Commercial Finance Manager - Planning & Reporting

Job Description

Please note, this role is based out of our Holborn Store Support Centre & Home. Colleagues go into the office 2 days per week – Tuesdays & Thursdays.

Sainsbury’s is looking for a bright, driven, and enthusiastic Finance Manager to join a team of like-minded individuals in an exciting part of our Business. You will be joining a company that is dedicated to making our customers’ lives easier every day. Our values make us different and this underpins our core strategy.

In joining the Sainsbury’s Finance team, you will be working closely with a variety of stakeholders (finance and non-finance), at all levels, helping to support and shape the direction of our business. This role is within a team that is fast-paced and dedicated to providing the best financial support to enable the best decisions to be made, for our customers and for our business.

More about the role

The Commercial Finance Team plays a crucial role in both shaping and delivering the strategy at Sainsbury’s. In a highly competitive industry that never stands still, there is always a lot going on and Finance has a key role to play in challenging ways of working and driving transformation. Our main focus is on forecasting and maximising sales, profit, return on investment and cash flow.

This position is responsible for delivering exceptional finance support to a dynamic business unit. The role encompasses all Planning and Reporting activities for the Grocery Business Unit, including the following responsibilities:

1. Your role has a strong stakeholder management element, and you will support the Head of Finance and the Business Unit Director (Grocery).
2. You’ll produce a variety of analysis to support decision-making, both backwards looking and forward-looking performance. This commercial role works with both Finance and Non-Finance, so you’ll need the ability to engage and communicate with different sets of stakeholders.
3. You will be brilliant at storytelling, working with Category Finance Managers to understand the narrative on weekly and periodic performance.
4. You will support on any finance-led deliverables such as Forecasting, Latest view reviews and Budgeting by consolidating the category views. You will ensure that the commercial stakeholders are providing robust submissions and that you are able to challenge, understand & articulate accordingly.
5. You will work with Finance Managers to consolidate the view of risks and opportunities, monitor them monthly, and assist in developing mitigation plans as necessary.
6. Completing ad hoc analysis for the commercial teams as required, examples of this include understanding the success of promotional strategies; trials; seasonal activity or events.
7. Supporting & challenging on any Investment decisions around Business cases and post-investment appraisals, helping to carve out valuable insights whilst also making sure we protect the business through robust and accurate financial assumptions. Improving our returns on investment is a key focus for Sainsbury’s so being the finance steward to the commercial trading teams here is a vitally important role.
8. Deputise for the Head of Finance (Grocery), attending Business Unit Leadership Team calls and supporting the Business Unit Director as needed.
9. Finding ways to simplify processes and improve on these so that they are best in class.

More about you

1. Qualified accountant – CIMA/ACCA/ACA.
2. Advanced PowerPoint and Excel skills (pivot-tables, lookups, power pivots, macros).
3. Ability to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders, both verbally and written.
4. Proven track record of working independently.
5. Self-motivated and ability to manage own time.
6. Ability to prioritise and respond accurately under pressure.
7. Excellent levels of impact and influence.
8. Ability to articulate finance for non-finance.
9. Excellent forward planning and organisation skills.
10. Very good networking and partnering skills.

Responsibilities

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not handling projects, we’re helping all corners of the wider group with what they’re trying to achieve. And around here, you can see the results of your work as soon as you walk into a store, which gives you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The sheer scale and complexity of our set-up means there’s always something else around the corner, and we’ll help and support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen here.

Qualifications

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new – whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business – and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you’ll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury’s, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We’ve also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You’ll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You’ll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest-free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well as access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, and you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).

#J-18808-Ljbffr