Marks and Spencer Jobs – Finance Analyst

About the job

Reporting to the Senior Finance Manager – Property & Retail, this role is accountable for working as part of an effective and fast-moving shared service environment where passion, creativity and excellence are key. This role will drive the integrity and control in the Retail financial results.

You’ll need to exhibit reporting, commercial awareness and systems capabilities, and be a trusted business partner to the Retail finance team in London.

The core operational accountabilities are supporting the Retail business by providing accurate and informative weekly and monthly reporting and performance analysis. An inquisitive attitude, driving insight to support action is a must!

Key Accountabilities:

• Reconciling retail opex costs plus performing variance analysis across budget and forecasts
• Preparing quarterly critical metrics for senior business partners across the business
• Ensuring Retail costs are allocated accurately across Food and Clothing & Home businesses
• Ensuring integrity of the Balance Sheet, working closely with teams across London and the BSC to manage and understand the impact of Balance Sheet movements on overall performance
• Completing monthly Working Capital analysis and providing commentary to the Group Team.
• Managing relationships with internal Retail business partners and delivering required financial information
• Driving integrity of the Retail financial performance, managing the reporting and analysis through management and promotion of the internal control environment, actively alerting Commercial Finance Teams to risks and opportunities, though liaison with Shared Services, Tax and Group Finance
• To develop and deliver weekly and monthly performance analysis of Retail, understand current attainment risks and opportunities with a focus on sales and profitability
• Ensure clear communication of monthly actual versus budget to key business partners, both Finance and non-Finance. Driving a ‘no surprise’ culture
• Build strong relationships with key business partners, managing regular dialogue to continue to drive improved performance, both within the reporting team and the wider Business Service Centre
• Supporting the Senior Finance Managers with ad hoc review and analysis in London & Business Service Center
• Exploit all data and MI opportunities to actively improve insight from Retail Finance reporting
• Liaise closely with the Commercial Finance analysts to understand the drivers of performance, and communicate appropriately
• Drive ongoing technology enabled process automation
• Develop a continuous improvement culture within the team to ensure that the service is being delivered in the most effective way, putting the customer at the heart of everything the team delivers.
• Excellent communication skills, attention to detail and solid knowledge of fundamental accounting principles are essential.

Key Skills:

• An Accounting background, part qualified CIMA / ACCA qualification
• Strong commercial awareness to identify any risks / opportunities to the business and make relevant recommendations to resolve
• Strong ability to resolve sophisticated issues
• Confident comparing high volumes of data in different systems and providing insight from this
• Exceptional business partnering skills with the ability to build relationships and influence business partners at all levels
• Can deliver within agreed timeframes and effectively prioritise workload with a flexible and proactive approach
• Excellent numerical and analytical skills
• Experience of using SAP
• Strong accounting skills with previous experience of working in a fast-paced environment

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact. We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty which means you are unable to complete the application process online, please get in touch either by phone on 0345 300 3725 or by email [email protected] so we can make alternative arrangements for you.