Group Head of Finance (Legend) at Genius Sports in London, England, United Kingdom

Job description

• Legend is hiring a Group Head of Finance, reporting directly to our Finance Director.
• In this role you will lead a 25+ person, multi-location team spanning Financial Reporting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Treasury and Payroll. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring someone who can operate comfortably at both strategic and detailed levels: setting the direction for the function while stepping into complex operational and technical challenges when required.
• Following Legend's acquisition, the finance function is operating in an environment of increased complexity and change. A key part of your role will be to evolve Legend’s finance operating model to meet these demands by strengthening controls and accountability, standardising and automating processes, improving systems and data flows, and building a scalable organisation that is less dependent on individual knowledge or manual intervention.
• You will lead through an established team of finance leaders, developing their capability and creating clear ownership across the function while maintaining high standards of delivery. You will also play a critical role in building effective relationships across Legend and the wider Genius Sports group, balancing the requirements of both while supporting the team through significant organisational change.
• This role would suit an experienced finance leader who is energised by transformation and ambiguity and has a track record of leaving finance functions materially more scalable, controlled and effective than they found them.
• In this role, we value diverse perspectives and encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every qualification listed.

Responsibilities

• Lead Legend’s 25+ person, multi-location finance function across Financial Reporting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Treasury and Payroll, creating clear accountability and ownership through the finance leadership team.
• Assess and evolve Legend’s finance operating model, ensuring organisational structure, process ownership, systems, controls and ways of working can scale with the business and wider Genius Sports group requirements.
• Lead end-to-end redesign and optimisation of core finance processes and systems, identifying opportunities to standardise, simplify and automate workflows while improving efficiency, controls and data quality.
• Establish clear process ownership, SLAs, controls and KPIs, using data to identify performance gaps, bottlenecks and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Lead through managers and team leads, building their capability and empowering them to take ownership while remaining hands-on in complex operational and technical issues when required.
• Lead Legend’s finance function through post-acquisition integration, balancing the requirements of Legend and Genius Sports Group Finance and driving alignment across reporting, controls, systems, data and ways of working.
• Make clear prioritisation and resource allocation decisions across BAU delivery and transformation initiatives, maintaining critical operations while progressing the highest-value improvements.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Legend and the wider Genius Sports group, confidently challenging where appropriate and translating complex financial or operational issues into clear business implications and decisions.

Requirements

• ACA/ICAS/ACCA qualification with significant post-qualified experience in senior finance leadership roles.
• Demonstrable experience leading a sizeable, multi-functional Finance team across multiple disciplines, locations and jurisdictions, with a track record of successfully leading through managers and functional leads.
• Deep operational knowledge across core finance disciplines such as Financial Reporting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Treasury and Payroll, with the technical credibility to challenge processes and diagnose complex operational issues.
• A strong track record of transforming and scaling finance functions, including end-to-end process redesign, automation, systems improvement, controls, governance and clear process ownership, with evidence of delivering measurable improvements.
• Strong finance systems capability and experience translating operational requirements into effective systems design; ERP implementation or significant transformation experience, including Workday, would be advantageous.
• Experience leading teams through significant organisational change, ideally including acquisition integration or working within a larger parent/group finance structure, while maintaining engagement and addressing performance where required.
• A hands-on leadership style combined with strong prioritisation and delegation skills, with experience balancing BAU delivery, transformation programmes and competing demands without becoming an operational bottleneck.
• Excellent stakeholder management and commercial judgement, with the confidence to influence and challenge senior leaders and the resilience to operate effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.

Skills

Required

• ACA/ICAS/ACCA qualification
• Senior finance leadership
• Financial Reporting
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Treasury
• Payroll
• Process redesign
• Automation
• Systems improvement
• Controls and governance
• Process ownership

Preferred

• ERP implementation
• Workday
• Transformation experience