Finance Business Partner, France

**Description**:
**About Us**
The payments market is the most exciting technology market in the world today for good reason. McKinsey values it globally at over $2 trillion and it’s growing between 13-15% year-on-year. Some of the largest most dynamic brands are investing in this sector; Apple has ApplePay, Google has GooglePay, Amazon has AmazonPay, and it’s not just the Silicon Valley brands. Tencent owns WeChatPay, Alibaba owns Alipay and digital disruptors like Square, Stripe and Adyen all invest millions to grow the payments market.

Planet are a technology company that’s transforming payments by putting the customer experience first. We help our customers deliver a better experience for guests, shoppers, and consumers everywhere. We operate in a market that continues to evolve and expand, partnering with the world’s most prestigious brands across Retail and Hospitality, and with a network of Financial Services partners worldwide.

To meet consumer demands, payments must be simple, safe, and invisible. The only way to do this is to fully embed payments in the software and networks that runs business. By combining networks, software and payment technology, Planet’s creating a world of connected commerce, that makes payments feel good.

We’re growing organically, and with strong Private Equity investors, Advent International and Eurazeo, we’ve the financial capital and expertise to grow our capabilities and reach through acquisition.

**Finance overview**:
The finance function within Planet has a mission to support and help drive the commercial growth of the business through business partnering and insightful management data. We are looking for talented team members who are:

- Analytical, data driven and curious about business performance drivers
- Focused on driving efficient and effective processes
- Comfortable in challenging and supporting business partners in achieving accelerated growth

**Role Overview**:
This is an exciting opportunity for a Fixed Term Contract Senior Finance Business Partner to join a growing commercial finance team, supporting a high growth of international payments business in Europe.

The Senior Finance Business Partner will have significant impact on the business, supporting all aspects of new business and commercial opportunities for the France & Benelux Region, with some support given to other regions where necessary. The role will include a requirement to build strong relationships at senior levels within the sales and commercial organisations, while developing a solid understanding of the business dynamics across different product offerings.

**What you will do**:
Focussed primarily on the France & Benelux Region, but with support given to other regions the main responsibilities focus on;
- **Business performance and analytics -** Tracking in-month performance across all products including key performance indicators, analysing trends and highlighting risks to financial performance. Able to provide crisp, actionable insight via standardised weekly dashboard reporting, monthly analysis and insights of geographical and Retail product performance across all European markets.
- **Governance **- Improving the operational capability of the Retail Commercial Finance team, the role will drive pricing improvement and efficiency actions, liaising with key stakeholders to refine and implement actions. Optimise the usage of data systems, helping to identify business reporting needs and driving the standardisation of reporting, reviewing and maintaining key standing data and reporting metrics
- **Budgeting and Forecasting** - Support the budgeting process and key stakeholders in assessing the various opportunities to maximise EBITDA in the European market. Be seen as key to the European sales team achieving and surpassing their targets. We typically run our budget process once per year, updating the forecast every month, the role will take the lead in managing the process for all payments product lines in Europe.
- **Stakeholder Management** - Ultimately, the role will be seen as a critical supporting partner of the Retail Sales organisation - always putting the needs of Planet first, the role will find ways to partner with the Sales Team to win business at the right commercial requirements and terms. When done well, the Sales Team will see the role as a supporter of business, first to be called with new opportunities and an accelerant of winning new business.
- **Opportunity Assessment - **build strong relationships with the sales and commercial teams to assess, review and provide recommendations for commercial opportunities, which includes new business wins, key account renewals, new product or market opportunities.

**Who you are**:

- Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) and a strong academic record
- Detail oriented with experience of analysing country / division / product performance and identifying trends, risks and opportunities
- Able to propose and implement w