Finance Manager

This is not a classic Finance Manager role.

Yes, the numbers must be right. Reporting must be sharp. Deadlines must be met. But this role is also about something more: creating clarity, understanding what drives performance, and making sure Finance contributes to better decisions, sharper priorities and increased value in the business.

We are looking for a Finance Manager who will report to the CFO and take responsibility for the Finance Team in Holding – with five direct reports and a broad professional network across Copenhagen Merchants Group.

The role will evolve.
Roles often do here.

But from the beginning, your mandate will be clear.

Your focus

You will lead the Finance Team and create clear priorities, direction and follow-through for five direct reports. Not everything can be equally important – and that is exactly the point.

You will own high-quality reporting, controlling and financial governance, and make sure our financial insights are not only correct, but useful.

Most importantly, you will stay close to the business. You will ask questions, challenge assumptions and make an effort to understand what sits behind the numbers: the commercial model, the operational reality, the risks, the opportunities and the decisions that create value.

You will help make the Finance Team an even stronger sparring partner to the business – not by adding complexity, but by bringing pragmatic structure, insight and financial discipline to the decisions that matter.

You will improve processes, systems and scalability – reducing manual work, using tools better and applying AI where it creates real value rather than extra noise.

Budgeting, forecasting and performance follow-up will naturally be part of the role, but always with the same purpose: to help the business see more clearly and make better decisions.

Your first priorities

To be very concrete, success in the first 12–18 months will be to:

• Make Finance even more useful to the business by getting closer to the commercial model, the operational reality and the decisions that create value.

• Establish a sharper and faster monthly close - with reporting for CM Holding finalized within 10 working days.

• Reduce manual work and improve scalability through process improvements, automation and pragmatic use of AI.

• Prepare Finance for increased complexity, including an upcoming fleet of owned vessels, investor and bank reporting, and new business areas and geographies.

• Create better steering and decision support through a clearer Group reporting cockpit, stronger forecasting and budgeting where it matters.

In other words: help make Finance stronger, faster and more useful to the business – without making it unnecessarily complicated.

What you bring

You have a strong foundation in finance – controlling, reporting, maybe audit – and you know what good looks like. You have probably worked in an environment where complexity is real, not theoretical.

But technical finance skills are not enough for this role.

You need to be genuinely curious about business. Not just the numbers, but the activities, decisions, risks and commercial drivers behind them. You should want to understand how value is created, how operations work and why the numbers move the way they do.

You might already be a Finance Manager.
Or you might currently hold a title such as Group Accountant, Group Reporting Manager or something similar – and be ready to take on broader leadership responsibility.

More importantly, you bring the ability to lead people, set direction and create ownership. You are structured, credible and good at getting things done. You are pragmatic enough to improve things without making them unnecessarily complex – and curious enough to know that the best finance people do not stay behind the desk.

Experience from shipping, logistics, commodities or similar international environments would be highly relevant. But business curiosity and the ability to learn fast matter just as much.

You speak and write both Danish and English at a professional level. The Group language is English, but Danish is important in the role – particularly in relation to annual reporting, Danish accounting standards and internal collaboration.

What you can expect

You will recognise parts of the role. Finance is finance.

But the context is different.

We operate across multiple companies, countries and business areas – from established core businesses to newer ventures. That means things are not always simple. On the upside, it is rarely boring.

You will work closely with the CFO, the owner, leadership and key people across the Group – as well as a broad professional network including business controllers, treasury and colleagues close to the individual business areas.

We work with a high degree of autonomy, a very flat structure and short decision paths. Responsibility sits with the people doing the work – including you.

We work closely together – quite literally. We sit in an open office, and flexibility exists when needed. But we believe this business is best understood from close range. This is where you hear the nuances, catch the decisions and understand what actually drives the numbers. For us, being present is not a policy. It is part of being a Merchanteer.

And yes, our culture ambassador is an octopus. Its name is T.W. Heart.
We find that it says quite a lot.

What we offer

This is an attractive role if you want to take more ownership of your tasks and your area of responsibility. Copenhagen Merchants Group offers broader and greater responsibility than many larger companies will give at this stage of your career.

You will work closely with leadership and key stakeholders, gain exposure to a broad and complex business, and have room to improve what works, challenge what does not and build something better.

Your everyday workplace will be in our bright, modernized warehouse office in Nordhavn, Copenhagen – close to the metro, with an open view of the entrance to Copenhagen Harbor and the Opera. You will share the office with around 70 colleagues from five of the Group’s companies in an environment where people enjoy being here – professionally and personally.

And yes, Halima still bakes cinnamon rolls – and during summer, you may very well meet colleagues wearing shorts. We take the work seriously. Not necessarily the dress code.

Interested?

We are working together with Hansen Toft on this search.

If you have any questions about the role, please feel free to contact Senior Research Consultant Cecilie Hamp from Hansen Toft on Se telefonnummer på joinus.copmer.com or Simon Bach Nielsen from Copenhagen Merchants Group on Se telefonnummer på joinus.copmer.com.

Please note that Hansen Toft only need your CV when you apply. Your inquiry will be treated confidentially and will not be shared with us (Copenhagen Merchants) without your consent.