AddressInternal use only - Grade C
About us.
We are and we’re here to help families get more out of life. We know that our customers work hard for their families and have a lot to balance in their busy lives. That’s why we combine amazing brands and products with flexible payment options on to help them say yes to the things they love. We’re just as passionate about helping our people get more out of life too; building careers with real growth, a sense of purpose, belonging and wellbeing.
About the team.
The finance team is a well-established team who have built a strong culture around development and empowerment. The team provides each employee with a clear purpose, and a real sense of feeling valued and motivated. We are a team of high performers, with a passion for continuous improvement, and a great team ethic, we support and encourage one other.
We want to attract diverse talent into the team. People with passion, ambition, a preference for the innovative, team builders, and relationship creators. We’re fans of people who love to learn.
About the role.
The Head of Commercial Finance is a pivotal role within the finance function and will be responsible for business partnering the Retail division and its senior management team to deliver in year performance and future/strategic ambitions.
Key Responsibilities:
The role holder will manage a team of 12 highly skilled business partners, while themselves business partnering senior stakeholders such as the Executive team, Retail Managing Director and cross-functional Directors. Continuous development of a high performing team, while building relationships across the function and wider business is essential to the success of the role.
The role is accountable for driving business performance and improved profitability. A key part of the role will be to support and challenge non-finance stakeholders, providing financial insight and judgement that aids decision making and helps to improve performance to meet the strategic goals of the Group.
You must be comfortable with working in a fast-paced environment, pivoting across multiple priorities and making quick decisions, sometimes with ambiguous data.
You must role model high standards of integrity, displaying the ability to use your initiative and simplify complex issues into easily digestible information for non-finance stakeholders. You will have proven success in growing your team’s performance.
This is a highly visible role requiring an inspirational leader for both the team of 12 and for the wider function - sponsoring team development, cross-functional working and agile methodologies.
Key tasks will include:
- Provide financial insight and demonstrate the commercial acumen to drive growth, optimise cost and support decision-making at the executive level.
- Management and analysis of trading performance.
- Lead key trading meetings with the Retail divisions leadership team.
- Develop, execute and evaluate strategic initiatives to drive performance and improve customer experience.
- Review pricing and promotional offers to maximise performance.
- Build 5-year financial plans, working closely with strategy, retail and group teams.
- Lead the budgeting and forecasting process to ensure financial plans are delivered in a timely manner, with accuracy.
- Management and control of risks and opportunities.
- Control and governance of Retail spend, trading activity and budgets.
- Develop relationships at all levels to enable open communication across finance to drive effective team outcomes.
About you
- Qualified accountant with minimum 5 years post-qualified experience
- A self-starter with the confidence to provide opinion and with the desire & charisma to develop highly productive stakeholder relationships
- Excellent leadership skills and experienced at creating a high performing team
- Excellent presentational skills with the ability to prepare material that succinctly communicates complex issues for exec level discussion and that simplifies information for non-finance people.
- Able to build strong relationships with key stakeholders and have the ability to influence senior stakeholders, including the Directors and Executive board
- Able to challenge upwards and cross-functionally
- Able to galvanise cross functional teams to deliver a shared goal
- Flexibility, and desire, to manage divergence and/or ambiguity and be able to evidence comfort in working to tight deadlines amongst multiple priorities
- Possess an abundance of drive to learn and adapt to new ways of working
- You will seek ways to contribute to wider finance team beyond role scope
- A strong awareness of what drives end to end value including Market share; Trading performance in terms of Sales and Margin; Working capital (Cash, Stock); end to end profitability; Risk/Ops; cost control; suppliers; competitors
Some of our benefits
- Flexible, hybrid working model
- Inclusive culture and environment, check out
- £10,000 flexible benefits allowance to suit your needs
- 30 days holiday + bank holidays
- Udemy learning access
- Bonus potential (performance and business-related)
- Up to 25% discount on Very.co.uk
- Matched pension up to 6%
- More benefits can be found
How to apply
Please note that the talent acquisition team are managing this vacancy directly, and if successful in securing this role, you will be required to undertake a credit, CIFAS, Right to Work checks and if a specific requirement of your role a DBS (criminal records) check. Should your application progress we require you to let the team know if there is anything you need to disclose in relation to any of these checks prior to them being undertaken, including any unspent criminal convictions.
What happens next?
Our talent acquisition team will be in touch if you’re successful so keep an eye on your emails! We’ll arrange a short call to learn more about you, as well as answer any questions you have. If it feels like we’re a good match, we’ll share your CV with the hiring manager to review. Our interview process is tailored to each role and can be in-person or held remotely.
You can expect a two-stage interview process for this position:
1st stage - A 1 hour video call with the hiring team to discuss your skills and relevant experience. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the role and to ask any questions you may have.
2nd Stage – A one-hour formal interview where you can expect both competency and technical questions.
As an inclusive employer please do let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.
If you'd like to know more about our interviews, you can find out .
Equal opportunities
We’re an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
