Group Commercial Finance Manager
The Commons · Melbourne, Australia
About the role
Working closely with the Director, Financial Controller and operational leaders, you’ll connect finance with the day-to-day running of our businesses.
From understanding the economics of a location to assessing a new investment, you’ll turn financial information into clear recommendations and practical improvements. You’ll have the opportunity to influence decisions across Workspace, Health Clubs, Hospitality and our support functions.
This is a hands-on role with real ownership. You’ll build the models, spend time in our locations, challenge assumptions and work alongside our teams to put agreed changes into practice. Your focus will be on improving commercial performance while protecting the experiences our members value.
What you'll do
- Understanding performance across the group: Build a clear understanding of what drives revenue, utilisation, staffing costs and profitability across our businesses and locations. Review performance against budget, forecasts and prior periods, explain the reasons behind changes and work with operational leaders on practical improvements.
- Supporting commercial decisions: Develop rolling forecasts, financial models and business cases to assess pricing, discounts, membership offers, major customer proposals and other significant decisions. Present clear recommendations that explain the expected return, key assumptions, risks and trade-offs.
- Improving supplier and operating costs: Review major and recurring expenditure to understand whether we’re buying the right services, at the right level and cost. Partner with operational owners on supplier negotiations, contract renewals and opportunities to consolidate services, while maintaining the standards our members value.
- Strengthening workforce and departmental productivity: Work with leaders and People & Culture to assess staffing against workload, operating requirements, service standards and growth plans. Evaluate proposed hires and contractors, and identify opportunities to improve scheduling, simplify processes, remove duplication and automate repetitive work.
- Assessing growth opportunities: Lead commercial feasibility analysis for new locations, business lines and capital investments. Build scenarios that test the opportunity, identify what needs to be true for it to succeed and give the Director a clear recommendation on how to proceed.
- Tracking capital investment: Maintain visibility of project budgets, committed expenditure, actual spend and forecast costs to complete. Work with the Financial Controller on project cash flow forecasts and flag potential cost, funding or timing issues early.
- Turning recommendations into results: Maintain a prioritised programme of improvements with agreed owners, actions, timelines and success measures. Work alongside teams to implement changes and track the benefits achieved, taking account of implementation costs and any effect on member experience or service quality.
- Improving data and reporting: Partner with Finance, Operations and Technology to strengthen data quality, establish consistent performance measures and reduce manual reporting. Provide concise commercial updates that give leaders a clear view of performance, emerging risks and opportunities, and decisions requiring attention.
About You
You’re commercially curious, practical and comfortable getting close to the operations behind the numbers. You enjoy understanding how a business works and helping the people running it make better decisions.
You can confidently challenge an assumption, explain a recommendation to someone outside finance and follow through on an agreed action. You understand that spending less isn’t always the best commercial outcome, and you know how to assess the trade-offs.
You’ll bring:
- Strong experience in commercial finance, FP&A or finance business partnering across multiple locations or business divisions.
- Evidence of improvements you’ve helped implement, whether in margins, pricing, supplier agreements, workforce productivity or business processes.
- Strong financial modelling and analytical skills, including the ability to work with incomplete data, test assumptions and investigate inconsistencies.
- Experience developing forecasts, investment cases and recommendations for senior leaders.
- The ability to build relationships, influence decisions and work collaboratively across finance and operations.
- Experience in hospitality, fitness, leisure, retail, property services or another customer-facing business will be well regarded, as will familiarity with membership, point-of-sale and workforce scheduling systems.
- CA, CPA or CIMA qualifications are preferred, or equivalent relevant expertise.
Why You’ll Love Working with Us
You’ll have broad exposure to a growing business, direct access to decision-makers and the opportunity to see your work make a tangible difference across our locations.
Alongside a collaborative team and beautifully designed spaces, you’ll enjoy:
- Central HQ location
- Hybrid work set up with 1 WFH day per week
- On-site Chef with nutritious lunch provided daily
- Discount on all Commons Cafe and Bar locations
- Free counselling sessions
- Birthday leave
- Weekly events program e.g. breakfast club, yoga & drinks
- Additional paid parental leave
- Further education program to support personal and professional development
Our Values
At The Commons, our values guide how we work, collaborate and show up for one another every day. We're looking for people who genuinely embody these values in the way they think, act and contribute.
- Putting Our Members First
- Fostering Community
- Working Together as a Team
- Constantly Learning & Growing
Apply now and help us build something remarkable – together!
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