Financial Controller

Wates Group have an exciting opportunity for a Financial Controller to provide leadership across the traditional finance and accounting function for Wates Land & Development (WL&D), while delivering high quality commercial insight to support strategic decision making.

Reporting to the Finance Director, you will play a key role in shaping financial governance, supporting strategy, and ensuring robust budgeting, forecasting and reporting across the business. You will also work closely with our HBJV (Housebuilder Joint Venture) partners, ensuring strong financial controls and investment performance.

About Wates Land & Development

Within the group, Wates Land & Development is an expert in land, planning and residential development throughout Southern England. Our business holds a large and growing portfolio of potential residential, commercial and nature development land opportunities and our team focus on securing valuable planning consents in sustainable locations, in both town and country where it is needed most.

We also sell land and invest in residential schemes through long-established joint ventures with leading UK house builders.

As our Financial Controller, you will:

• Lead WL&D financial reporting for monthly and quarterly Strategy Board and QPR meetings, presenting clear performance updates, risks and insights to the WL&D Board and leadership team.
• Ensure the delivery of timely, accurate management information, proactively monitoring performance against budgets, forecasts and strategic objectives, and identifying and addressing variances.
• Manage finance relationships with HBJV partners, ensuring Wates' investments perform to plan, including the review and challenge of quarterly JV Board packs.
• Provide commercial finance insight and challenge on new site appraisals and development opportunities.
• Own the WL&D financial and reporting environment, including financial controls, tax matters, systems and continuous improvement of management information.
• Lead, develop and motivate the finance team, ensuring strong governance, compliance and high performance.

About You

You will be a qualified accountant with strong experience in financial control, reporting and governance within a complex business environment, ideally including development, construction or other capital‑intensive sectors.

You will also bring:

• Strong knowledge of budgeting, forecasting and long‑term financial modelling, including phasing, assumptions management and sensitivity analysis.
• Experience with JV and investment structures, including governance, performance monitoring and partner reporting.
• A sound understanding of UK financial controls, compliance and audit requirements, applied pragmatically in a commercial setting.
• Working knowledge of tax considerations relating to land, development or investment activity, with the ability to identify risks and engage specialists when required.
• An appreciation of how financial systems and management information support effective decision‑making and performance management.

Our commitments: 

Wates is proud to be an employer where anyone can thrive, and we welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.  We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every requirement, as we value transferable skills and assess all applications fairly.

We don't discriminate based on a criminal record; all applications are reviewed on an individual basis against the requirements of the role. Some roles may require additional checks, due to the nature of the work.  As a Disability Confident Leader, we offer an interview to applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for the role and opt in to the Disability Confident scheme.  Reasonable adjustments are available, please contact us at recruitment@wates.co.uk