River Island 360 x 180 px

Finance Analyst

London (West), London (Greater)

Competitive Salary 

 

WE’RE GOING PLACES….

With more than 60 years of history in the bag, ours is a brand with an impressive heritage. Style is well and truly in our blood. As well as UK and Ireland, we are represented globally through our stores in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia. Our e-commerce business is helping to set the trend globally, shipping to 125 countries whilst also growing our presence on the world’s leading digital fashion marketplaces.

Our people make all the difference. Just as the River Island name pulls customers in off the high street and inspires them to buy online, our employer brand turns the heads of talented people, inspiring them to join, stay and grow with us.

WHAT YOU DO MATTERS…      

River Island is embarking on an exciting journey as the business drives the growth of digital with the Commercial Finance team sitting at the heart of this decision making.

With the Head of Commercial Finance having joined the team at the end of 2016, the Commercial Finance team is working closely with senior stakeholders and commercial teams to drive the right decisions and ensure River Island is making the right decisions to continue to grow into the future.

This role will support head office and finance stakeholders with accurate reporting and influential analysis, providing financial control and support for business performance, investments and costs.

Key Responsibilities

  • Produce annual budget and update periodic forecasts with department heads- challenge assumptions, variances, and suggest areas for efficiencies
  • Support departments in producing business cases for investments and make recommendations regarding approvals
  • Commercial reporting and analysis to drive performance and identify opportunities

The Role

Reporting & Analysis

  • Ownership of reporting and analyse periodic variances to budget/ prior year
  • Streamline processes and reporting to free up time to analyse performance
  • Ownership of key models (e.g. store and new space profitability analysis)
  • Support Finance Business Partner in producing periodic reports
  • Support Finance Business Partner in investment appraisals and assess performance
  • Preparation & analysis of department KPIs
  • Ensure timely periodic exception reporting to all department heads to signal areas of overspend or operating inefficiencies; highlight in the company Risks & Ops reporting

Business Partnering

  • Develop an understanding of business areas including the key performance drivers to inform reporting and analysis
  • Organise and lead periodic meetings with department heads & team to ensure ownership and accuracy of forecasts in time for board reporting             
  • Preparation of tailored reporting and analysis with business stakeholders to allow better decision making
  • Work with business to identify proposals which lead to operational efficiencies
  • Monitor key performance drivers to identify when these are outside acceptable ranges
  • Ad hoc work as required

WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING… and we know exactly what experience we’re looking for!

  • Relevant accounting qualification
  • Strong excel skills and ability to work quickly and accurately
  • Possess strong analytical skills and in particularly can demonstrate the ability to conclude and make recommendations
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to work to tight deadlines whilst maintaining a high level of accuracy
  • Confidence to challenge
  • Commercial experience in FMCG/Retail desirable but not essential
  • Knowledge of Oracle and Essbase desirable but not essential

IT NEVER GETS BORING…

If you are ambitious and love working in a busy environment where every day is new, then River Island is the place to be! As a business, we are committed to developing our talent and offer a fantastic training program to help you optimise your performance and support your career progression with the company.

You will be working with industry experts who are passionate about our brand and really know their stuff. They are focused on ensuring they deliver this knowledge to their team to support with their development with the business. What better way to learn and develop your career than alongside someone who has been there and done it themselves!

Our working environment is busy, fast moving and responsive to our customers’ needs, much like our training which is unique to our business and reflective of our fun and refreshing brand and our people within it! Our River Academy offers ongoing training and development by running workshops throughout the year varying from courses focusing on softer skills to the more technical courses you may require to perform your duties.

It’s not all work and no play here either…we all work hard but we also like to have fun too! We are a social bunch and regularly host events ranging from summer and Christmas parties, bake offs, and lots of charity events

WE LOOK OUT FOR ONE ANOTHER…and in doing so, we provide great benefits for our employees:

  • 50% staff discount
  • Bonus
  • Pension scheme
  • Healthcare
  • On-site gym
  • On-site staff shop
  • Subsidised canteen
  • Free onsite parking
  • RI Perks at Work