Country Finance Director

Within a digital services company dedicated to HR, the Country Finance Director leads the finance function within a specific country (France), ensuring strong financial performance, compliance, and alignment with global strategies. This leadership role acts as a strategic advisor to the Country CEO and a key business partner to operational teams, while ensuring adherence to Group finance standards, processes, and transformation programs. The role ensures optimal financial governance, efficient operations, and the development of a high-performing local finance team.

Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnering and Country Performance

• Advise the Country CEO and leadership team on business performance, investments, pricing, resource allocation, profitability, and financial implications of strategic decisions.
• Support country strategy definition and execution through robust financial insights, scenario analysis, and risk and opportunity assessment.
• Align local priorities with Group financial goals, performance indicators, governance expectations, and value creation objectives.
• Provide financial challenge and support to business leaders to ensure decisions are fact-based, commercially sound, and financially sustainable.
• Act as the senior finance voice in the country, connecting local business realities with Group finance expectations and strategic priorities.
• Is an active member of the Group Finance SteerCo leveraging both Country and Group perspectives

Financial Planning, Reporting and Control

• Lead the budgeting, forecasting, closing, and financial review processes for the country.
• Ensure accurate and timely financial reporting in compliance with local requirements, IFRS, Group standards, and internal deadlines.
• Monitor key financial metrics, including revenue, margin, operating expenses, cash, working capital, investment, and profitability indicators.
• Identify variances, trends, risks, and opportunities, and recommend corrective actions to improve financial performance.
• Ensure that financial information is reliable, transparent, and useful for decision-making by country leadership and Group stakeholders

Compliance, Risk and Internal Control

• Ensure local finance practices comply with regulatory requirements, tax obligations, internal control frameworks, Group policies, and audit expectations.
• Collaborate with Internal Audit, Internal Control, Risk, Tax, Legal, Compliance, and Accounting teams to manage financial and compliance risks.
• Ensure readiness for external and internal audits, including documentation, evidence, action plans, and timely follow-up of findings.
• Monitor financial controls, segregation of duties, approval workflows, and governance processes within the country finance perimeter.
• Promote financial integrity, compliance discipline, and responsible risk management across the local organization.
• Inspire and get inspired by peers in order to conduct benchmark and to roll-out best practices across the Group, balancing compliance and performance as appropriate

Operational Excellence and Finance Transformation

• Drive simplification, automation, standardization and efficiency improvements across country finance processes.
• Implement global finance tools, dashboards, reporting standards, procurement processes, workflows, and operating practices at country level.
• Contribute to cross-functional improvement initiatives that strengthen operational performance, customer experience, cost efficiency and business scalability.
• Sponsor local adoption of Group finance transformation initiatives, ensuring business readiness and sustainable implementation.
• Identify opportunities to improve data quality, reporting visibility, process reliability, and finance service delivery.
• Contribute actively to the Group Finance transformation program, taking the lead on some initiatives and contributing to others, making sure that expert members in his/her Country team are involved as well.

Team Leadership and Finance Capability Development

• Lead, coach and develop the country finance team, ensuring clear priorities, strong financial discipline and effective business partnering.
• Set expectations for accuracy, accountability, integrity, collaboration, compliance and continuous improvement.
• Identify talent, manage succession planning and ensure continuous upskilling across finance roles.
• Build a finance culture that balances control, business support, performance orientation and ethical conduct.
• Ensure that the country finance team has the capabilities and resilience required to support business growth, transformation and regulatory obligations.
• Contribute actively to the development and management of the Group finance community, developing and maintaining tight connections with peers, participating in talents and potentials reviews, sharing his/her views on training, coaching and development programs for the finance community

Education

• Master’s degree in Finance, Accounting or related field.

Work Experience

• 10+ years of experience in finance leadership, preferably in multinational or matrixed environments.
• Demonstrated experience in business partnering, financial reporting and team management.

Skills & Certifications

• Strong knowledge of local financial regulations and reporting standards.
• Proficient in finance systems (e.g., Workday, SAP), Excel and data visualization tools.