Senior Manager — SG&A, Payroll & Headcount Insights
Senior Manager/Assistant Director Cost & Productivity Insights — Global Technology Solutions Provider | £90-110k + bonus | London
This is the cost‑and‑productivity brain the CFO doesn’t currently have. Not a management accountant who produces the cost pack and stops — someone who can look at OpEx, payroll and headcount data and tell leadership what’s structural, what’s noise, and what to do next.
You’ll own the cost and productivity read for the CFO. OpEx and payroll trajectory. Cost‑optimisation opportunity. Productivity. You’ll lead a pod, set the cost‑analysis agenda from day one, and hand a first line of insight to the business‑partnering team.
Non‑negotiables
- Owned SG&A or OpEx reporting and analysis at scale, across many cost centres and departments
- Built or run payroll and headcount analysis — cost per head, fully‑loaded cost, productivity, span of control — not just a headcount count
- Produced a normalised, like‑for‑like management read — separating run‑rate from one‑off, structural from temporary, in a shifting cost base
- Identified and quantified cost‑optimisation opportunities and tracked them through to realised savings
- A concrete example of cost insight reaching a CFO or exec team and driving a decision on headcount, spend or productivity
- Genuine intellectual curiosity — you dig past the first answer as instinct, not on request — and hands‑on experience using AI tools (e.g. Claude, Copilot) to accelerate analysis, not just awareness that they exist
Sector background
The most universal of our pillars — what matters most is scale. Thousands of employees, many departments and cost centres. Technology is the strongest fit, particularly where variable compensation schemes (commissions) are in play. Retail, industrials, business services and financial services all viable. Publicly traded is a plus.
Nice to have
OpEx vs capex exposure; commission and compensation‑cost analysis; a transformation or cost‑out programme.
What you won’t be
A data‑prep specialist, a single‑BU cost accountant with no scale exposure, or someone who stops at “cost is down 12%.”
Qualifications
- Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA strongly preferred)
- Approximately 8‑12 years’ experience running SG&A, OpEx, cost or payroll‑and‑headcount FP&A at scale
Direct CFO exposure, a defined path into broader FP&A or business partnering leadership, and the opportunity to build the cost‑insight capability this business has never had.
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