Senior Manager FP&A - (FIN-L9.2) at Zutari

Description

Zutari: Co-creating an engineered impact.

• Zutari is a well-established, management-owned engineering firm with almost 90 years' experience. As human-centred engineering consultants and advisors, we are trusted by our clients, business partners, communities and other stakeholders across Africa.
• We co-create engineering solutions that have a positive impact and improve people's lives. Zutari values inclusion and recognises the importance of a diverse, talented workforce, believing that people need other people to succeed.

What kind of talent do we pursue?

• We employ people with the right attitude and a positive mindset, who are motivated by doing the right thing, getting things done and share a sense of urgency. People who have an impact in our teams and broader community. People who think differently and connect with those around them to co-create new opportunities and leave a meaningful legacy.

About the role:

• The Senior Manager FP&A - is responsible for leading Zutari’s planning, forecasting, operational finance, management reporting, business partnering, and performance insight capabilities across the Group. Reporting to the Group Chief Financial Officer, the role serves as the key finance interface into operations and plays a central role in linking financial performance, project performance, business drivers, and management decision-making.
• The role will lead the Project Finance Accountant (PFA) team and the finance data and operational reporting capability, ensuring that finance support to the business is commercially relevant, analytically strong, and operationally embedded. The role is responsible for driving high-quality budgeting, forecasting, performance analysis, management reporting, and financial insight, while helping operational leaders understand the drivers of business performance and make better decisions.
• This role requires a senior finance leader with strong commercial acumen, management accounting capability, operational finance experience, and the ability to translate complex financial and operational data into actionable insight. The incumbent must be able to operate effectively in a multi-entity, project-based, and increasingly multi-jurisdictional environment, while building strong relationships across finance and the business.

Key responsibilities 

Strategic Finance Partnering and Operational Support

• Act as the primary finance partner to operations, providing insight, challenge, and support on financial and business performance matters.
• Build strong relationships with operational leadership and project-facing teams to ensure finance is embedded in decision-making and performance management.
• Translate financial and operational information into meaningful insight that supports delivery, profitability, resource planning, and business improvement.
• Provide the Group Chief Financial Officer and executive leadership with forward‑looking insights on business performance, key risks, growth opportunities, and strategic trade‑offs..
• Strengthen the quality of finance engagement with the business by ensuring commercially relevant, timely, and practical support to operational stakeholders.

Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting

• Lead the Group’s budgeting and forecasting processes across business units and operational areas, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and operating realities.
• Drive robust planning assumptions, challenge inputs, and improve the quality, consistency, and credibility of budgets and forecasts.
• Coordinate forecasting cycles and ensure meaningful visibility of expected performance, risks, opportunities, and resource implications.
• Inform scenario planning, sensitivity analysis, and reforecasting to improve business responsiveness and decision-making.
• Work closely with business leaders and finance teams to ensure forecasts reflect operational plans, commercial realities, and emerging risks

Management Reporting and Performance Insight

• Lead the preparation and continuous improvement of management reporting across the Group, ensuring reporting is accurate, insightful, timely, and decision-useful.
• Oversee monthly management accounts, performance packs, KPI reporting, and analytical reviews that explain financial and operational performance.
• Identify and communicate key performance drivers, variances, trends, risks, and opportunities to support proactive management action.
• Ensure management reporting is clearly linked to operational performance, project outcomes, business drivers, and resource utilisation.
• Provide the Group Chief Financial Officer and senior leadership with executive-quality reporting and analysis for business reviews and performance discussions.

Project Finance and Business Partnering Leadership

• Lead the Project Finance Accountant team and set clear expectations for high-quality finance business partnering across the organisation.
• Ensure PFAs provide effective support to project and operational leaders on profitability, project performance, forecasting, margin management, working capital, and financial discipline.
• Build consistency in how finance supports projects, operational units, and business leaders, including common standards, reporting disciplines, and decision-support practices.
• Strengthen project and operational finance capability across the business through coaching, leadership, and performance management.
• Ensure the finance business partnering model remains responsive to the needs of a growing and increasingly complex organisation.

Data, Reporting and Analytics Leadership

• Lead the finance data and operational reporting capability, ensuring reporting outputs are relevant, reliable, user-friendly, and aligned with business needs.
• Oversee the development of dashboards, KPI reporting, and analytical tools that support management decision-making across finance and operations.
• Work with BI, systems, and reporting teams to define requirements for finance and operational reporting, including data models, business rules, reporting logic, and validation requirements.
• Ensure strong governance over the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of management information used across the business.
• Promote continuous improvement in reporting, analytics, automation, and the use of finance data to support insight and decision-making.

Performance Management and Decision Support

• Drive a disciplined performance management approach by linking plans, actual performance, forecasts, and operational drivers into a coherent management view.
• Provide financial and commercial insight into business performance, cost drivers, project trends, margin performance, and operational efficiency.
• Advise and guide business leaders in identifying corrective actions and improvement opportunities based on robust analysis and performance trends.
• Develop and maintain financial models, scenarios, and analytical tools that support planning, decision-making, and business cases.
• Contribute to a stronger performance culture by promoting accountability, transparency, and fact-based decision-making.

Leadership and Capability Development

• Lead, coach, and develop team members across FP&A, finance business partnering, and reporting / analytics functions.
• Build a strong team culture focused on business relevance, analytical rigour, accountability, collaboration, and service excellence.
• Guide the development of finance talent and succession depth across the operational finance and reporting environment.
• Strengthen ways of working, role clarity, and capability across the team in support of the revised finance structure.
• Bring discipline, clarity, and continuous improvement to the way operational finance support is delivered across Zutari.

Requirements

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a related field
• Chartered Accountant qualification or equivalent senior professional finance qualification.
• Relevant postgraduate qualification in Finance, Business, Strategy, or related discipline.

Experience   

• 10–12+ years’ progressive finance experience, including significant exposure to FP&A, management accounting, business partnering, and performance reporting.
• Proven experience leading finance teams that support operations, business units, projects, or commercial decision-making.
• Strong experience in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, management reporting, and performance insight.
• Demonstrated experience translating financial and operational data into practical business insight and management action.
• Experience managing or leading finance reporting, analytics, or data-driven performance reporting capabilities.
• Strong stakeholder engagement experience, with the ability to influence operational and business leaders credibly.
• Experience in complex, multi-entity, project-based, or matrixed environments.

Advantageous:

• Experience in engineering, consulting, infrastructure, construction, or other project-based professional services environments.
• Exposure to Power BI, data modelling, dashboarding, SQL or related reporting and analytics tools.
• Experience working with ERP, BI, or finance systems development and improvement initiatives.
• Exposure to multi-jurisdictional or multinational business environments.
• Experience supporting organisational change, operating model evolution, or finance transformation

Skills 

• Strong FP&A, management accounting, and business partnering capability.
• Strong commercial acumen and operational finance insight.
• Ability to connect project, operational, and financial performance into a coherent management view.
• Strong budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and financial modelling capability.
• Strong management reporting and executive reporting capability.
• Ability to interpret data critically and translate it into actionable insight.
• Strong data, reporting, dashboarding, and analytics orientation.
• Ability to engage credibly with both finance and non-finance stakeholders.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Advanced Excel capability and strong familiarity with reporting and analytics tools.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and team development capability.

Competencies:

• Strategic and Commercial Financial Insight
• Planning, Forecasting and Performance Leadership
• Management Reporting and Operational Analytics
• Business Partnering and Stakeholder Influence
• Project and Operational Finance Leadership
• Data-Driven Decision Support
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Leadership and Team Development
• Change Leadership and Continuous Improvement
• Sound Judgement in Complex and Operationally Dynamic Environments