Head of Finance Business Partnering - Functions & Workforce Strategy

Job Description

As a financial technology company moving billions of GBP of customer money in over 70 countries, Wise must have bulletproof financials. We need timely, accurate, and scalable financial data to be compliant with regulations and make strategic business decisions to support our hyper-growth and financial objectives.

Due to our continued expansion, we’re on the hunt for a seasoned, highly strategic Finance Business Partner Leader to join our FP&A team in London. In this role, you will be the primary lead for the financial oversight of our Core Functions, responsible for mentoring and developing a high-performing group of two Senior Finance Business Partners and an Analyst. Your core focus will be supervising team output and leaning into complex business challenges, while spearheading our global workforce financial strategy and collaborating cross-functionally with peer FBPs Leads.

Your Mission

You will be the ultimate strategic financial partner to our Chief People Officer (CPO), her People Leadership Team and the Senior Leadership Teams that lead our Core Functions (Finance, Legal, Treasury, Risk, Compliance, and People). In addition to managing costs within the Functions, your mission will be to help us centralise and actively optimise how we manage workforce costs by improving our internal processes, driving strategic location expansion and extending our planning horizon.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership & Team Management: Lead , mentor, and elevate two Senior Finance Business Partners and Analyst, ensuring cohesive delivery of financial planning, cost control, and analysis across all Functions.

• Executive Narrative & Communication: Translate complex financial data and variance analyses into high-impact strategic narratives for the leadership team, providing actionable insights that influence company-wide decision-making.

• KPI-driven Performance Management: Establish, track, and own the critical financial KPIs and metrics relating to organisational health, span of control, location concentration, and cost-per-head to drive accountability across departments

• Global Headcount Governance: Oversee employee benefit expenses and headcount management framework for the entire business. You will collaborate closely with stakeholders and peer Senior FBPs across other departments to ensure a unified, standardised approach to headcount management.

• Automation & Process Evolution: Drive  the automation of headcount tracking and employee benefit expenses reporting towards scalable, tool-driven architectures to maximise efficiency and data integrity.

• Strategic Workforce Management: Partner with the CPO and People Leadership Team to drive the long-term financial strategy behind global workforce location expansion, talent mapping, and organisation design to optimize our workforce costs sustainably.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Lead and Scale a Team: Act as a player-coach, mentoring senior talent within your team while building strong connections across the wider FP&A team and beyond

• Shape Global Strategy: Play a defining role in how Wise scales its global footprint and optimises its largest investment our people through progressive, long-term workforce planning.

• Drive Executive Level Influence: Act as a trusted advisor to the leadership team, turning complex data into clear, actionable insights that guide our global investment decisions.

Qualifications

A bit about you:

• People Management & Collaboration: Proven track record of managing senior-level finance professionals and driving matrixed collaboration with peer finance partners to achieve company-wide objectives.

• Deep Strategic Partnering: Extensive proven experience partnering with senior leadership teams, specifically within People and Functions, becoming a deeply trusted advisor.

• Workforce & Scale Expertise: Demonstrated track record of managing complex, company-wide headcount structures, long-term workforce planning, international location strategies, and substantial operational expense budgets.

• Data & Automation Mindset: Passionate about leveraging technology and automation to eliminate manual processes; strong experience building KPI dashboards and predictive models.

• Financial Modelling Mastery: Advanced expertise in building, scaling, and owning complex financial frameworks and capacity models, with a strong preference for enterprise planning tools (e.g., Anaplan).

• Credentials: You hold a professional finance qualification (ACA / ACCA / CIMA) or equivalent (MBA / Masters in Finance) with extensive post-qualification experience, alongside a strong grasp of IFRS and corporate accounting.

Skills:

• High-Level Influencer: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to articulate complex financial concepts clearly and strategically to influence the leadership team.

• Systemic Thinker: You love digging into data, but you naturally zoom out to see the macroeconomic and organisational interdependencies, applying a strict KPI-driven lens to problem-solving.

• Comfortable with Ambiguity: Highly adaptable, resilient, and thrives in a fast-paced, evolving tech environment. Firm and forceful on guardrails when required, yet collaborative.

• Project Leadership: Strong project management skills, capable of driving cross-functional alignment across multiple offices, time zones, and complex stakeholder groups.

• Humble Execution: While you operate at a leadership level, you aren't afraid to roll up your sleeves and validate the data yourself when needed.

Bonus points for:

• Experience in a hyper-growth FinTech or fast-paced global tech company.

• Direct experience working closely with Workday and Anaplan integrations.

• A background utilising AI to optimise financial processes, data pipelines, and headcount forecasting.

Additional Information

Salary range: £112K - £150K

For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders  — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Compensation: 112000 to 150000 (GBP) (YEARLY)