Finance Manager - Channels (6 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Fully woven into the DNA of M&S, our Finance team plays a fundamental role in setting the pace for our key business decisions, shaping our budgets, analysing our sales, managing costs and making sure our most vital statistics and data are absolutely accurate.
With a focus on adding new value to all business areas by helping them make data-driven decisions and understand what is driving commercial performance - it's our job to make sure the right tools, processes, governance, and ways of working are in place to support this., + Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
+ A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.
What you'll do
Your key accountabilities will include
+ Build strong relationships with our franchise partners through driving robust financial processes, controls and governance. Taking ownership of a range of existing partner disputes - investigating and validating the issues through relevant modelling. And aligning with partners on resolutions to ultimately delivering trust and confidence whilst driving efficiency across M&S finance
+ Act as the primary day to day point of contact across the M&S Franchise partner base on finance matters; ensuring robust financial processes and accurate management reporting. Owning the validation and modelling of partner claims
+ Identify impacts and trends on overall channels profitability - ensuring these are monitored and factored into commercial decisions where appropriate
+ Ensuring financial and operational risks are captured from a partner perspective, with appropriate controls proactively put in place to mitigate
+ Work with the category finance teams and the Shared Service Centre to ensure early sight of key Risks & Opportunities to drive no surprises at month end
Who you are
Your skills and experience will include
+ Qualified Accountant - CIMA/ACCA/ACA/CA
+ Experienced with Financial Processes and Controls
+ Comfortable working with ambiguity and complexity, e.g. involving reconciliation of different data sets
+ Strong communication to effectively engage with franchise partners. And cross functional engagement with Technology and Governance teams
+ Systems understanding desirable (e.g. Power BI, SAP) and Advanced Excel
Everyone's welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
#LI-Hybrid #LI-CP2

We are looking for a highly motivated and commercially minded Finance Manager to join the Channels team, driving the P&L for a significant business area (>£1.1bn revenue per year, c450 franchise stores). This role is critical to the delivery of our revenue and profit targets; in addition to future growth across our partner base & channels through value-add analysis, challenge and insight.

The franchise business is broad and exposes the business to a variety of additional channels - most notably Local Convenience, Airports, Rail Stations, Hospitals, Forecourts, Motorway Services. Each channel is unique and customer missions vary accordingly - therefore commercial decisions need to be tailored by partner to deliver the best customer experience
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.
What's in it for you
Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.
Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special
+ After completing your probationary period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
+ Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
+ Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
+ A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
+ A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
+ Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.