Senior Finance Business Partner

This role is designed to act as a co-pilot to the COO of the UK retail business, driving the strategy of the operations function and evaluate its performance.

the intent is to provide a fantastic gateway opportunity for a Big4 trained (or equivalent) qualified Accountant with at least 5 years post qualified experience in industry/practice to join a fast-paced, highly commercial business that can offer career progression and interaction across the whole spectrum of finance activities.

What you'll be doing:

* Acting as a Business Partner with the Operations function you will be creating value through sitting on the change board, assessing business cases and holding the business to account for benefit realisation

* Own the overall UK expense story and identify risks/ opportunities that the UK leadership team can act upon

* Work with the UK Chief Finance Officer in delivering a range of Finance projects for UK Senior Management. In particular, supporting initiatives looking at tactical and strategic cost opportunities

* Responsible for the monthly performance analysis of the overall UK expense base (including headcount management) with personal ownership of the Operations area

* Project manage the submission of overall UK expense forecasts and budgets

Our must-haves:

* Proven track record as a business partner

* Relevant professional qualification (ACA, CIMA, ACCA), at least 5 years post qualified

* Professional curiosity to ask the "so what" type of question

* Structured and ordered mindset with an ability to analyse and draw insights from numerical data to tell the underlying story

* Ability to communicate complex financial problems to a number of different audiences

* Shows initiative, drive and ownership, strong determination to 'get things right' standardised and then automate the production

* Combine soft influencing and persuasion skills with leadership qualities to encourage senior leaders to positively respond to questions, inquires and requests to meet deadlines

* Creative, proactive and innovative - does not accept the status quo

* Able to think and act strategically and to translate thinking into tangible plans

Our nice to haves:

* An understanding of an Operations function and what makes it tick

* Understanding of Project and Fixed Asset accounting

* Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills

* Familiarity with the Oracle platform.