Commercial Finance Manager

Nigel Wright are delighted to be representing an instantly recognisable Greater Manchester based retail brand with the recruitment of a Commercial Finance Manager.

This is a true commercial finance role that will provide genuine value add to the organisation.

Key Responsibilities for the role include:

• Act as a highly commercial Finance Business Partner to senior stakeholders across multiple non finance disciplines and wider corporate functions.
• Build strong relationships with senior leaders, using highly developed communication, influencing and business partnering skills to challenge thinking and positively influence commercial decisions.
• Take end to end financial ownership of significant areas of the cost base and developing a detailed understanding of expenditure across these functions.
• Deliver analysis to understand why money is being spent, what is driving that expenditure and whether there are more commercially effective ways of achieving the required outcome.
• Proactively identify commercial, cost optimisation, efficiency and value-creation opportunities, rather than waiting for operational teams to identify them.
• Partner with senior functional leaders to challenge existing organisational structures, processes, demand, service levels, suppliers and ways of working.
• Identify duplication, unnecessary complexity and activity that is no longer delivering sufficient commercial value.
• Build compelling, financially robust business cases for change, translating detailed analysis into clear commercial recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• Work closely with internal stakeholders to challenge supplier expenditure, contracts, commercial terms, vendor performance and cost structures, identifying opportunities to improve value.
• Own the budgeting and forecasting process across relevant functions, developing driver-based forecasts supported by a detailed understanding of headcount, recruitment, suppliers, projects and wider commitments.
• Identify financial risks and opportunities early and proactively influence stakeholders to change the commercial outcome, rather than simply reporting the forecast.
• Maintain visibility of an active pipeline of cost and value opportunities and hold stakeholders accountable for agreed financial commitments and actions.
• Use AI, automation and technology to interrogate complex datasets, automate repetitive analysis, improve visibility of spend and identify opportunities to simplify finance and wider business processes.

Person Specification

• Ideally a qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA), although strong QBE candidates will be considered
• A proven commercial finance professional who has the ability to look beyond the numbers and identify opportunities to improve costs, efficiency and overall business performance.
• Exceptional Finance Business Partnering skills, with experience working closely with operational and functional stakeholders and using financial insight to influence decision-making.
• Able to simplify complex financial and commercial information and turn detailed analysis into clear, persuasive recommendations and actions.
• Commercially inquisitive and naturally prepared to ask why something is being done, what it should cost and whether there is a better way of achieving the desired outcome.
• Comfortable challenging the status quo, including established processes, organisational structures, supplier arrangements and existing ways of working.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to interrogate detailed and potentially imperfect information and translate it into meaningful commercial insight.
• Experience within retail, ecommerce, consumer, PE-backed, transformation or another highly commercial and fast-moving organisation would be ideal.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment, managing conflicting priorities and making well-informed decisions without always having perfect information.