Lead Finance Manager – Central Costs & Transformation
£66,000 plus excellent benefits, including up to 10% matched pension and private health care (Work Level 5) 
12-month fixed-term contract
Manchester City Centre - We’re now working in a hybrid way, with colleagues dividing their time between home and the office. You can find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy

We’re looking for a Lead Finance Manager to join our Finance team on a 12-month fixed-term contract, and provide us with oversight and control for Co-op’s central costs and investment choices, allowing us to make effective decisions that improve business outcomes and help set us up for future success.

In this role, you’ll join the team that co-ordinates our group central costs budget, provides insight into investments we make and financially partners our corporate support functions across our business. A key area you will be responsible for is our transformation change team helping them assure delivery of our strategic plans. If you’ve got the financial skills, along with experience of effectively leading a team and partnering with senior business leaders, then we can offer you the opportunity to grow your career and make a real impact across Co-op.

What you’ll do

•    Provide financial insight to our portfolio management committee on performance of our transformational projects
•    Co-ordinate and own the group central costs budget and ongoing forecasts, managing performance of the business, providing insight, and holding the business to account to achieve its financial targets
•    Co-ordinate and own the monthly review of performance, making sure that optimisation initiatives are tracked, and delivery is understood
•    Develop insights reporting to enable business teams to better manage and understand their spend
•    Lead efforts to prioritise and align relevant projects with corporate strategic goals
•    Provide support to the exec (in your area) in relation to required analysis and projects, preparing high-quality outputs 
•    Create a culture of development, making sure the team has strong commercial insight and a business analysis skillset 
•    Take ownership and help us drive consistency into our processes and reporting

This role would suit people who have

•    A financial qualification – CIMA, ACA, ACCA, or equivalent
•    Strong organisational skills and a flexible approach – you’re comfortable working accurately at pace and with changing priorities
•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to bring financial information to life in a compelling way
•    The ability to build strong relationships with colleagues at all levels, and the ability to develop and grow a team 
•    Excellent analytical skills – you’re able to spot trends in data and apply broader business and market context to make sense of data

Why Co-op?

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).

•    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 app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

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.

Building a diverse environment

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

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.