Head of Finance

My client, a large listed retail business is looking for a Head of Finance to cover a period of maternity leave. The role will run for 9 months and pay a max of £100k plus car allowance.

Key accountabilities;

Business Partnering:

• Supporting the FD in business partnering senior non finance staff to ensure all key decisions and strategies are driving commercial value
• Stakeholder management with Business Units to ensure alignment, challenge and consistency
• Business partnering availability, allocation & stock management teams
• Drive profitability through pricing and promotion insight and challenge
• Ownership of the profitability of sale through managing Stock into Sale and Depth of cut targets
• Influencing the strategy through identification of opportunities

Managing the team responsible for:

• Ownership of planning across BU's and commercial teams, managing all timelines and interdependencies as relevant
• Delivery of forecast, Budget and 3YP outputs, providing insight to senior stakeholders into strategic initiatives, key assumptions and risk and opportunities within the plan
• Ensuring strategic initiatives are robustly reviewed and embedded within the planning cycles
• Interpreting and analysing the weekly trading information to drive insight into business performance
• Identification and management of Risks and Ops
• Working capital forecasting & reporting, driving a continued focus on stock integrity and
• Adhoc analysis for the directors and business stakeholders to support decision making as required

Financial Reporting, Accounting and Control

• P&L (Sales to Gross Profit) and Balance sheet ownership
• Ensuring adherence to accounting policy across finance
• Ownership of th quarterly trading statement
• Providing Investor Relations with insight into trading trends and performance to inform the quarterly results
• Delivery of reporting outputs and managing the message on business performance to senior stakeholders including Directors, CFO and Director of Group Finance, improving insight and analysis on key outputs
• Supporting the business on improving the forecasting and reporting of stock balances Financial support on capital
• Financial management of the cost base (c.£80m) including control and governance of investment

General

• Managing a team of 5, including 2 Senior Finance Managers, 2 Finance Analysts and a Financial accountant delivering market leading people development and a motivated team
• Driving a no surprise culture
• Reviewing opportunities to streamline reporting and drive efficiencies across trading, planning and reporting processes
• Meeting agreed performance objectives and ways of working; identifying and progressing areas for personal development

Key skills

• Strong leadership and team management experience
• Retail finance experience
• Commercial awareness and interest in Retail / consumer focused businesses
• Strong communication skills, liaising with senior management, business stakeholders and other finance teams
• Good commercial understanding of the business & market
• Budgeting and forecasting experience
• Quick learner, enthusiastic and solution driven
• Maintenance of rigorous financial controls
• Qualified Accountant