VIRTUS Data Centres is the UK's fastest growing data centre provider with ambitious plans for further expansion within the UK and Europe. As part of the wider ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Group, VIRTUS is the home of the cloud in London and at the heart of Europe. Collectively, the STT GDC Group provides a global platform that has more than 140 data centres worldwide with over 1.8GW of IT load, across 20 major business markets.

VIRTUS has a proven track record of over a decade designing and operating the UK's most efficient facilities. We are committed to the highest standards of Operational Excellence – safety, security, and availability – and always seek to hire the best people to work in an industry which is increasingly essential to everyone and everything.

We employ intelligent thinkers – people with positive attitudes, who add value to our customer proposition and business. We value individual endeavour and initiative, encourage teamwork and togetherness because collective experience and expertise is VIRTUS' greatest strength.

Job Summary

This Finance Manager position is a newly created role that will handle all day-to-day operational finance matters for VIRTUS in Germany. This is a market that VIRTUS entered during 2023 so this role offers a chance to be involved from the start of this exciting expansion phase for the business, helping to deliver the very substantial growth in EMEA that is planned over the next few years, with a strong initial focus on Germany.

You will be primarily responsible for providing Finance support to the day-to-day activities of the VIRTUS team working to advance our first German data centre site developments in Germany, which are located in Berlin. This will include managing all purchase requisitions and purchase orders, preparing and posting journals for payroll, monitoring actual expenditure and preparing and presenting analysis to compare this against budgets, preparing and posting month-end accounting adjustments for accruals and prepayments, and other general management accounting tasks.

Bookkeeping and financial reporting activities are currently outsourced, but the intention is to bring this in-house for our German entities (currently there are 5 companies incorporated in Germany) as part of the Finance Manager's responsibilities. As part of this in-housing process the Finance Manager will also play an important role in migrating existing and future German companies onto the SAP ERP platform that has recently been implemented for the VIRTUS Group.

The role will report into our UK-based Group Finance Manager who has oversight of all day-to-day accounting processes across the business. It is anticipated that in due course you will also help to develop a larger Finance team for Germany as our operations there grow and mature.

If you are a well-organised, detail-oriented, analytical and collaborative Finance professional with a strong background in management accounting and use of SAP, we encourage you to apply and play a key part in the successful expansion of VIRTUS into Europe.

The role includes but is not limited to the following in relation to our EMEA business, which is currently focused on Germany:

Management accounting:

• Management of purchase requisitions and purchase orders, including providing support and training on use of SAP for other members of the Germany team.
• Processing of capex and opex invoices and liaison with the Germany team and any consultants providing support to develop a detailed understanding of all expenditure and be able to answer any questions relating to this.
• Reconciliation, review and posting of payrolls for EMEA (there are currently staff based in Germany, France and Ireland). Includes management of other payroll journals such as accruals for bonuses, holiday and recharges.
• Preparation of regular payment runs for opex, capex, payroll and staff expenses.
• All accounting for additions to property, plant and equipment – including management of work in progress balances and transfer from assets under construction to depreciable fixed assets.
• Project manage the set-up of EMEA staff expenses on Concur (which is integrated with SAP).
• Accruals, prepayments and other month-end adjustments.
• Monitor cash balances, contribute to Group-wide short-term cash flow forecasting and prepare requests for funds drawdowns from Group.
• Preparation of monthly budget review packs for Germany and discussion of these with the EMEA team.

Financial Reporting:

• Preparation of balance sheet reconciliations (e.g. for accounts such as trade creditors, fixed assets, accruals, prepayments, payroll balances, GST balances).
• Maintaining schedule of intercompany loans and related interest.
• Monthly flash reporting on profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow for Germany on a consolidated basis.
• Completion of all month-end activities for German entities; liaison with and timely submission of monthly and quarterly reporting packs to the Group Reporting team.
• Act as subject matter expert on application of German GAAP (in line with HGB) and other local statutory reporting requirements.
• Preparation and filing of annual statutory accounts for German entities.
• Assist the Group Tax team and related consultants with inputs to German tax computations and returns preparation.
• Assist with internal and external audits and any other financial data requests relating to EMEA.

SAP deployment:

• Project manage the full extension of the existing Group SAP implementation to all German entities.
• Liaise effectively with the UK-based VIRTUS Finance team, the Group SAP implementation consultant (Deloitte) and other stakeholders to achieve this.
• Advise on any/all German accounting requirements requiring additional localisation of the SAP system specifications currently in place for VIRTUS Group.
• Manage all requests going forwards for changes to master data for German entities, creation of and changes to user access profiles for Germany-based employees and raising tickets for any system incidents or other service requests.

What success looks like in 12 months' time:

• Successful extension of the Group SAP implementation to all German entities.
• Efficient process established for managing purchase requisitions and purchase orders, in line with all procurement policies and budgets for the region.
• Well-controlled processes for handling and logging invoices and all other correspondence relating to the German entities and escalating any issues appropriately to the UK Finance team and VIRTUS Germany leadership team.
• Established process for routine monthly and quarterly reporting to the UK Finance team, ensuring all submissions are complete, accurate and timely.
• Demonstrable strong working relationships developed with the UK Finance team, the wider VIRTUS Germany team, key consultants to the German business and other stakeholders.

Qualifications:

Essential:

• Chartered accountant with CIMA or equivalent qualification in management accounting.

Experience:

Essential:

• Demonstrable knowledge of day-to-day operational finance requirements for a Germany-based business.
• At least 3 years of practical experience in a similar role for a German business.
• Familiarity with day-to-day usage of SAP including hands-on experience of purchase requisitions, purchase orders and processing purchase invoices – ideally in a recent deployment of SAP S/4 HANA.

Desirable:

• Previous experience in Finance teams within the data centre industry or other services industries within the telecommunications, technology or infrastructure sectors.
• Awareness of practical implications of SOX reporting on operational finance process and control environment.

Skills:

Essential:

• Fluency in spoken and written German and English.
• Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Be able to present information concisely and make suitable recommendations to line management and wider stakeholders, including the MD for Germany and senior members of the UK Finance team.
• Self-motivated with great attention to detail and demonstrate strong ownership of tasks.
• Project management and prioritisation skills: well-organised and able to manage multiple workstreams and deadlines, multi-task and work independently.
• Strong practical knowledge of German GAAP / HGB requirements.
• Proficiency in use of MS Office – at a minimum Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

In line with VIRTUS' Vetting Policy, the successful applicant must be willing to undergo a BS7858 screening process.