Finance Director

Key Information

Salary: £95,000 to £120,000 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week

Location: Sevenoaks, TN13

Reports to: CEO

Board attendance with potential for statutory directorship

Rolling recruitment

Please see below the job description for this role:

Finance Director Job Description

If you are a sharp finance leader who wants real responsibility, real influence, and the chance to build a first class team in a values driven business, this could be your move.

Pennard Vets is an employee owned,multi siteveterinary group in the South East. We have a long heritage, strong governance, and a clear commitment to sustainable growth andlong termvalue creation.

The businessoperateswith formal bank facilities and covenant obligations. Financial resilience, cashdisciplineand forecasting accuracy are central to protecting strategic freedom andlong termindependence.

We are looking for a Finance Director to lead the finance function endto end. This is not a background reporting role. It is about judgement, modelling, lender confidence, and leadership within a leveraged, covenant bound group structure that includes oversight of a rapidly growing, related referral business.

This role sits at thecentreof a clinically led,multi siteservicesorganisationwhere operational performance, site level visibility, and disciplined cash management are critical.

You will have full accountability for how financeoperatesacross the group. You will act as principal financial adviser to the CEO and senior leadership team, translating strategy into robustthree to five yearplans and ensuring leveraged facilities, liquidity, and formal bank covenants are proactively managed, stress tested, and protected at all times.

The role also includes financial oversight of a related referral companyoperatingunder a formal service andcross chargearrangement.

• Lead and develop a high performing finance team with clear standards, strong succession, and visible accountability.
• Own liquidity, bank facilities, and covenant compliance,maintainingcalm and credible relationships with lenders.
• Lead annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, and integratedlong termmodelling that directly supports strategic decision making.
• Strengthen financial discipline and performance visibility across all sites, preventing gradual deterioration in margin, cash, or control standards.
• Ensure management accounts,cashflow, forecasting, statutory reporting, and audit processes are accurate,timely, and trusted.
• Build finance as a true service to the organisation, so operational and clinical leaders actively use financial insight to plan,prioritise, and improve performance.
• Provide appropriate financialoversight and governance across related entities where finance services are delivered under agreement.
• Work closely with operational, clinical and governance leaders across the Group, translating financial insight into clear commercial decisions whilemaintainingdisciplined capital allocation and financial control.

• ACA qualified or equivalent, with senior finance leadership experience in amulti site, regulated, or complex SME environment.
• Has personally owned covenant reporting and lender dialogue within a leveraged,multi site business.
• You are likely to haveoperatedin ahands onfinance leadership role within amulti siteservices environment where cash, margin discipline and operational reportingmatteredevery week.
• Commercially sharp, resilient under pressure, and comfortable making difficult calls to protect enterprise value.
• A confident leader who can run and develop a capable team, challenge constructively, and translate complex financial information into clear, commercially meaningful insight.

The finance function is capable and committed, but standards,system sand visibilitystillneedsto be strengthened. You will shape it.

You will also help steward financial discipline across a wider group ecosystem, not just a single trading entity.

You will work in an employee ownedorganisationthat thinks long term, valuesdisciplineand clarity, and believes finance should quietly enable excellent clinical care.

If you want to lead a finance team properly, protect enterprise value, and build something that lasts, we would like to hear from you.

Please send your CV and a short cover letter outlining what great finance leadership looks like in a leveraged,multi site business, and one example of how you built a team that materially strengthened an organisation. 📧

At Pennard Vets, every member of our team is an employee owner of the practice, committed to ensuring our service goes beyond the ordinary. We’re creating an environment that looks after the people that look after the pets. We’re 125 years old, and by operating in this way, we’ll continue to grow for the next 125 years, and beyond.