Finance Director – Marketing, Portfolio & Technology

Company Description

John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies. 

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards. 

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries. 

Job Description

We are seeking an exceptional Finance Director - Technology, Portfolio & Marketing to provide strategic financial leadership across our Technology, Portfolio and Marketing functions. Reporting as a key member of the Finance Leadership Team, this high-impact role will partner with senior business leaders to shape long-term growth, innovation and value creation across the organisation. The successful candidate will drive financial strategy, investment governance and commercial decision-making, ensuring that portfolio choices, innovation investments, pricing strategies and marketing effectiveness are aligned to business objectives and deliver sustainable financial outcomes. Leading a high-performing finance partnering team, you will provide insightful challenge, robust analysis and strategic guidance to influence critical decisions, optimise investment returns and strengthen organisational performance. This is an outstanding opportunity for a commercially minded finance leader who thrives in a dynamic, global environment and is passionate about enabling growth through financial excellence.

Job responsibilities: 

Strategic Finance Leadership

• Partner with senior leaders across Technology, Portfolio and Marketing to shape strategy, growth priorities, and innovation agenda.
• Provide financial insight and challenge on key decisions, particularly around market investment, portfolio choices, strategic pricing and innovation strategy.
• Ensure strong alignment between commercial strategy and financial outcomes.

Technology & Portfolio

• Own the consolidated view of portfolio performance, including product profitability, vitality, and product lifecycle value.
• Prepare financial analysis / business cases to support investment choices into new product developments
• Ensure clear linkage between vitality metrics and long-term growth, innovation effectiveness, and strategic objectives.

Leadership of Marketing Finance

• Provide financial leadership in shaping and supporting the divisional pricing strategy, partnering with regional commercial teams to drive price optimisation, margin expansion, and value realisation.
• Oversee financial strategy and effectiveness of marketing investments, including ROI, channel effectiveness, and spend optimisation.
• Guide how marketing spend translates into growth, pipeline, and customer impact (not execution tracking).

Investment Governance & Capital Allocation

• Establish frameworks for evaluating and approving capex, NPD, EPD and innovation investments.
• Set financial criteria, return expectations, and governance standards.
• Ensure consistency and rigour in business case development delivered.
• Oversee financial governance of the stage-gate process for new product innovation, ensuring robust business case development, scenario modelling, and value tracking.

Leadership of Finance Partnering Model

• Lead and direct the Finance Business Partnering structure.
• Ensure the team delivers strong forecasting, analysis, and insights, without owning detailed execution.
• Build a high-performing finance capability focused on influence and decision impact.

Financial Policy, Governance & Standards

• Establish financial policies, performance metrics, and governance frameworks across Marketing, Portfolio and Technology.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise-wide controls and delegation of authority.
• Drive transparency, consistency, and accountability.

Cost & Value Optimisation

• Set direction on cost discipline across marketing spend, portfolio investments, and technology costs.
• Ensure clear linkage between spend and measurable outcomes (growth, profitability, innovation returns).
• Leadership & Organisational Impact
• Lead through multiple levels, developing finance leaders and strengthening overall capability.
• Contribute as a key member of the Finance Leadership Team.
• Drive a culture of performance, accountability, and continuous improvement

Qualifications

• Educated to university degree standard and holds a recognized accounting qualification Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent).
• Extensive experience in senior finance leadership roles within global organisations.
• Strong background in commercial finance, FP&A leadership, and strategic business partnering.
• Deep expertise in marketing ROI, portfolio management, and investment appraisal.
• Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and shape strategic outcomes.

Additional Information

With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross-business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity. 

Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network. 

Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future. 

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)