Senior Finance Business Partner

Senior Finance Business Partner - FRTS
Up to £106,000 (depending on experience) plus excellent benefits including car or car allowance of £6,000, up to 10% employer pension contribution and private healthcare for you and your family (Work Level 4)
Manchester city centre - in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at https://jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).  

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Finance Business Partner to join our team and provide strategic guidance to senior directors at Co-op. In this role, you’ll bring your expertise to drive both strategic and operational financial planning, reporting, influence decision-making, and drive business performance.

Why this role matters

You’ll partner Federal Retail Trading Services (FRTS), one of our most important sales channels, providing buying and distribution services to independent co-operatives across the UK. Acting as a strategic advisor to senior leadership, you’ll work closely with the accountable Board member and Partnerships Director to support both the performance of FRTS and its members, while also managing the financial implications of this critical relationship for the Co-op.

This is a unique opportunity to build something new. You’ll lead the creation of capability from the ground up, coordinating activity across multiple teams, embedding robust financial planning and reporting, and bringing insight, challenge and clarity to decision-making. In doing so, you’ll help ensure focus on the right priorities, align stakeholders around the financial impact of key decisions, and ultimately strengthen performance and partnerships across the wider Co-op network.

What you’ll do

•    Lead the coordination of the financial planning cycle, reporting, and performance management activities for the business area
•    Build and maintain the basis to measure and report the cost and benefit of FRTS
•    Develop the key performance measures for FRTS to assess and monitor performance of the business and to enable management of the financial implications for our Co-op
•    Lead and support the strategic evaluation of FRTS and associated projects with high business impact
•    Be the primary representative for Co-op Commercial Finance at the FRTS Financial Working Group
•    Coordinate and support appropriate governance forums across Co-op to manage financial implications of FRTS
•    Apply strategic thinking and business knowledge to solve complex problems, driving actionable insights to enhance performance
•    Influence key decisions by providing analysis, offering new perspectives, and recommending strategic solutions
•    Facilitate forward-looking discussions to support long-term scenario planning
•    Advise on business planning assumptions, headwinds, and opportunities, driving solutions and accelerating benefit realization
•    Build effective business partnering relationships, ensure alignment of strategy, priorities, and resources, and mentor a team of senior finance professionals

What you’ll bring

We’re committed to making our roles as accessible as possible, so we only ask for the minimum criteria. To thrive here, you’ll need to bring:

•    A relevant financial qualification (CIMA, ACA, ACCA or equivalent), with significant experience as a finance business partner supporting at a senior leadership level
•    Significant experience working in the customer-facing landscape
•    The ability to build strong relationships with colleagues at executive level, challenging and influencing where necessary
•    Strong leadership skills and evidence of setting the strategic vision for teams
•    Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to present complex technical information to non-financial audiences in a compelling way
•    Strong organisational, prioritisation, core finance and analytical skills, with an understanding of planning and forecasting processes

Why Co-op?

At Co-op, we’re owned by our members. And because we’re owned by you, we can do right by you. So when you join us, you’re not just taking a job, you’re joining a movement. We’re an organisation that puts people and communities first, and we’re powered by purpose. We want this to be a place where you can thrive, so you’ll also receive:

•    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 
•    Company car or car allowance of £6,000
•    Private healthcare for you and your family
•    Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ) 
•    30% discount on Co-op products and 10% off other brands 
•    Stream – early access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it 
•    Virtual healthcare including GP appointments, mental health support, nutrition and fitness advice 
•    24/7 colleague support service 
•    Training and support for your development and career progression
•    Cycle-to-work scheme

A place you’ll belong

We’re building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve.
We welcome applications from everyone and are committed to creating a workplace where colleagues can feel like they belong, supported by our inclusive policies and the ways we work.

We’re proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme and offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a job. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, we’ll support you.

Learn more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and our inclusion commitments at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-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.