Financial Planning and Analysis Analyst - 12 month FTC in Essex

• Location
• Essex, England
• Vacancy Type
• Full Time / Temporary
• Application Deadline
• Friday, December 4, 2026
• About the Organisation

Maldon Salt is a fourth-generation family-owned business with almost 145 years of craftsmanship at its heart.

Our unique pyramid shaped sea salt flakes have been hand-harvested using the same traditional methods since 1882 and are recognised globally as the finest of sea salts, exporting to over 60 countries worldwide.

Trusted by chefs and cooks around the world and recognised by the Royal Household, we have proudly held the Royal Warrant as official purveyors of sea salt since 2012.

Today, Maldon Salt combines this unique heritage with innovation—remaining true to our roots whilst inspiring new generations of food lovers with an expanding portfolio of salts and seasonings..

As a business, we take our corporate social responsibility to our customers, partners, and our ourselves seriously, continually seeking ways to reduce our environmental impact.

This includes initiatives such as lowering carbon emissions and using carbon-balanced packaging.

In partnership with the World Land Trust, Maldon Salt supports global conservation efforts, helping protect threatened habitats and wildlife with every box produced.

This ongoing commitment reflects our dedication to global environmental sustainability and responsible business practice s.

Job Summary

This 12-month fixed-term role strengthens planning, forecasting, budgeting and performance reporting while supporting the implementation of Vena, our new financial planning tool.

Reporting to the Head of FP&A, the FP&A Analyst will develop and maintain robust models, build our reporting capabilities, and improve recurring FP&A processes.

This role suits an experienced analyst who can work with detailed data, coordinate inputs across the business and deliver accurate, decision-ready outputs.

It requires ownership from the outset, sound critical judgement and constructive engagement with finance and non-finance stakeholders.

About the Job

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Head of FP&A in delivering the annual budget, periodic forecasts and long-term strategic plans.

This includes coordinating inputs and assumptions to ensure plans are complete, consistent and aligned across the business.

• Support the development and maintenance of financial models including sales, volume, price, margin, operating costs, cash flow and key business drivers.

Assess the financial impact of changes in business assumptions, maintaining clear version control, documentation and auditability.

• Produce timely performance and variance analysis that explains movements against budget and forecast.

Highlight key risks and opportunities, supported by clear commentary for management and executive reviews.

Provide and implement recommendations where necessary and required.

• Provide core finance support to the Vena implementation project through data preparation, validation and mapping across accounts, entities, customers and products.

Reconcile actuals to Sage X3, help build and test planning and reporting templates, and support user acceptance testing.

Maintain issue and action logs, and produce practical documentation and user guidance to support adoption.

• Work with Finance, Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain and BI&T to gather requirements, resolve data issues and ensure planning inputs and model outputs are accurate, usable and delivered to agreed timelines.
• Improve recurring FP&A processes by reducing manual work and standardising models, templates and reporting.

Strengthen controls while maintaining high standards of accuracy and data discipline.

What Success Looks Like

• Budgets and forecasts are delivered accurately and on time, with clear assumptions, reliable models and stronger visibility of risks and opportunities.
• The Vena implementation project is supported by clean, reconciled data, well-tested, user-friendly templates, clear documentation and effective handover into business-as-usual ownership.
• Management reporting and analysis become more consistent, efficient and decision-useful, with less reliance on manual spreadsheet processes.
• FP&A analysis goes beyond reporting the numbers to explain what is driving performance, highlight emerging risks and opportunities, and provide clear, actionable insight that supports business decisions.
• The Head of FP&A has dependable analytical support and greater capacity to focus on business partnering, decision support and the development of the wider FP&A function.
• Knowledge, Skills & Experience Required
• 3-5 years' relevant experience in FP&A, management accounting, commercial finance or a similar analytical finance role is preferred.

Candidates with broader relevant experience will also be considered where the role remains a good fit.

• Direct experience supporting budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, variance analysis and financial modelling in a business environment.
• Advanced Excel skills and the ability to build, review and maintain robust financial models using large or detailed datasets.
• Experience supporting a finance system, planning tool or implementation project is advantageous.

Relevant exposure may include data mapping and reconciliation, as well as testing, documentation or user support.

• Experience with Vena or another similar FP&A platform is desirable but not essential.

Familiarity with Sage X3 is advantageous, alongside experience of Power BI or similar reporting tools.

• Strong attention to detail, organisation and delivery discipline, with the ability to manage recurring deadlines alongside project work.
• Key Behaviours & Attributes
• Analytical, methodical and curious, with the ability to identify what is driving performance and explain it clearly.
• Pragmatic and solution-focused, able to work through imperfect data and resolve issues without losing sight of the required outcome.
• Collaborative and dependable, building effective working relationships across Finance and the wider business.
• Comfortable taking ownership of detailed work, managing priorities and escalating risks or decisions at the right time.
• Adaptable and improvement-minded, with an interest in developing better planning processes, systems and reporting.

Qualifications

• A part-qualified or qualified accountant (CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent) is preferred.

Candidates qualified by experience will also be considered where they have strong, relevant FP&A capability.

• Hours
• 09:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday

Benefits

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 28 days with length of service (plus bank holidays)
• 1 week company sick pay after 6 months service, increasing to 3-weeks Company Sick Pay (after 12 months service)
• Income protection (after 3 months service), payable at 75% of basic salary, for up to 5 years (subject to approved claim by insurance provider)
• Life Assurance (4 x basic annual salary, after 6 months service)
• Private Medical Insurance (after 6 months service), with option to self-fund partner/child/children
• Enhanced Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme (4% matched contributions)
• Opportunities for professional growth
• Employee Assistance Program
• Employee discounts to high street retailers
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Company Events
• Free tea and coffee