Finance Business Partner- Retail Costs

This is a Finance Business Partner role within our Retail Cost Finance team. The Retail function is a hugely important part of Nationwide, that includes all customer facing teams as well core products such as Savings & Current account and back office operations such as Complaints & Fraud. This Business Partnering role is at the heart of the Finance Business partnering team supporting the value driven by the Retail area. A fully commercial role, it provides an excellent opportunity to really drive forward decision making to improve the customer and commercial outcomes.

This role creates a great opportunity for an experienced Finance Business Partner to be part of a team who provides key stakeholders with financial guidance & advice and creates great pieces of analysis to support & challenge through decision making.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, at one of our offices in Swindon or London. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

• You will be responsible for managing costs within a £200m cost base underpinned by over 5,000 FTE, covering a significant proportion of the customer facing teams within the Society (inc. Branch Network (c600 branches) and the Contact Centre).
• You will be the Finance Business Partner lead for supporting and challenging the costs and approaches taken within Retail to ensure that we met the needs of our customers whilst ensuring a sustainable and effective cost base.
• You will support the Branch Profitability modelling, understanding the key drivers and helping drive value through the biggest branch network in the UK
• You will facilitate all key management accounting activities performed throughout the year, including planning, forecasting, month-end activities and regular reporting and ensure they are fit for purpose with appropriate controls
• You will develop & lead a small team of accountants.

About you

Commercially-focused, you’ll be an experienced Accountant with the relevant professional qualifications (CIMA / ACCA / ACA). You’ll have a background in Business Partnering and have extensive experience within financial services / large retail outlets. You will have a track record of delivering cost efficiency programmes, underpinned by the ability to develop strong & trust-based relationships. You’ll have strong communication skills, with the confidence and credibility to present the finance perspective to senior stakeholders within the Society, combined with strong analytical skills to take data from different sources and drive different decisions.

As a minimum requirement, you’ll:

• Be qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA).
• Be experienced in the presentation of financial information to senior stakeholders and able to take a big picture view, with a broad understanding of the retail financial services marketplace
• Be comfortable challenging senior stakeholders as you are work collaboratively with finance and non-finance colleagues to deliver cost savings and efficiencies
• You’ll be organised and able to manage a portfolio of deliverables to high standards in a fast-paced environment
• You will have a track record of managing a team and delivering high performance.

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• Gympass – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up to date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, and so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

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