Finance Business Partner

About Isembard

Isembard is building a network of high-performance factories for critical industries. We combine advanced machine tools, robotics and our own software, MasonOS, to make precision components for aerospace, defence, energy and frontier technology companies, with factories across the UK, US, Germany and France. Our mission is to forge industrial acceleration.

The role

We are building Isembard's finance function from the ground up, and this role works directly alongside our Finance Director to do it. It is not a traditional business partnering role with settled processes and a large team.

From supplier payments and payroll to month-end, budgeting, cash flow and management reporting, you will run day-to-day finance while building the processes and systems that support our growth. One day you design a payment approval process; the next you run the payment cycle yourself.

What you'll do

• Own and improve supplier payments, invoice approvals, accounts payable and purchasing workflows.
• Support payroll across several countries so people are paid accurately and on time.
• Set up processes for expenses, reimbursements, supplier onboarding and payment terms.
• Help manage cash flow, working capital and short-term cash forecasting.
• Work with the Financial Controller on month-end: accruals, prepayments and reconciliations.
• Build management reporting, analyse results and explain variances.
• Partner with manufacturing, operations and commercial teams on budgets, forecasts and production cost analysis.
• Find manual processes and automate them.

What we're looking for

• Part-qualified or qualified ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent, or strong relevant finance experience.
• Experience in management accounting, finance operations, commercial finance or business partnering.
• A solid grasp of accounting fundamentals and month-end processes, and excellent Excel skills.
• Comfort moving between operational tasks and analytical, commercial work.
• Organised and resourceful, with strong communication across teams.
• A builder's mindset: willing to process invoices as readily as build a model.

Nice to have

• Startup or scale-up experience.
• Manufacturing or another operationally complex environment.
• Inventory, production costing or unit economics.
• Finance operations across several jurisdictions.

Why Isembard

• Build processes and systems rather than maintain them.
• Work directly with the Finance Director on important commercial and operational decisions.
• Breadth: from payments and payroll to manufacturing economics and international expansion.

Location: On-site at our Southwark factory in London.