Job Description

Sainsbury’s is looking for a bright, driven and enthusiastic Finance Manager to join our Grocery Drinks team on a 12-month fixed-term contract. You’ll help shape the category’s strategic direction, working in a fast-paced business focused on making customers’ lives easier and guided by our values.

This role partners the Grocery Drinks Category, working closely with the Category Director and Heads of Buying where you’ll provide high-quality financial insight and constructive challenge to support better decisions, deliver targets and drive transformation. The role offers strong exposure at all levels, alongside meaningful opportunities for personal and professional development.

The Role

The Commercial Finance Team plays a crucial role in both shaping and delivering the strategy at Sainsbury’s. In a highly competitive industry that never stands still, there is always a lot going on and Finance has a key role to play in challenging ways of working and driving transformation. Our main focus is on delivering sales, profit, improved return on investment and cash flow. The role encompasses the following:

• Your role has a strong stakeholder management element and you will partner the Category Director, as well as buyers, becoming involved in P&L delivery, category planning, forecasting and working capital
• You will be responsible for providing sound financial appraisals, including projects, tenders, and several value-add workstreams that will help your category achieve and exceed targets set by the Business Unit Director.
• Variety of analysis will be required including promotional strategies; trials; seasonal activity or events; sub-brands; trading intensity; product/buyer profitability; capital investment etc.
• As part of the core Trading Finance team, you will support your Head of Finance and Director, advising on performance but also being responsible for communicating project progress, financial benefits or outcomes for your area.
• As with any key business partnering role, financial rigour is at the heart of what you do, and you will be required to provide the necessary challenge to ensure the robustness of your figures. You will need to ensure that we remain compliant to all relevant financial accounting standards and advise buyers and category managers when needed.
• As the face of Finance to your buyers, along with the Head of Finance, you will need to drive the budgeting process for your area, but also provide training and tools to the Trading team to raise commercial awareness and improve decision-making by landing key messages aligned with the wider business agenda.
• Line management and development of Finance analyst to deliver reporting, analysis and supplier query management for Grocery Drinks category.

Measures of success

• Being a valued business partner to the Category, meeting their expectations and acting on feedback where given
• Driving improved insights through high quality analysis
• Delivery of targets and process improvements
• Reduction in time spent on manual reporting and forecasting by automating or streamlining reports and/or processes
• Completion of work to a high standard – accuracy and timeliness are key
• Actively engaging and developing contacts throughout the business, both in and out of Finance (e.g. Fin Ops, Commercial Ops, Insights, FP&A)
• Demonstrable enthusiasm in approach to role

Essential Criteria

• Qualified accountant, holding an ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualification.
• Demonstrable advanced Excel and PowerPoint capability, including pivot tables, lookup functions and Power Pivot, with experience of producing financial analysis and presentation materials.
• Proven ability to communicate complex financial information clearly to senior finance and non-finance stakeholders, both verbally and in writing.
• Evidence of independently planning, prioritising and delivering multiple activities to agreed deadlines, while maintaining accuracy when priorities or demands change.
• Established experience of building stakeholder relationships and influencing decisions, working collaboratively across finance and wider business functions.

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not handling projects, we’re helping all corners of the wider group with what they’re trying to achieve. And around here, you can see the results of your work as soon as you walk into a store, which gives you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The sheer scale and complexity of our set-up means there’s always something else around the corner, and we’ll help and support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen here.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).