Lead Finance Business Partner – At Need Funeralcare (Marketing, Infrastructure and Change)

£80,000 - £86,000 (Work Level 4) plus great benefits

Hybrid/Remote – in this role, you’ll be splitting your time between home, the Manchester office on a flexible basis with some travel to funeralcare homes to gain a deeper understanding of the Business Unit.

We’re looking for an experienced Lead Finance Business Partner to join our Funeralcare Finance Leadership Team at a pivotal time of transformation. In this key role, you’ll play a crucial part in turning around the business and driving growth through modernisation and technology, directly influencing strategic decision-making across marketing, infrastructure, and change projects. This includes assessing investment choices, identifying growth opportunities, optimising costs, and ensuring spending supports long-term growth and risk management.

You’ll analyse marketing spend to optimise effectiveness and drive growth, support infrastructure decisions to enhance operational efficiency, and evaluate technology / change projects to maximise value. You’ll also support the business through 4YP planning working with the dedicated Funeralcare FPAR team. Additionally, you’ll coach and develop your team, fostering an inclusive and high-performing culture.

The role will partner members of the Funeralcare senior leadership team, notably those responsible for marketing, technology and change, as well as investment decisions.

This role offers a broad opportunity for skill development and progression within both Funeralcare and the wider business, positioning you at the heart of strategic growth and transformation. If you’re looking to make a real impact, this is the role for you.

What you’ll do

• Apply strategic thinking and deep business knowledge to help the team solve complex problems, draw meaningful conclusions, and drive action from insights — providing challenge where needed to enhance performance.
• Provide problem-solving support in a programme/project capacity, with a focus on ensuring control and delivery of agreed outcomes. 
• Ensure discussions are forward-looking, providing strategic thinking to support longer-term scenario planning. 
• Work with the Funeralcare marketing team to optimise marketing effectiveness and opportunities to drive profitable volume growth, providing insightful action driving data
• Work with the Funeralcare and property teams to invest in the property estate appropriately with a balanced focus on return, efficiency and risk management. 
• Work with the Funeralcare and Group central support teams to identify and assess the financial benefits and costs associated with the change programme. 
• Work with the Funeralcare FPAR function to advise on key business planning assumptions, headwinds and opportunities, and agitate with the senior team to find solutions and accelerate benefit realisation. 
• Lead engagement to drive improved understanding of finance and cashflow management, and agreed standardisation and simplification of financial planning and insight, ensuring both P&L and cash implications are fully considered and understood across the Funeralcare programmes and projects.

This role would suit people who have

• Qualified accountant (e.g., ACCA, ACA, CIMA) with strong financial expertise. 
• Strategic leadership experience with a proven track record of setting and delivering commercial goals. 
• Commercial business partnering background with expertise in budget and financial performance management and an understanding of the impact of market dynamics on performance.
• Commercial business partnering background supporting marketing 
• Commercial business partnering background supporting investment appraisals
• Strong influencing and communication skills, effective at engaging senior stakeholders. 
• High data awareness and analytical ability to interpret complex data and drive clear actions.

Why Co-op?

Here you will do work that matters. We are a commercial organisation with a purpose beyond profit, you’ll have an opportunity to help us build a stronger Co-op and stronger communities. You will also get a package that includes:

• A company car or £6,000 car allowance
• Private healthcare
• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream – a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• Grocery Aid – 24/7 access to a range of emotional, financial, and practical support services for you and your family

Building an inclusive work environment 

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at colleagues.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-and-wellbeing.

We reserve the right to remove a vacancy before the scheduled closing date.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes.