Principal Finance Business Partner

Waters is seeking a Principal Finance Business Partner to join the team in Wilmslow or Wexford on a 12‑month fixed‑term contract.

The Principal Finance Business Partner should have the ability to influence day-to-day decisions, shaping strategy and the direction of the business. You must be able to use financial data and expert knowledge to facilitate change by working closely with or providing a service to the service and influence system sales teams.

You will provide strategic insights into the service and sales business. These insights will be based on operational performance, industry dynamics, macroeconomic trends, and the competitive landscape. The individual must build strong relationships with the General Manager for Europe North and key service and sales managers. They should apply interpretation skills beyond traditional finance functions and use them to address a wide range of commercial topics. Ultimately, these topics need to be effectively communicated to senior management teams.

The ability to listen, interpret, influence, negotiate, and inspire is all vital to the role.

Purpose: You will be expected to commit to Water's vision that decisions and actions are guided by two simple words – 'Deliver Benefit'. We should positively impact our customers, employees, shareholders, and society at every opportunity.

• Providing analysis and delivering insight that links financial reports to business strategies
• Providing effective commercial procedures, or initiating change, to ensure key operational, commercial, and financial targets are delivered
• Building partnerships and maintaining strong relationships with all senior managers and their teams.
• Work with EMEA business partners to develop better forecasting tools.
• Driving and leading ad hoc commercial and operational projects to ensure successful delivery against an agreed timeline.
• Provide regular updates on Key performance indicators.
• Provide support to build business cases, including ROI calculations.
• Drive analysis of key trends on a proactive basis and understand business drivers behind the trends that are visible in the results.
• Support the delivery of a credible Annual Operating Plan by providing a review of data and making recommendations based on this analysis.
• Work with business leaders to ensure resources are utilised efficiently to meet business goals.
• Work with Financial analysts to build reporting dashboards that provide real-time information.

• A qualified accountant or holds a master’s degree in finance/Accounting.
• Excellent analytical, communication and interpersonal skills
• Expert knowledge in Office 365, including Excel, Powerpoint and Power BI (would be an advantage).
• SAP with business warehouse experience would be useful. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, and additional European languages would be beneficial.
• Project management expertise or experience would be an advantage
• Extensive experience working in a commercial environment, preferably in the Life sciences industry.
• A self-starting mind-set, able to look ahead, innovate and continually improve agility and adaptability, is comfortable that change is a constant and can adapt actions and thinking to suit different conditions or situations.
• Comfortable working autonomously.
• Collaboration & teamwork – possess the ability to listen, share information and work effectively with team members to accomplish goals.
• Communication – able to express ideas clearly, effectively and with meaning. Enables effective communication across the function or team. Ability to influence and challenge others by communicating clear facts convincingly and respectfully.
• Creative thinker/Innovator – Can look for alternative approaches. Always willing to look at something differently, constantly asking what if?  Including the ability to apply creative and unconventional solutions to complex problems.
• Enterprise-minded – The ability to see the big picture whilst helping implement procedural change. Also uses expert knowledge to make sound judgments and to act on them where appropriate.
• Solutions-driven mindset – ability to analyse a problem and construct solutions to resolve said problem.

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) is a global leader in life sciences and diagnostics, dedicated to accelerating the benefits of pioneering science through analytical technologies, informatics, and service. With a focus on regulated, high-volume testing environments, our innovative portfolio harnesses deep scientific expertise across chemistry, physics, and biology. We collaborate with customers around the world to advance the release of effective, high-quality medicines, ensure the safety of food and water, and drive better patient outcomes by detecting diseases earlier, managing routine infections, and combating antibiotic resistance. Through a shared culture of relentless innovation, our passionate team of ~16,000 colleagues turn scientific challenges into breakthroughs that improve lives worldwide. 

Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our core values at Waters Corporation. It benefits our employees, our products, our customers and our community. Waters complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to sex, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, marital status (including civil unions), military service, veteran status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, legally recognized disability, domestic violence victim status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Waters is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All hiring decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.