Head of Finance Transformation Recruitment

FD Capital recruits Heads of Finance Transformation for UK businesses — specialist senior finance professionals who design and deliver finance function transformation programmes while the CFO and Finance Director maintain business-as-usual financial leadership. The Head of Finance Transformation role is typically created when a business has committed to a significant finance change programme — an ERP implementation, a post-acquisition finance integration, a shared services migration, or a systematic overhaul of financial reporting and processes — and the existing finance leadership team does not have the bandwidth or transformation-specific expertise to run it alongside their day jobs. Adrian Lawrence FCA, founder of FD Capital and a Fellow of the ICAEW, leads our senior finance recruitment practice.

Call 020 3287 9501 or email recruitment@fdcapital.co.uk. Shortlists within five to seven working days.

Adrian Lawrence FCA — Founder, FD Capital
Fellow of the ICAEW | ICAEW-Registered Practice | Finance transformation and senior finance placements since 2018

Finance transformation recruitment requires careful brief definition. The specific type of transformation — ERP implementation, shared services, post-merger integration, finance operating model redesign — determines the candidate profile almost entirely. A specialist in Oracle or SAP finance module implementation is a different person from someone who redesigns finance operating models or leads post-acquisition integrations. FD Capital identifies the transformation type first, then sources accordingly rather than presenting a generic shortlist of change management candidates.

Head of Finance Transformation vs Transformation CFO/FD

There is an important structural distinction between the Head of Finance Transformation and a Transformation CFO or Transformation FD. A Transformation CFO or FD is a board-level appointment — a senior finance leader who takes on overall CFO or FD accountability while simultaneously driving the transformation agenda. The transformation is part of their broader finance leadership mandate, not a separate project they run.

The Head of Finance Transformation is a specialist programme leadership role that sits below CFO level — typically reporting to the CFO or FD. Their mandate is the transformation programme itself: project managing the delivery, working with systems integrators and technology vendors, managing change across the finance function, and ensuring the programme delivers on time, on budget and against the defined business case. The CFO or FD retains overall accountability for the finance function and business-as-usual financial leadership throughout. Creating both roles — a stable CFO/FD plus a dedicated Head of Finance Transformation — is the most effective structure for large-scale transformation programmes where attempting to run everything through a single senior appointment creates unacceptable risk to either the transformation or the ongoing finance function.

When Businesses Appoint a Head of Finance Transformation

ERP implementation and finance system migration

The most common trigger for a Head of Finance Transformation appointment is a major ERP implementation — moving from legacy systems to SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite or equivalent — or a finance module upgrade within an existing ERP. These programmes are complex, multi-year projects that require dedicated senior leadership with specific ERP transformation experience: understanding how to design the finance processes that will run in the new system, managing the relationship with the systems integrator, making configuration decisions, overseeing data migration and cut-over planning, and managing the change management programme that ensures the finance team adopts the new system effectively. This experience is highly specific and difficult to find in a generalist CFO or Finance Director.

Post-acquisition finance integration

When a business completes an acquisition — particularly in a buy-and-build PE context where multiple acquisitions are completed in sequence — the finance integration programme involves merging chart of accounts, aligning reporting frameworks, integrating systems, consolidating finance teams and ensuring the acquired business is reporting into the group’s financial management framework within a defined timescale. A Head of Finance Transformation with post-acquisition integration experience runs this programme, freeing the Group CFO to focus on the combined entity’s ongoing financial management and the next transaction.

Finance operating model redesign

Businesses that have grown organically or through acquisition often find their finance function has become fragmented — multiple finance teams operating to different standards, inconsistent processes, duplicated effort and poor management information. A Head of Finance Transformation designs and implements the target operating model: defining the future structure of the finance function, standardising processes, implementing shared services or centres of excellence where appropriate, and managing the transition from current state to target state. This is a programme that typically takes 12–24 months and requires sustained specialist leadership.

Shared services migration and outsourcing

Businesses moving transactional finance activities — accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, expense management — into a shared service centre or outsourcing them to a third party require a specialist to manage the transition. The Head of Finance Transformation owns the migration programme: scoping what moves, designing the new process flows, managing the vendor selection and contract, overseeing the parallel running period, and ensuring service quality is maintained throughout the transition.

What a Head of Finance Transformation Delivers

The specific deliverables depend entirely on the transformation programme, but across all types the Head of Finance Transformation is responsible for programme governance — the business case, project plan, budget, resource plan, risk register and steering committee reporting that keep the programme on track and visible to the CFO and board. They manage the programme delivery team, which typically includes both internal finance resources and external consultants or systems integrators, and they maintain the relationship between the transformation programme and the operational finance function to ensure business-as-usual is not disrupted by programme demands.

On ERP programmes specifically, the Head of Finance Transformation makes or approves the configuration decisions that determine how the new system will work — chart of accounts structure, approval workflows, reporting hierarchies, consolidation methodology — decisions that have long-term implications for the quality of financial management information the business will be able to produce. Getting these decisions right at programme design stage is significantly cheaper than remediating them after go-live. Experienced finance transformation professionals have made these decisions before and understand the downstream consequences in a way that generalist project managers do not.

Engagement Types — Interim vs Permanent

Most Head of Finance Transformation appointments are interim rather than permanent, because the transformation programme has a defined end point. Once the ERP is live, the integration is complete, or the new operating model is embedded, the specific programme leadership role ceases to exist — the ongoing management of the new finance function reverts to the CFO, FD and permanent finance leadership team. Interim appointments on day-rate contracts — typically 12 to 24 months for large-scale programmes — are therefore the most common structure.

Permanent appointments are appropriate where the business has a pipeline of transformation programmes — a PE-backed platform executing a buy-and-build strategy with regular acquisitions to integrate, or a business committed to a multi-year digital finance transformation roadmap — where the Head of Finance Transformation role will continue to have material work beyond any single programme. In these cases the permanent appointment builds institutional knowledge and programme management capability that compounds across multiple initiatives.

Head of Finance Transformation Day Rate and Salary Guide UK 2026

Programme Type	Interim Day Rate	Permanent Salary
ERP implementation (mid-market, £50m–£250m revenue)	£500 – £750/day	£85,000 – £120,000
ERP implementation (large corporate, £250m+ revenue)	£700 – £1,100/day	£110,000 – £160,000
Post-acquisition integration (PE-backed)	£550 – £800/day	£90,000 – £130,000
Finance operating model redesign	£500 – £750/day	£85,000 – £120,000
Shared services / outsourcing transition	£450 – £650/day	£80,000 – £110,000

Specific ERP platform expertise (SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion, Microsoft Dynamics 365) commands a 15–25% premium over generic finance transformation experience. London day rates typically run 10–20% above regional rates for equivalent experience. For senior finance leadership salary benchmarks see our Finance Director Salary Guide.

Related Finance Transformation and Senior Finance Services

Recruit a Head of Finance Transformation

FD Capital recruits Heads of Finance Transformation for ERP implementations, post-acquisition integrations, operating model redesigns and shared services migrations. Interim and permanent. Pre-screened candidates with verified programme delivery track records. Shortlists within five to seven working days.

📞 020 3287 9501
✉ recruitment@fdcapital.co.uk

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