and Procurement functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Steer financial planning, reporting, treasury, tax, payroll governance, and procurement in compliance with Irish laws and Group policies.
• Partner commercially with the Country Manager and Sales/Operations leaders to safeguard margin integrity, profitability, and solvency.
• Manage gross profit and Net Fee Income reporting, govern margin thresholds, and model statutory cost changes impacting the P&L, ensuring contracts allow appropriate margin recovery.
• Support investment decisions with commercial insights and research.
• Oversee funding gaps, banking relationships, invoice discounting/receivables finance, covenant compliance, and manage credit policies including credit limits and bad debt provisioning.
• Maintain rolling 13-week cash forecasts and daily cash positions.
• Own budgeting, forecasting, and a 3-year plan for Ireland, delivering monthly management accounts with variance analysis and KPIs.
• Conduct scenario analyses for pricing, tender bids, and accounts.
• Prepare statutory financial statements in accordance with FRS 102/Irish GAAP and Companies Act 2014; manage external audits and CRO filings.
• Ensure compliance with Irish tax regulations including Corporation Tax, VAT (with complexities like reverse charges and cross-border place-of-supply), Relevant Contracts Tax for construction, and payroll-related taxes (PAYE Modernisation, PRSI, USC).
• Oversee pension obligations including auto-enrolment and maintain strong relationships with Revenue Commissioners.
• Manage GBP exposures, HMRC obligations, and VAT issues for operations trading into Northern Ireland or the UK.
• Maintain internal controls, risk registers, facilitate Group Internal Audit reviews, and ensure adequacy of insurance covers.
• Lead procurement strategy and supplier management in Ireland, supervising the Request-to-Pay process and supplier compliance.

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) with relevant degree in finance, accounting or business.
• A minimum of 5 years in senior finance roles, ideally at Head of Finance or Finance Director level.
• Extensive knowledge of Irish GAAP (FRS 102), Companies Act 2014, and Irish employment tax frameworks.
• Proven experience managing high-volume payroll operations and working capital/receivables finance.
• Strong commercial partnership skills with sales and leadership teams.
• Proficient in ERP systems, ATS/timesheet platforms, advanced Excel, and BI/reporting tools.
• Familiarity with construction sector regulations such as RCT, SEOs, and CWPS.
• Experience working within multinational corporate structures.
• Background in M&A activities and post-acquisition integration.