Chief Financial Officer – Transformation — Space-Systems Division

The mandate

A space-systems division has secured a multi-year order book spanning platform, payload, ground and support work, yet contracted value is converting to revenue and cash more slowly than planned. Programme schedules, customer milestones, industrial capacity and supplier commitments use different baselines. The board has created an urgent new CFO – Transformation role to turn backlog into an executable financial and operating plan.

Approximately 1,575 employees and material partners work across engineering, programme management, manufacturing, integration, supply, quality and finance from London across the wider operating region. The CFO owns transformation finance, programme control, cash, capital, benefits and committee assurance, reporting to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee. Technical, security and export authority remains with accountable specialists.

The opening task is an order-book quality review. Signed contract value must be separated by funded scope, option, customer dependency, acceptance milestone, escalation and risk. The CFO will expose backlog that lacks current schedule, resourcing or technical maturity rather than treat every pound as equally convertible.

Integrated programme control is fundamental. Cost, schedule, risk and technical progress should share one work breakdown and calendar. Earned value will be used as a decision tool rather than a compliance ritual. Progress requires objective completion evidence, not elapsed time or expenditure.

Forecasting will move to remaining work. Engineering releases, material availability, integration, environmental test, launch slot and customer acceptance create the conversion path. The CFO will challenge learning curves and productivity assumptions that have not appeared in actual output.

Milestone cash needs operational ownership. Customer invoices often depend on evidence packs, acceptance, configuration and deliverables. Finance will work with programmes to prepare support before due dates and resolve genuine disputes. Pulling billing forward without completion evidence is prohibited.

Supplier commitments require programme linkage. Long-lead components, specialist manufacture and test capacity may need early funding, but each purchase must map to demand and effectivity. The CFO will quantify termination, alternative use and schedule consequence before approving non-cancellable exposure.

Capital cases will target throughput constraints. Clean facilities, test equipment, digital engineering and tooling may release order-book conversion, but only with approved design maturity, staffing and utilisation. Post-investment reviews will compare promised constraint release with achieved output.

Working capital includes unfinished assemblies, customer-supplied material, advances and unbilled revenue. The transformation will improve physical and financial traceability, identify stranded work and establish disposition. Inventory cannot remain protected from scrutiny because its technical status is complex.

Contract change and claims need contemporaneous evidence. Customer direction, launch-service changes and interface dependencies may alter cost or schedule. The CFO will ensure notices, records and negotiation strategy are timely. Internal inefficiency will not be disguised as customer-caused change.

Portfolio capacity choices need financial clarity. Several programmes compete for the same systems engineers, test chambers and supplier slots. The CFO will show the marginal cash, contribution and contractual consequence of each allocation, helping the executive team make explicit choices.

Transformation benefits will reconcile to ledgers and programme outcomes. Avoided cost, cash timing and margin recovery are different. Each benefit needs baseline, owner, dependency and verification. Programme teams cannot claim the same schedule recovery as both cost avoidance and incremental revenue without clear reconciliation.

The finance function will be redesigned around programme decision support. Controllers need technical literacy and authority to challenge estimates. The CFO will create common standards while retaining specialists for security, customer and accounting requirements. Succession will reduce dependence on individual programme historians.

Board reporting will show funded backlog, conversion confidence, cash, margin and capacity risk. The committee should see the decisions that change conversion rather than receive a catalogue of programme explanations.

What you will own

• Order-book quality and conversion economics.
• Integrated programme and transformation finance.
• Milestone evidence, billing and cash.
• Supplier commitment and working capital.
• Capital allocation and constraint release.
• Contract change and estimate integrity.
• Ledger-backed benefits and committee assurance.
• Finance capability and succession.

The first 12 months

Within 45 days, classify the order book, reconcile major programme baselines and identify milestones lacking technical or customer evidence. Present downside conversion scenarios.

By month six, implement integrated control, supplier commitment gates and milestone evidence rooms. Decide priority capital and shared-capacity allocations.

At twelve months, improve order-book conversion by 20%, release GBP 180 million of cash and reduce forecast variance on the largest programmes to within 7%. Ninety-five per cent of material backlog should have funded scope, executable schedule and named acceptance evidence, with transformation benefits independently reconciled.

What the committee will inspect

• Backlog distinguished by funding and executability.
• Progress supported by objective technical evidence.
• Billing prepared before customer milestones.
• Supplier commitments mapped to effectivity.
• Capital releasing measured bottlenecks.
• Benefits counted once and visible in performance.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in aerospace, space, defence or complex project finance, including CFO or transformation-finance authority. Your experience covers long-term contracts, integrated programme control, milestone cash, industrial capital and board assurance.

Candidates should demonstrate backlog they reclassified after testing executability and a programme estimate changed through operational evidence. The permanent role is onsite in London, with international programme and customer engagement. Required security and export eligibility applies.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is GBP 250,000–340,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation tied to backlog conversion, cash, estimate quality, benefits and leadership. The permanent onsite London role reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee. The new appointment is urgent before the next capital cycle.

Confidentiality

The division, programmes, customers, technical milestones, suppliers, order book and financial models remain confidential. Further information follows eligibility, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not approach aerospace or space organisations to identify the client.