Company Description

At QIMA, we exist to help our clients make products they can trust.

Operating in over 100 countries, QIMA serves the consumer products, food and life sciences sectors, supporting more than 30,000 brands, retailers, manufacturers and growers worldwide. We combine deep on-the-ground expertise with digital platforms that bring accuracy, transparency and intelligence to quality and compliance data.

What truly sets QIMA apart is our culture. Our 5,000+ Qimers live our values every day: client passion, integrity, and making things simple. Through this mindset, we have disrupted the Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) industry and continue to transform at pace.

We are now entering the next phase of our journey — scaling, integrating and professionalising at group level — and finance sits at the heart of that transformation.

Job Description

The Group Finance Director (GFD), reporting to the Group CFO, is a critical, enterprise‑wide leadership role responsible for stabilising and transforming QIMA’s global financial backbone. You will lead group financial control, finance operations (consolidation, reporting, A/P and A/R) and compliance across a highly international, acquisitive organisation — while partnering closely with the Head of Finance Transformation to move QIMA from a historically fragmented finance landscape to an integrated, scalable and data‑driven operating model.

This role is ideal for a senior finance leader who relishes complexity, thrives in dynamic environments and is motivated by building strong foundations that enable future growth.

The Group Finance Director (GFD) is accountable for the integrity, stability and performance of QIMA’s global finance engine. This role ensures that financial reporting, controls, cash, compliance and shared service operations operate reliably at scale, while actively enabling the modernisation of Finance through close partnership with the Head of Finance Transformation.

This is a senior enterprise leadership role balancing non‑negotiable financial integrity with active sponsorship of transformation. The GFD owns outcomes; how those outcomes are delivered evolves through transformation.

Core Accountabilities

• Financial Control, Reporting & Compliance
• Own the accuracy, timeliness and integrity of group financial reporting, consolidation and statutory compliance.
• Maintain robust IFRS accounting policies, balance sheet discipline and audit readiness across >100 entities.
• Act as final escalation point for financial risk, judgement and control decisions.
• Shared Service Centre Performance
• Accountable for global performance, governance and capability of global SSCs (RTR, OTC, P2P).
• Enforce standard controls, SLAs, KPIs and service expectations.
• Ensure SSC leadership adopts and sustains standardised processes and systems.
• Systems, Data & Intelligent Finance (BAU Ownership)
• Own the operational stability and performance of core finance systems.
• Sponsor automation, analytics and AI adoption where it improves control, efficiency and insight.
• Ensure new systems, data standards and AI tools become embedded BAU ways of working.
• Transformation Sponsorship & Delivery Ownership
• Act as executive sponsor for Finance Transformation initiatives and change programmes.
• Remain accountable for delivery and execution of finance change outcomes, including M&A finance integrations, once designs and roadmaps are agreed.
• Hold Finance leaders and SSCs accountable for executing integrations, process changes and system adoption in line with agreed plans.
• M&A Due Diligence & Integration
• Own financial diligence, integration execution and reporting integrity for acquisitions.
• Lead finance delivery for integrations (systems cutover, controls, reporting, cash, compliance).
• Ensure acquired entities comply rapidly with group standards and cadence.
• Tax Governance & Oversight
• Retain endtoend ownership of Group tax outcomes, with execution delivered through Global Shared Services and/or external advisors.
• Ensure robust tax control frameworks, compliance processes and audit readiness across all jurisdictions.
• Sponsor continuous improvement of tax processes, governance and data quality in line with the Group Finance operating model.
• Ensure tax considerations are appropriately reflected in Group reporting, cash management and balance sheet governance.
  
  

Qualifications

Technical & Professional Experience

• Senior Group Finance / Group Financial Controller / Finance Director experience in complex, multi-entity international organisations.
• Strong IFRS expertise and deep experience with complex consolidations.
• Demonstrated success transforming low-maturity finance environments with fragmented systems and manual processes.
• Hands-on experience working with or leading Shared Service Centres.
• Track record of leveraging finance technology, automation or analytics to materially improve performance, insight or control.
• Experience partnering with systems, data or transformation teams to implement digital change at scale.
• Comfort making pragmatic decisions about build vs buy, standard vs customise, and automation vs manual control.
  
  

Leadership Style & Mindset

• Hands-on, action-oriented and comfortable operating in founder-led, fast-paced environments.
• Able to inspire finance teams to adopt new tools and ways of working, not just comply with new processes.
• Able to bring structure to ambiguity and stabilise organisations undergoing change.
• Credible, clear communicator who builds trust across cultures, time zones and seniority levels.
• Collaborative, pragmatic, resilient and relentlessly execution-focused.
• Energised by challenge, transformation and tangible impact.