Lead Financial Planning Manager

£60,000 - £70,000 (work level 5)

Hybrid/Remote – You’ll be able to split your time between home and the Scunthorpe and Manchester offices.  Find out more about our hybrid working policy at jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy.

We’re looking for a Lead Financial Planning Manager to join Co-op Wholesale, where we support over 4,000 convenience stores across the UK. We’re entering our next exciting phase of growth, and with that, we've got opportunities emerging across Co-op Wholesale, like this one.

As our Lead Financial Planning Manager, you’ll be the mastermind behind proactive planning, analysis, and reporting for a key business unit. You’ll work closely with business partners to ensure every strategy, initiative, risk, and opportunity is reflected in our future plans. Coordinating with finance teams across the business, you’ll help bring clarity to the numbers, consolidate planning activities, and support the wider team in driving business performance.

With ambitious growth plans, this role offers the chance to shape strategy, manage risks, and maximise opportunities—giving you the scope to make a real impact.

What you’ll do

• Collaborate with Finance teams to ensure P&L impacts, risks, and opportunities are accurately reflected in budgets and forecasts.
• Lead the coordination of the planning process and own the modelling to ensure consistency across all business submissions.
• Lead the delivery of forecasts, outturn predictions, and five-year plans, providing clear insights and performance commentary.
• Produce accurate, insightful reports and presentations to support decision-making.
• Develop planning communication packs that provide clarity on business performance.
• Provide in-depth analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, delivering actionable insights for senior management.
• Support financial understanding across teams, driving consistency and simplification in planning processes.
• Lead the capital expenditure reporting, working with business leaders to understand project plans and assessing the impact on working capital and cash forecasting.
• Own the overhead payroll forecasting for the business, liaising with senior leaders and supporting on business case creation when required. 

This role would suit people who have

• Qualified accountant (CIMA, ACA, ACCA) with experience as a finance manager in end-to-end planning, analysis, and reporting.
• Strong financial management skills, including budgeting, forecasting, and financial modelling.
• Effective communicator with the ability to present to financial and non-financial audiences, influence senior stakeholders, and collaborate across teams.
• Technical expertise in finance systems, BI tools, and scenario planning.
• Adaptable and proactive, with a track record of delivering key projects in a fast-paced, continuously evolving environment.

Why Co-­op?

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

• private healthcare
• coaching, training and support to help you develop
• pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• annual incentive scheme
• Wagestream - a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 in line with service)
• discounts on Co-op products and services
• 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 

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. We want to build inclusive work environments, where our colleagues have equal opportunities to reach their full potential. We celebrate our differences, and recognise the importance of our teams reflecting the communities they serve. 

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. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.