Senior Commercial Finance Manager

A Senior Commercial Finance Manager for Buying and Merchandising is required for a prestigious, multi-channel, luxury retailer based in Central London. With a very strong brand history, the business has an impressive track record of growth, achieving great success to date, and has a clear strategic vision.

This is a newly created role designed to strengthen the finance function, as the group undergoes a transformational systems overhaul, focussed on improving the ability to capture and utilise sales, margin and stock data.

Reporting directly to the Group Head of Finance and with significant exposure to the senior leadership team, this role will initially involve working very closely with the merchandising team to build the requisite reporting templates to facilitate maximum output from the new system. Over time, this role will evolve into a more commercially oriented business partnering opportunity with a key focus on trading. Key responsibilities will include:

• Quickly understanding current processes across multiple stores and then working closely with the merchandise team to create and drive through 'best in class' practices across sales, margin and stock planning and reporting
• Creating and tracking robust financial plans with appropriate KPI's to support the delivery of improved, insightful and value-add management information and analysis of results across sales, margin and stock
• Acting as a strong business partner to a variety of internal functions and stakeholders, including the Buying and Merchandising team, supporting commercial and operational decision-making across the organisation and driving value
• Influence a new BI tool and as this role will be a key customer of the tool, using it to help the business understand trade in depth, trends, areas to explore further including risks and opportunities

The successful candidate will be a qualified accountant from a multi-site retail background. You will have exceptionally strong commercial expertise, a demonstrable track record of improving the integrity of sales, margin and stock analysis and proven business partnering experience. Prior exposure to working with merchandising and ERP finance and stock systems would be advantageous.

A confident and pro-active self-starter, you will be comfortable contributing to high-level strategic decision-making whilst being able to 'roll up your sleeves' and immerse yourself in the detail. You will have the credibility and gravitas to challenge current thinking and influence in a positive and constructive manner both inside and outside of finance. With clear enthusiasm, drive and proactivity, you will thrive in a change-oriented environment and will be adept at prioritising workloads for yourself and others.