Karman Europe was established following the acquisition of Walker Precision Engineering by US-headquartered Karman Space & Defense, providing a platform from which to develop a broader European business. With operations across Scotland, England and Poland, the business has a strong heritage in precision engineering and advanced manufacturing, supporting leading customers across the aerospace and defence sectors.
The strategy is to build on these foundations through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisition, with the existing operations providing the platform for further European businesses to be acquired and integrated.
This is an important stage in the development of Karman’s European operations, bringing together established engineering capability and customer relationships with the investment, resources and international reach of the wider Group. The ambition is to create a larger, integrated European platform with the capability to support customers across increasingly complex aerospace and defence programmes.
About the role
Following the promotion of Kevin Harvie from CFO to President, Karman Europe is seeking to appoint a new Chief Financial Officer.
Reporting to the President and operating as a key member of the European leadership team, the CFO will play a significant role in shaping and delivering Karman’s European growth strategy as the business looks to materially increase in scale through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisition.
This is a broad CFO mandate extending beyond financial stewardship. The successful candidate will help evaluate strategic opportunities, support investment and capital allocation decisions, strengthen commercial and operational performance, and play a central role in the integration of future European acquisitions.
The role also carries leadership responsibility for Finance, IT and Cyber Security across the European operations, ensuring the infrastructure and capabilities develop in line with the increasing scale and complexity of the business. Working closely with the President and Karman’s US leadership team, the CFO will contribute to the continued development of Karman’s European platform as an increasingly integrated part of the wider Group.
Key responsibilities
- Act as a trusted adviser to the President and European leadership team, contributing to strategy, investment decisions and the delivery of business priorities.
- Support the evaluation and execution of organic growth opportunities, acquisitions, capital projects and post-acquisition integrations.
- Lead all aspects of financial reporting across Karman Europe, ensuring compliance with local statutory requirements and US parent company reporting obligations, including US GAAP alignment.
- Provide high-quality financial analysis and insight to support decision-making, performance management and accountability across the business.
- Lead budgeting, forecasting and long-term planning processes, ensuring financial measures are closely aligned to operational performance and business objectives.
- Maintain a robust financial control environment, overseeing governance, risk management, SOX compliance, treasury, tax, transfer pricing, insurance and regulatory compliance activities.
- Drive cash forecasting, liquidity management, working capital performance and disciplined capital allocation across the European operations.
- Lead the continued development of finance systems, reporting capabilities and business intelligence, including finance transformation, ERP improvement initiatives and the ongoing integration of Power BI across the Group.
- Hold accountability for Karman Europe’s IT strategy, technology roadmap and cyber-risk management, ensuring appropriate governance, resilience and protection of business-critical systems and information.
- Lead, develop and support the European finance team while building strong relationships across Karman’s European operations and US leadership team.
Candidate requirements
Essential
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- Qualified accountant (CA, ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
- Successful track record in a senior finance leadership role within a complex manufacturing, engineering, aerospace or defence environment.
- Strong operational finance capability, with a practical understanding of manufacturing economics, standard costing, inventory, margin, productivity and capital investment.
- Demonstrable ownership of budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, cash and working-capital performance.
- Experience leading robust financial controls, statutory reporting and external audit across multiple entities or sites.
- Evidence of building strong teams and operating as an influential business partner to a CEO and senior operational leaders.
- Experience providing leadership oversight of IT, cyber security or technology-enabled change. Deep technical expertise is not required, but the individual must be able to govern specialist resources, assess risk and ensure appropriate action.
- Practical exposure to M&A, gained in professional practice or industry, such as due diligence, transaction support, financial modelling, deal execution or post-acquisition integration. This may have been gained earlier in the candidate’s career and need not have been at executive level.
- Ability to communicate complex financial issues clearly to both finance and non-finance stakeholders.
- Willingness to operate at both strategic and detailed levels in a growing, fast-moving organisation
Desirable
- Experience within a US-listed or US-owned international group, including US GAAP reporting and SOX/internal control requirements.
- Experience of post-acquisition integration, finance transformation or scaling finance and technology capabilities through significant growth.
- Exposure to ERP implementation or optimisation and the development of integrated financial and operational reporting.
- International experience, ideally involving UK and European operations, cross-border tax and transfer pricing.
- Knowledge of long-term customer programmes, government or defence contracting, export-controlled environments or regulated aerospace supply chains.
