Forward Deployed Operator - Finance (Business Controller)

About the role

Onodrim acquires specialist manufacturers in defence and dual-use supply chains and invests in their growth. Forward Deployed Operators embed themselves inside acquired companies and own one part of their growth. This role owns finance: after an acquisition, you rebuild the real picture of product costs, cash tied up in inventory and receivables, performance against budget and the time to close the books, then fix what matters with the company's own people and bring it into group reporting.

Key responsibilities

• Diagnose the finance function: rebuild the P&L, balance sheet and cash position from the ledger and assess people, processes and tools
• Build or rebuild product and process costing with production (materials, labour, overhead, scrap, capacity)
• Analyse inventory, receivables and payables, set targets with the plant and procurement and put routines in place
• Design and run a fast month-end close (reconciliations, accruals, inventory valuation, intercompany) and map the ledger to the group chart of accounts
• Set up monthly management reporting and KPIs, and build rolling cash and P&L forecasts
• Apply group accounting policies and IFRS adjustments locally, and upgrade ERP, accounting and reporting tools
• Build business cases with the other operators and the plant director, and coordinate statutory accounts, tax filings and audits with local advisors
• Assess the target's quality of earnings before the deal and leave each company with a working finance function

Required profile

• Degree in finance, accounting, economics, business or a closely related discipline
• 5+ years in finance, including at least 2 years as a financial controller, plant controller or finance business partner in a manufacturing or industrial company
• Professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CPA, RA, RC or equivalent) or equivalent depth in accounting
• Hands-on experience with month-end close, management reporting and cash forecasting
• Knowledge of IFRS and at least one European local GAAP, and experience bringing a subsidiary into group reporting
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU
• Extensive travel and long periods on site across Europe; English clear and direct, written and spoken

Required skills

• Rebuilding a P&L from a ledger export in Excel and modelling costing or working-capital changes
• ERP and accounting system configuration, cleaning up or implementation
• Standard costing, variance analysis and inventory systems in a make-to-order or low-volume, high-mix manufacturer
• Post-merger integration, financial due diligence and exposure to defence or regulated industries (beneficial)
• Modern data and BI tooling, and LLM-based tools (beneficial)