Finance Business Partner

As the Finance Business Partner - People Team, you will work closely with the Chief People Officer, being their direct contact for all things financial. You will develop key relationships within the team to support and challenge in key areas around financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, project governance and other ad hoc requests where required.

You will also be the financial contact within the business for all people related costs, supporting other Finance Business Partners and Senior Leaders through analysis and KPIs, to better understand the wider picture around headcount and costs.

• Financial support to Chief People Officer and direct reports, providing clear, concise insight and understanding of the People Centre of Excellence cost centre.
• Leading the annual budgeting process and forecasting for People Centre of Excellence.
• Providing clear and concise reporting to the Chief People Officer, Senior Leadership team and Senior Finance team.
• Chairing regular meetings with Chief People Officer and senior leadership team to review spend and gain better understanding of expected costs, highlighting underlying issues as they arise and providing challenge where necessary.
• Support and preparation of Quarterly Business Reviews and Annual Budget decks, including attendance and presentation at review meetings.
• Development and production of relevant department reports and KPIs to aid understanding and decision making.
• Ownership, governance and appraisal for any projects within the CofE, including monthly tracking and reporting into Steering meetings and Investment/operating forums.
• Input and understanding of month end reporting, working closely with operational finance team, enabling better forecasting and support to CoE.
• Support CoE leadership team with any other regular financial reporting requirements specific to the People CoE.
• Forecasting, tracking and reporting for any capital spend.
• Implement controls in line with the Group's Financial controls programme.
• Work with internal and external audit teams where required.
• Ad hoc Finance tasks and project work as required.

• 3 years+ CIMA / ACCA / ACA Qualified Accountant.
• Experience of Business partnering essential, including providing evidence of challenge and making suggestions that added value.
• Experience of Retail and Technology advantageous.
• Evidence of providing data driven insights.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal required.
• High emotional intelligence.
• Very strong analytical skills required to investigate, understand, and explain department performance.
• Ability to form strong working relationships at all levels.
• Ability to work under own initiative.
• Strong time management skills and ability to prioritise workloads to meet deadlines.
• Advanced Excel skills, Oracle, TM1 experience not essential but an advantage.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Positive, flexible, enthusiastic, and driven.

The JD Group is a leading omnichannel retailer of Sports Fashion, Street & Premium Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with over 90,000 colleagues over 4,500 stores across several retail fascia in over 36 countries around the world.

We are an equal opportunities employer who embraces and values differences. We recognise the importance of an inclusive workplace culture in which everyone can thrive irrespective of their background or identity.

To be a part of this successful and continuously growing company, you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people first, a digital leader and customer focused organisation which provides operational excellence and is continuous with identifying new areas of growth into our day-to-day.

We know our employees work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits:

• Incremental Holiday Allowance.
• Staff Discount on qualifying purchases across Group retail stores and online.
• Exclusive Colleague Bike Discount scheme.
• Discounted Gym membership.
• Personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.
• Access to Apprenticeships and accredited qualifications.

If you are interested in this position, then press the Apply Now button. Due to the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it takes time to review them all. If you don't hear back within two weeks of your application, please consider your application to have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Applications that meet the skills criteria will be contacted for a 1st stage meeting with the talent team. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview with the hiring manager.

Thank you again for your time.