Ready for your next big career move? Wickes are recruiting for a Head of Finance - Commercial and Marketing.
Role Purpose:
To drive profitable growth by providing strategic financial leadership across the Commercial and Marketing functions. This includes delivering insightful reporting, robust financial planning, and rigorous investment appraisal to empower data-driven decision-making
What you’ll be doing:
Planning and Forecasting
- Provide and lead the delivery of financial planning activity (budgets, forecasts) for the commercial and marketing teams, ensuring alignment and rigour together with driving engagement and accountability across the organisation. This includes both P&L and capex.
- Liaise with other areas of finance (e.g. FP&A) to ensure alignment of assumptions
- Drive an efficient planning process with clear timetables, holding business and finance stakeholders to account and challenging the inputs and outputs
- Support, challenge, and drive the business stakeholders to achieve realistic, yet challenging targets
- Assess and highlight trading or financial risks and opportunities to enable a ‘no surprises’ outcome for managing external financial performance expectations
Reporting
- Deliver focused and timely weekly, periodic and ad hoc financial reporting (automated where possible) and analysis to deliver insight into the commercial business performance across sales, net margin, inflation and the marketing cost base to enable effective and informed decision making.
- Provide valuable insight on profitability across a number of business lenses (e.g. order channel, fulfilment channel, category, D&I)
- Ensure Latest View is accurate for both retail and D&I, focussing particular attention to the order book. Ensure any Risks and Opportunities are documented.
- Ensure balance sheet areas ( Stock, Deferred revenue, D&I provisions, Finance debtor, Import control, Warranty provision, CCF fees) are accurate and regularly reconciled.
Strategic Business Partner (Commercial, On-Line, Marketing and D&I)
- Key member of the Commercial Leadership team, supporting and challenging the Chief Commercial Officer and their direct reports.
- Supporting and challenging the Chief Marketing Officer (re. marketing cost optimisation, effectiveness and ROI), the Digital Director (re. on-line performance) and the Chief Operations Officer (re. E2E D&I delivery)
- Empowering the commercial finance team to support and challenge their relevant senior stakeholders across commercial, on-line, marketing and E2E D&I
- Provide support, robust challenge and insight to the senior leadership team
Financial Appraisals and PIRs
- Develop and deliver financial investment appraisals and PIRs covering areas such as range review investment, pricing strategies and promotional effectiveness
- Drive continual improvement in modelling, insight and process.
- Controls
- Ensure that appropriate financial controls and policies are followed in all aspects of accounting for the commercial and marketing areas of the business. This includes driving continuous improvement of controls and accounting for key areas such as stock, D&I and commercial supplier funding (working closely with the rebates collection team)
- Continually review and improve the manual D&I revenue and margin recognition process
- Drive, own and develop robust financial processes, fostering a strong culture of compliance and control within the team
Finance Transformation
- To support and challenge the new system programmes of work (e.g. UCP, OMS, Finance System) with the objective to automate current manual processes, particularly for stock and D&I
- Lead and challenge the team to improve processes in our current system environment which will set the finance team up for success in advance of the Oracle Fusion project.
Team Leadership
- Lead, recruit and develop a team of financial professionals ensuring appropriate resourcing, skillset and structure to deliver effective business support
- Develop PDRs for direct reports and ensure effective team goals that align with the wider finance team’s targets
- Support and coach team members so they can develop to their full potential and the team can deliver its stated goals
- Key member of Financial Leadership Team and proactively own and drive specific FLT projects outside of normal role remit.
What we’re looking for:
- Degree level educated with recognised Accountancy qualification
- 7+ years post qualification
- Commercial and strategically aware.
- Excellent analytical capability with ability to understand/leverage both detail and big picture.
- Ability to strongly influence and challenge in a constructive / engaging manner at Board and Senior Management level.
- Team leadership and development.
- Retail industry knowledge.
- Sound understanding of accounting/control and investment appraisal principles.
- Highly articulate, personable and engaging.
- Well organised, flexible and responsive to competing priorities.
- Track record of driving change and challenging the status quo.
- A good team leader who is able to inspire and develop team members.
What can we offer you?
You’ll be supported with fantastic learning and development and have the opportunity to grow and develop your career with us. We also have an early careers network to support you if you’re in your first few years of your career.
We’ll also equip you with a benefits package that includes:
- Competitive bonus
- Save-as-you-earn scheme
- Private Medical and Life Assurance
- Enhanced contributory pension scheme
- Colleague discount
Discount platform including savings and cash back at numerous retailers, savings on gym membership, cycle to work scheme
Our widely recognised wellbeing strategy is something we’re proud of at Wickes. As part of this, we offer a range of health and wellbeing benefits and support, including an Employee Assistance Programme, financial education & loans, and access to parental, menopause and fertility support.
By giving you the support you need to do well at work, and the flexibility to make life work for you. We are giving you a career that doesn’t put your life on hold. Where you can be yourself, do your best work, and make a positive difference every day.
About Us:
Wickes is a multi-channel retailer operating in the home improvement market. With 50 years in industry, Wickes now generates revenue in excess of £1.6bn across 230 stores delivered by 8,000+ colleagues. But it is our culture that is considered our best kept secret; it’s a collaborative, down to earth, fun and inclusive environment where people feel part of a winning team. All our colleagues come from different backgrounds, but what we all have in common is a determination to succeed and a passion for being the best we can be. If that sounds like you, we’ll make you feel right at home.
"We aim to create an inclusive workplace with colleagues’ wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.
