Senior Finance Manager - Retail - FP&A and Cost Management

Summary

This is a fantastic opportunity to join Retail Finance in a broad and commercially influential Senior Finance Manager role, giving you exposure to the performance and transformation of one of the UK's leading retailers.

You'll take ownership of FP&A and cost management across UK Retail, partnering closely with the Retail Leadership Team to drive stronger commercial decision-making, cost control and delivery of the Retail transformation plan. Managing two Finance colleagues, you'll combine strong financial leadership with commercial insight and influence across Retail, Property, Food and Fashion, Home & Beauty.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Lead the FP&A cycle for UK Retail, taking ownership of quarterly forecasting, annual budgeting and the longer-term three-year plan, ensuring outputs are efficient, accurate and provide meaningful insight for senior stakeholders.
• Act as a trusted commercial partner to the Retail Leadership Team, providing challenge and insight across cost control, strategy and cost-out initiatives, helping shape both immediate decisions and the future Retail cost base.
• Own reporting and analysis across Retail costs and performance, identifying trends, assessing trials and initiatives, and driving greater understanding of margin and profitability through weekly reporting, monthly store P&Ls and contribution KPIs.
• Build strong relationships across Finance and the wider business, working closely with Property, Food and Fashion, Home & Beauty Finance, Group FP&A and the Retail Leadership Team to ensure a joined-up approach to financial planning and decision-making.
• Lead, develop and empower your team, supporting two Finance colleagues while working with the MI team to continuously improve reporting, increase efficiency and provide better information to support business decisions.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• A qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with strong commercial finance experience and the confidence to operate at Senior Finance Manager level in a large, complex organisation.
• A strong commercial business partner who can translate complex financial information into clear recommendations, constructively challenge senior stakeholders and communicate effectively with both Finance and non-Finance audiences.
• Highly analytical with strong FP&A capability, comfortable getting under the detail of a significant cost base, identifying trends and opportunities and using insight to influence commercial decisions. Retail and FP&A experience would be particularly valuable.
• An experienced and engaging people leader, able to develop a commercially focused Finance team while collaborating effectively across a broad network of Finance and business stakeholders.
• Confident working with financial data and reporting tools, with advanced Excel skills and experience of Power BI. Knowledge of Business Objects and SAP would be an advantage.

What’s in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you

Everyone’s welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.