Lead Financial Planning Manager
£60,000 - £70,000 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 5)
Manchester city centre
We're now working in a hybrid way, with colleagues dividing their time between working from home and our Manchester office
We're looking for a Lead Financial Planning Manager to join Co-op Finance and lead the planning and reporting across our Funeralcare business. You'll be working closely with our senior leader across Finance and the wider business, making sure that all strategies, initiatives, risks, and opportunities are accurately reflected in our future plans. We've got a big job on our hands to transform the way we do business at Co-op. And when we get it right, it'll have even bigger benefits for our members, customers, and colleagues.
As a Lead Financial Planning Manager, you'll be playing a key part in the team that's responsible for analysing performance and trends, providing insights from that data and forecasting, budgeting, and planning for the future. We'll look to you to co-ordinate delivery across the team and act as the glue that binds our planning and reporting activities together in line with our finance strategy. If you can bring us the great people skills and strong technical knowledge that we need, we can offer you the chance to build your career with a business that puts people at the heart of its strategy.
What you'll do
* Lead the planning and reporting across the Funerals business
* Engage with senior teams across the business to make sure any financial impacts, risks, and opportunities are understood and reflected in the budget and forecast
* Co-ordinate the team delivery of periodic latest views, together with more formal budgets and forecasts, as well as co-ordination of the multi-year plan, making sure that the correct assumptions accurately reflect how we expect to outturn
* Present accurate and meaningful insights into the data, telling the performance story and informing our strategic decision making
* Produce clear planning and reporting communication packs for a range of audiences up to senior level
* Have a focus on continuous improvement and drive innovation in processes and outputs
This role would suit people who have
* An accountancy qualification (CIMA, ACA, ACCA etc.)
* Experience working as a finance manager in a similar role, with a focus on planning, analysis, and reporting
* Proven experience managing budgets and forecasting
* Strong communication skills with the ability to present to financial and non-financial audiences, challenging and influencing to senior level
* Good knowledge of finance systems and processes, including general ledger and/or BI tools
* The ability to work in a fast-paced environment with a culture of continuous change
* A track record of owning key projects and working as a team to deliver them
Why Co-op?
If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).
* An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
* 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
* A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
* Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
* Coaching and training to support your career development
* Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn
Building a diverse environment
We're actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.
We'll ask whether you'd like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.
If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we'll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.
You can find out more about our recruitment process at
You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme at Disability Confident Scheme - Co-op Colleagues and more about our commitments to diversity and inclusion at Diversity and Inclusion
Please note that we may close applications for this role early.
As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.