About our client
Our client is a long-term owner of vertical market software businesses. They acquire, build, and operate mission-critical software companies with a focus on durability, profitability, and continuous improvement rather than short-term financial engineering. Their philosophy is grounded in high standards, clear accountability, and disciplined execution. They believe strong leadership, financial rigor, and operational excellence are essential to building enduring businesses. They favor clarity over complexity, ownership over consensus, and impact over activity.
At their company, leaders are expected to:
- Think ambitiously and set goals that drive real outcomes
- Act with urgency and decisiveness, even with imperfect information
- Hold themselves and their teams to consistently high standards
- Communicate with candor and directness
- Take full ownership for results
They operate with a decentralized model, empowering portfolio companies to run their businesses while maintaining strong governance, financial discipline, and transparency at the portfolio level. The Head of Finance plays a critical role in reinforcing this mentality by ensuring financial clarity, accountability, and performance focus across the portfolio.
This role is suited for a finance leader who thrives in a high-expectation, high-trust environment, enjoys building strong teams, and is motivated by long-term value creation rather than short-term wins.
Job purpose
The Head of Finance is responsible for the overall financial leadership, governance, and performance of the portfolio. This role leads and develops Finance Directors, Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, and portfolio finance teams while owning all
portfolio-level financial strategy, performance management, intercompany structures, and governance.
The Head of Finance acts as a key strategic partner to senior leadership and operations, ensuring financial discipline, transparency, regulatory compliance, and value creation across the portfolio.
Overall role
- Lead the development and implementation of portfolio-wide financial strategies aligned with organizational and ownership objectives.
- Oversee all aspects of portfolio financial management, including budgeting, forecasting, reporting, cash flow, and risk management.
- Serve as the primary liaison between finance, senior management, operations, and external stakeholders (such as auditors and agencies).
- Lead, manage, and develop the portfolio finance organization, including Finance Directors, Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, and functional teams (Accounting, FP&A, AR, AP).
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Financial Strategy & Leadership
- Define and execute the portfolio financial strategy to support long-term growth, profitability, and value creation.
- Translate strategic objectives into clear financial targets, KPIs, and performance expectations.
- Provide financial leadership, challenge, and guidance to senior finance leaders across the portfolio.
- Maintain high-level interaction with operations and senior stakeholders.
Portfolio Performance Management & QBRs
- Own and lead the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process across the portfolio.
- Analyze portfolio performance, risks, and trends, and communicate insights to leadership.
- Monitor execution against financial targets and ensure corrective action plans are defined and delivered.
- Identify opportunities to improve financial performance, efficiency, and scalability.
Financial Reporting, Forecasting & Analysis
- Oversee the preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports at portfolio level.
- Ensure accurate, timely, and consistent reporting across portfolio companies.
- Build, manage, and review monthly, quarterly, and annual forecasts.
- Track and analyze financial KPIs, performance drivers, and variances.
Budgeting, Target Setting & Resource Optimization
- Lead the portfolio budgeting process, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
- Review and challenge company-level budgets and forecasts.
- Drive resource allocation and optimization analysis across the portfolio.
- Set performance targets for finance and accounting teams and ensure accountability.
Cash Flow, Capital & Bank Management
- Monitor the financial health and liquidity of the portfolio, ensuring positive and sustainable cash flow.
- Optimize working capital performance across AR, AP, and other cash drivers.
- Oversee bank account management and banking relationships at portfolio level.
- Support capital allocation and financing decisions as required.
Intercompany, Accounting & Controls
- Own and oversee intercompany structures, transactions, and reconciliations.
- Supervise and review accounting activities including tax, statutory, and compliance matters.
- Ensure strong internal financial controls, policies, and procedures across the portfolio.
- Continuously evaluate and improve finance processes for efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
Audit, Risk & Compliance
- Lead and coordinate annual statutory audits across portfolio companies.
- Ensure all regulatory filings, tax submissions, and compliance requirements are completed accurately and on time.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate financial and operational risks at portfolio level.
M&A, Integration & Corporate Development
- Actively participate in acquisition processes, including financial due diligence and structuring.
- Collaborate with integration teams to ensure proper finance integrations incl. setup, reporting, and controls post-acquisition.
- Track post-acquisition performance against investment cases and synergy assumptions.
Finance Team Leadership & Development
- Lead and develop high-performing portfolio finance teams across Accounting, FP&A, AR, and AP.
- Conduct gap analyses and define improvement strategies for people, processes, and systems.
- Ensure consistent standards, best practices, and financial governance across the portfolio.
Key Deliverables
- Portfolio-level financial analysis and reporting
- Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)
- Budgeting, forecasting, and KPI tracking
- Resource allocation and optimization analysis
- Intercompany and consolidation oversight
- Month End Closing oversight
- New or improved AP/AR process design and implementation
- Finance team gap analysis and improvement roadmap
- Audit coordination and compliance execution
- Bank account and liquidity management
Requirements
- Senior finance leadership experience in portfolio, group, or multi-entity environments
- Strong expertise in financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and performance management
- Deep understanding of accounting, audit, tax, and internal controls
- Experience with M&A, integrations, and portfolio oversight
- Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and communication skills
- Ability to translate complex financial data into actionable strategic insights
- Experience with ERP and finance systems across multiple entities
- This is a remote role with occasional travel to Germany, candidates must be available and eligible to travel as required.
*Note: The employer reserves the right to assign to the employee other reasonable or equivalent projects, which are equivalent to the previous education or the abilities, and knowledge of the employee, if this is necessary for operational reasons. The employer is not entitled to effect a change in the service character of the activity.
