The posting
Your Role in Our Story:
The APAC Finance Director is the senior financial leader for ACT's Asia Pacific business and a key member of the APAC leadership team. You also have a fiduciary role alongside the VP APAC in the running of the business.
Partnering closely with the VP APAC and regional business leaders, you will help shape the commercial and lead the financial direction of the region. You are financially accountable with the business for the value-cash-risk delivery and with that integrate finance, risk, legal, compliance activity for the APAC business: you make the judgment and set the priorities towards business delivery and performance within the boundaries set by the Group. You identify and assess risk and opportunities, also on behalf of Legal, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Risk, Compliance (provided minimal external regulatory obligations are met)
This is a broad leadership role spanning commercial finance, financial planning and performance, controllership, cash and working capital, risk and governance, and finance team leadership.
You will act as the bridge between APAC and ACT's global Finance and specialist functions to support informed and timely business decisions. You set the finance agenda, shape and challenge strategy, and integrate specialist inputs to ensure decisions are fact-based, timely, and compliant. With APAC being in a scale up phase, a key success factor will be for you to establish and bring together a positive learning environment so that the APAC Delivery accelerates together.
The role requires someone who can move comfortably between the boardroom and the detail: challenging commercial decisions, being curious and driving new ideas, understanding the economics and risks and opportunities of transactions, while ensuring that the fundamentals of Finance remain strong.
What You Will Do
Partner the business and shape APAC strategy
- Work closely with the VP APAC and regional leadership team to translate ACT's strategy into financial priorities, resource allocation and measurable business outcomes.
- Provide independent financial challenge and insight on commercial opportunities, investments, new products, market expansion and other strategic decisions.
- Evaluate opportunities through a value, cash and risk lens, balancing growth ambitions with appropriate financial discipline and protection of the balance sheet.
- Support leadership with high-quality analysis, scenario modelling and recommendations that enable faster and better-informed decisions.
Drive financial performance
- Own the financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and performance management cycle for APAC.
- Provide leadership with clear visibility into revenue, profitability, costs, cash generation and key business drivers.
- Identify performance gaps, risks and opportunities early and translate them into actionable recommendations.
- Partner with commercial teams to improve margins, capital efficiency and overall financial performance.
- Build meaningful KPIs and management information that connect financial outcomes to operational and commercial drivers.
Own regional Finance delivery and controllership
- Ensure a pragmatic and risk-based control environment that drives integrated delivery, capturing business opportunities, a learning environment and safeguarding speed and entrepreneurship
- Ensure APAC's financial reporting, statutory requirements, financial close and audit activities are delivered accurately and on time in accordance with ACT Group standards and applicable local requirements.
- Maintain strong financial discipline and ensure appropriate implementation of ACT's accounting policies, governance frameworks and internal controls.
- Oversee regional audit requirements and coordinate with external auditors, advisers and local service providers.
- Safeguard the pragmatic and risk based LoD2 environment in which the APAC business delivers
- Drive standardisation, automation and continuous improvement of Finance processes, working closely with Operations, IT and global Finance teams.
Manage cash, capital and financial risk
- Drive disciplined working capital and cash management across the region, including receivables, liquidity and banking requirements.
- Partner with Treasury and Tax on funding, hedging, tax, transfer pricing and capital considerations.
- Work with Risk and other specialist functions to ensure commercial activities operate within ACT's established risk appetite, policies and delegated authorities.
- Act as a key first-line business leader in identifying, assessing and managing financial and enterprise risks.
- Escalate material risks or activities outside established frameworks and ensure appropriate specialist involvement when required.
Strengthen governance across APAC
- Provide financial leadership and constructive challenge to APAC management on major business decisions, investments, risk exposures and capital allocation.
- Serve as a Board Member or Director of relevant APAC entities where required, fulfilling applicable fiduciary and statutory responsibilities.
- Ensure regional operations remain aligned with ACT Group financial objectives, governance standards and risk frameworks.
- Maintain effective relationships with relevant banks, auditors, advisers, regulators and other external stakeholders.
Build and lead the APAC Finance team and Senior leader for integrated delivery across functions
- Lead, develop and coach a high-performing regional Finance team as well as bringing together the cross functional leadership and related delivery of the development agendas across Risk, legal, compliance, tax, treasury alongside the global functional directors
- Set clear priorities and accountability while building strong Finance business partnering capabilities.
- Create a culture of ownership, commercial curiosity, continuous improvement and high professional standards.
- Work across geographical and functional boundaries, collaborating closely with Finance Directors in other regions and ACT's global Finance organisation.
Your Expertise:
What Success Looks Like
- APAC leadership sees Finance as a commercial partner and objective challenger, rather than simply a reporting function. You enhance business impact by optimizing liquidity, governance, and resilience. With deep regional financial and regulatory expertise, you drive informed decision-making and navigate complex product-market dynamics, and balance risk and opportunity
- Business decisions consistently consider value creation, cash implications and risk.
- Forecasting and management information provide leadership with a reliable forward-looking view of the business.
- Working capital and cash are actively managed and financial risks are identified early.
- Financial reporting, audits and controls are reliable and delivered to a consistently high standard.
- Regional Finance processes become simpler, more scalable and increasingly automated.
- The integrated APAC Finance and risk team develops commercial insights, understanding and capability for accelerated future delivery
- APAC and Group functions operate with clear accountability and minimal gaps or duplication.
What We Are Looking For
You will bring significant experience in senior Finance leadership roles, ideally within an international, commercially driven and fast-moving organisation.
We are looking for someone who combines strong Finance fundamentals with genuine commercial judgement.
- Around 10+ years of progressive Finance experience, including significant leadership responsibility.
- A recognised professional Finance or Accounting qualification such as CPA, ACCA, CA or equivalent is a plus
- Significant experience across financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, controllership and performance management.
- Strong knowledge of working capital, cash management, corporate finance, risk and internal controls.
- Experience leading and developing Finance teams and bringing together cross functional teams towards an integrated agenda.
- Strong commercial and strategic judgement, with the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
- Experience operating across different markets, cultures and regulatory environments.
- The ability to work effectively within a global matrix organisation and influence without relying solely on formal authority.
- Strong analytical capability and comfort working with complex or imperfect datasets.
- A track record of improving processes, controls and Finance operating models.
- Pragmatic: be specific and detail oriented where critical, alternatively balance speed, entrepreneurship and 80/20 to drive business outcomes
The Profile We Think Will Thrive
This role will suit someone who is equally comfortable asking:
“Are the numbers right?” and “Should we be doing this business in the first place?”
You are likely to be commercially curious, analytically rigorous and comfortable challenging assumptions. You can zoom into accounting, controls or transaction economics when required, but you do not lose sight of the bigger business picture and are comfortable to speak up
You bring structure where needed without creating bureaucracy for its own sake, and you understand that in a growing business Finance needs to help the organisation move faster with better decisions, not simply apply the brakes.
If you meet these criteria and are ready to contribute your expertise to a dynamic and challenging environment, we encourage you to apply.
