Head of Business Planning

Job reference: 339137. Permanent, Full time. Location: Royal Mail Farringdon. Competitive salary plus car allowance, healthcare, 35% annual bonus potential, 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a company pension scheme with highly competitive contribution rates.

Overview

We are looking for an exceptional finance leader to join Royal Mail Group as Head of Business Planning, a high‑impact role at the heart of our financial leadership team. This role is critical to how we plan, forecast and manage performance across the Group. You will lead our end‑to‑end financial planning and forecasting framework, ensuring our strategic plans, budgets, in‑year forecasts and cash flow visibility are robust, consistent and aligned to corporate priorities. Working closely with Executive stakeholders, you will provide the insight that underpins decision‑making in a complex, fast‑moving environment.

Responsibilities

• Own and lead Royal Mail’s strategic planning, annual budget and in‑year forecasting processes, ensuring high‑quality, timely and consistent outputs.
• Set and manage the Group financial planning calendar, with clear governance, milestones and dependencies.
• Define business unit submission requirements, including central assumptions, templates and guidance, to ensure comparability and alignment.
• Consolidate and analyse financial plans and forecasts, producing clear, insightful summaries for Executive and senior leaders.
• Own short‑term (13‑week) and long‑term cash flow forecasting, providing clear visibility of liquidity, risks and opportunities.
• Provide financial leadership to cross‑business change and transformation initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement in forecasting capability through simplification, standardisation and automation.
• Work closely with Anaplan and systems teams to enhance planning, forecasting and reporting through effective use of technology.
• Lead, develop and coach a high‑performing Business Planning team, fostering strong technical capability and a culture of continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in financial planning, budgeting and forecasting within a large, complex organisation – FMCG or large retail would be highly desirable.
• A proven track record of leading group‑wide planning processes with multiple senior stakeholders.
• Strong leadership and influencing skills, with the ability to operate effectively at Executive level.
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to translate complex financial information into clear, actionable insight.
• Experience of designing and improving planning processes, with a focus on simplification and automation.
• Strong systems capability, ideally including Anaplan or equivalent planning tools.
• Experience supporting major business change or transformation programmes.
• You will be a qualified accountant (CIMA, ACA, ACCA or equivalent).

Benefits

• Family friendly support – enhanced maternity pay, paternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave.
• Supportive and generous company sick pay.
• Funded Dental – manager eligible to a level of employer funded dental insurance.
• Health Assessment – manager eligible to an employer funded health assessment every 2 years.
• Benefits Account – access to personal benefits account on the ‘My Bundle+’ platform. More than 800 retail offers to help you save on various needs and optional employer provided and voluntary benefits to suit lifestyle.
• Your Wellbeing – 24/7 access to services and tools to support physical, mental, financial and social wellbeing. Free for all employees and families.

EEO Statement

Royal Mail Group is committed to inclusion and representing the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals. As a proud Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, we especially encourage applications from the Armed Forces community, including cadet instructors and spouses/partners. We are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to support you during the hiring process, please discuss these with your recruiter when contacted. We welcome applications from ex‑Armed Forces personnel, reservists, veterans, cadet instructors and military spouses/partners.