Head of Finance

Austral Facility Services (AFS) is a growing management‑owned facilities services business delivering cleaning and other soft services to a national client base across multiple sectors. With around $50M in turnover and a hands-on ownership group actively involved in the business, this role is suited to a senior finance professional who wants real influence, broad exposure, and direct access to decision-makers.

Why join AFS

We are looking for a commercially strong Head of Finance to lead the finance function and help the business scale with discipline. This is not a role for someone who just wants to close the month and stay in the background; it is for someone who understands how finance should support operations, contracts, labour-intensive service delivery, cashflow, and growth.

With opportunity to be based either in AFS head office in Brisbane or from our Sydney office, you will be reporting directly to the CEO, take responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of finance, managing your team, while also acting as a trusted commercial partner across the business. You will be expected to bring structure, clarity, and sound judgement, while still being practical enough to roll your sleeves up when needed.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the finance function across reporting, controls, cashflow, budgeting, forecasting, and compliance.

• Deliver timely and accurate monthly accounts, board-style reporting, and meaningful performance analysis.

• Partner with the CEO and senior leaders on margin improvement, pricing, labour performance, contract profitability, and working capital.

• Oversee payroll, debtors, creditors, BAS, audit, tax, and statutory requirements.

• Build better reporting disciplines, systems, and processes as the business continues to grow.

• Support commercial decision-making with clear modelling, insight, and financial rigour.

• Lead and develop the finance team, while lifting capability and accountability across the function.

About you

You are likely already operating as a senior Finance Manager, Financial Controller, or Head of Finance in a similar services based environment. You are technically strong, but more importantly, you are commercial, steady, and able to work closely with business owners who are active, fast-moving, and deeply involved in the operation. If located in Sydney, you will be prepared to travel to AFS head office in Brisbane QLD if required.

The right person will bring:

• CA or CPA qualification.

• Strong experience in a services, contracting, facilities, cleaning, security, labour hire, or other operationally driven business.

• A genuine understanding of margin, workforce cost control, contract performance, and cash conversion.

• The confidence to engage directly with owners and senior leaders, not just report numbers after the fact.

• A hands-on approach, with the judgement to know when to stay strategic and when to get into the detail.

Why this role

This role gives the right person a genuine seat at the table in a business where finance matters commercially, not just administratively. Austral Facility Services presents itself as a business built around service delivery, compliance and supporting client operations, which makes strong financial leadership especially important as it grows. For a candidate who enjoys being close to operations, shaping a finance function and working directly with owners, this is an opportunity to have visible impact rather than being a small part of a large corporate.