Senior Finance Business Partner (12 months FTC) in Leicester

Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. The caring and supportive culture we've created makes this a place you'll feel right at home too.

The Business Finance Team is a team of roughly thirty finance professionals, who deliver key outcomes that support Dunelm’s operations, to:

• Produce timely and accurate weekly and monthly reports and insight to inform trading and operational control and decision making
• Set targets (in conjunction with business) and provide independent view of forecasts and trends
• Hold business to account to deliver to targets and manage risks and opportunities
• Support and challenge tactical and strategic decision making, including financial appraisal (and post investment appraisal)
• Agitate for optimising profitability and return on investment, and for best use of our resources
• Use our unique viewpoint to join things up, ‘unblock’ issues and put simple structure around priorities and actions

There are many opportunities for development in the team, both:

• Progression through Analyst, Business Partner, Finance Manager, Senior Finance Manager and Head of;
• Partnering with the varied parts of Dunelm’s business, including Stores, Supply Chain, Digital, Marketing, Tech, Commercial and many more!

A bit more about the role: As Senior Finance Business Partner for the business functions you partner, you will lead the support and challenge to your business partners in line with the Business Finance purpose, whilst also ensuring that all requirements for the Dunelm Finance function are delivered. You will directly partner business stakeholders, have strategic influence and take the finance lead on specific projects, initiatives and focus areas, as well as supporting in all ‘business as usual’ activities. Specifically, this role sits within the Costs and Operations finance team. One of the key business stakeholders for this role will be the Brand Marketing Director (and their team) in support of understanding and influencing their spend to maximise returns. The role will also partner with other corporate functions to ensure tight grip on costs, prepare and monitor forecasts and support investment decisions.

What you’ll be doing The responsibilities of the role:

• Partner the Leadership teams in the functions you support – acting as ‘critical friend’
• Direct finance ownership and presentation of forecasts
• Ensuring the month-end is closed accurately, timely and in accordance with policies as set by Financial Reporting (P&L and balance sheet)
• Decision support, from tactical decisions up to investment appraisal
• Monitor investments to identify deviations from plans and support with the identification and delivery of corrective actions
• Insight and analysis to better inform decision making, working closely with other teams such as Insight and Analytics
• Embed recently implemented changes in ways of working within finance, identifying and removing blockers
• Challenge and support to business functions and, where relevant, to third party suppliers
• Continuously improve the way things are done to create more capacity for value added tasks

What we’ll look for in you Essential Skills:

• Commercially minded, with a genuine drive to make a difference and support Dunelm to achieve its growth and profitability targets.
• Strong commercial judgement and able to make trade offs where there is uncertainty
• Good verbal and written communication skills, able to condense complex information into clear messages that deliver insight and recommendations
• A good relationship builder, building trust with key stakeholders and able to influence at senior level
• Investment appraisals and post investment reviews
• Strong financial control and governance mindset
• Finance qualified
• Strong Excel skills, able to use various sources of information to draw trends, highlight risks or areas of focus

Desirable Skills:

• Process improvement within finance activities
• Ability to coach / mentor other members of the finance team

Behaviors we look for:

• Communicating – Presenting reliable information and providing clear, simple and succinct messages that engage others
• Curiosity – A desire to truly understand the business operations and to question why things are done the way they are. Exploring other areas of the business and joining the dots
• Adapting – Respond and commit positively to changing needs; encourage others to have a go and be prepared to fail fast and learn from successes and mistakes
• Thinking Big – Having a balance between delivering business as usual and focusing on future growth; using data and insight to help forward planning
• Challenging – Being a leading voice in your area of expertise. Being bold and confident to provide constructive challenge.
• Making It Happen – Controlling what can be controlled and escalating rapidly issues outside of your control. Recognising when something is ‘good enough’