Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Graphcore is a UK-headquartered semiconductor and AI compute company, now part of SoftBank’s global AI ecosystem. Our headquarters are in Bristol, with offices in London, Cambridge, Poland, Germany, and Taiwan. In 2026, we opened new key locations in India and US with the aim to build out key engineering and operational hubs to support our next phase of growth.

Role Overview

Strategic finance leader responsible for driving enterprise-wide financial strategy and planning, forecasting, performance management, and decision support. This role partners closely with the CFO, senior finance, executive leadership, and the Board to deliver rigorous planning, transparent reporting, and actionable insights that support growth, decision making and ensures financial discipline as the business scales.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Planning & Value Creation

• Own and maintain the annual operating plan, rolling forecasts, and long-range strategic plan

• Develop and maintain financial models and narrative to support scenario analysis

• Lead scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis (growth, capacity, headcount, opex and capex)

• Support capital allocation, ROI analysis, and investment prioritization

• Partner with leadership on M&A, integration, and ad hoc financial analysis and strategic projects as needed

Executive & Board Partnership

• Act as a trusted advisor to the CFO, CEO, and Leadership team

• Prepare materials for Board meetings and executive presentations

• Deliver clear explanations of performance vs. plan, risks, and corrective actions

• Support capital allocation decisions and liquidity planning

Performance Management & Reporting

• Own monthly performance reporting, variance analysis v’s budget/forecast, and executive reporting

• Define and track KPIs across opex, capex, and cash flow

• Drive accountability through data-driven insights and operating cadence

• Ensure alignment between financial results, operational metrics, and strategy

Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted finance partner with functional leaders, including Engineering, Operations, People and Supply Chain on:

• Capacity planning (compute, hardware, facilities, power)

• Capex planning (servers, clusters, networking, data centres)

• Cost modelling (headcount, third party engineering, T&E, other)

• Understand permanent and timing related spend variances

• Challenge assumptions and influence decisions using data-driven insights

• Translate complex technical and operational drivers into financial outcomes

Team, Systems & Process Leadership

• Build, mentor and lead a high-performing FP&A organization

• Establish scalable planning and forecasting processes and controls suitable for rapid growth

• Own FP&A systems roadmap (planning tools, BI, data models)

• Drive data quality, automation, and self-service reporting

• Partner closely with Accounting to ensure accuracy, consistency, and timely financials

Required Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of experience in FP&A, corporate finance, or investment-related roles

• Experience in high growth, PE-backed and multinational environments

• Strong understanding of technology infrastructure, hardware, or development economics

• Proven experience presenting to senior managers and leadership

• Advanced financial modelling and forecasting skills

• Working knowledge of IFRS / US GAAP, particularly relating to long term project accounting

• Strong people leadership and cross-functional influence

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA, ACA, ACCA, or equivalent

• Background in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, data centres, or hyperscale cloud

• Experience with M&A, carve-outs, or integrations

• Hands-on experience with Anaplan, Adaptive, Hyperion, or similar platforms

Key Competencies

• Commercial and strategic mindset with strong execution focus

• Board-level communication and storytelling skills

• High ownership, accountability, and bias for action

• Ability to operate effectively in fast-moving, ambiguous environments

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive executive compensation (base + bonus)

• Long-term incentives / equity participation

• Comprehensive benefits package