Continuous Improvement Lead

Our Europe & Africa region incorporates 17 markets and languages, and more than 3,500 Inchcape employees. This makes it a culturally rich business area and a wonderfully diverse team.

As Continuous Improvement Lead you are responsible for improving processes and implementing strategic changes within the organization. This role involves a strong understanding of finance processes, analytical skills, and knowledge of continuous improvement methods.

You will be reporting to the Head of Accounting for Europe & Africa and will be working closely with the different countries markets teams from finance and IT.

Job role and responsibilities:

Key areas of responsibility are as follows:

People

• Outstanding communication and people management skills.
• Lead, develop, coach the involved teams through change.
• Establish training plans and programs to ensure the sustainability of continuous improvement.

Partnership

• Ensure delivery of Continuous Improvement Initiatives, Projects and Transformation Initiatives.
• Define mechanisms to measure the efficiencies achieved through the delivery of initiatives.
• Manage a wide range of internal /external stakeholders within a partnership focused servant leadership paradigm.

Operational

• Analyse existing processes to identify inefficiencies and areas for enhancement and deliver a better level of service for a lower cost through continuous improvement.
• Ensure compliance with (group, regional and market) policies, and the legal, statutory, regulatory and fiscal requirements of each country to mitigate financial risks.
• Manage project resources to achieve the strategic targets of the business.

Other

• Own and drive multiple, often parallel, improvement projects that streamline finance processes, reduce errors and improve accuracy across multiple business models.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end process areas, the interdependencies with the wider team; able to influence and guide stakeholders with potentially conflicting viewpoints across functional boundaries to optimise commonly accepted solutions.
• Present (when required) complex, detailed process related content summarised to the appropriate level relevant to senior stakeholders in the organisation.

Skills and experience required:

• Bachelor’s in Finance, Business Administration, Accounting, Operations Management or a related field. Advanced degree would be an advantage.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a continuous improvement or process optimization role, preferably within a multinational or large-scale organization, ideally focused on finance operations.
• Proven track record of successfully leading, monitoring, and implementing reorganization and improvement projects.
• End-to-end exposure and understanding of accounting and financial processes is considered an asset.
• Working knowledge of financial and business software (ERP, DMS, etc.).
• Ability to use data to analyze situations and scenarios, identify risks and opportunities and improve processes.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with diverse and cross-functional teams.

Personal characteristics:

• A high level of integrity; always doing the right thing.
• Strong sense of ownership.
• Driven by results, efficiency and accuracy.
• Ability to manage up or down as circumstances dictate.
• Eager to make an impact.
• Strong collaboration and partnership mindset; easy to work with.
• Cultural awareness/understanding; agile in adapting approaches to optimise working relationships.