Finance Manager - Investment (Masterplan)

Job Introduction

Key Purpose:

The purpose of this role is to form the nucleus of the Finance Team that supports the business in making the right investment decisions in our physical stores and head office spaces. With the support of their analyst and wider team, this naturally curious individual will support in the creation of business cases for capital investments and analysing performance post launch, working with key partners in both the Property and Buying and Merchandising teams.

Their objective is to provide clear financial information to the business, supplemented with the relevant commercial insight that drives appropriate actions. This should be done with reference to the wider remit of their team and the direction of their Senior Finance Manager and Head of Finance.

A bit about the role

The London Finance structure contains two distinct business partnering teams and a dedicated Financial Planning and Analysis team. Each business partnering team is headed up by a Head of Finance who will develop a "one stop shop" for the financial needs of each of the key Executive stakeholders. 

This particular role will sit within the Buying and Merchandising and Stores Finance Team, reporting into the Senior Finance Manager, Masterplan. The individual will support the Senior Finance Manager in building the required processes, controls and reporting in order to deliver key objectives across the Masterplan program. The role will support in building meaningful KPIs and reporting across all Masterplan investment areas to provide accurate and insightful analysis, enable benchmarking and ensure better decision making.

This role will be specifically responsible for supporting the end to end investment approval process for capital investments in our physical stores and head office. It will include partnering with the Property Team and Buying and Merchandising teams in order to create clear business cases, as well as assessing post investment performance.

The individual will be the primary finance representative at project steering groups, providing financial support and challenge as appropriate, to ensure that the right investment decisions are made. They will also be responsible for conducting accurate and timely post investment reviews, ensuring lessons learnt are well communicated, enhancing future investment decisions.

The role is also responsible for ensuring all retail assets are accurately recorded and depreciated, calling out financial risks and opportunities. It requires the ability work with finance and non-professionals of all levels, and a desire to create, improve and simplify processes and models.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support business case preparation for all retail and head office projects, including detailed cost review and working with the Buying and Merchandising teams to generate sales and benefits assumptions.
• Ensuring all investment requests are well understood and sufficiently challenged from both a cost and benefits perspective.
• Conducting post investment reviews for significant retail projects, ensuring performance against the business case is widely understood amongst stakeholders, and learnings are fed back into the process and ongoing investment strategy.
• Ensure ongoing retail projects are accurately tracked including a latest view on cost, benefits and project timing by partnering with the relevant project managers and attendance at relevant steercos and cost meetings.
• Manage all requirements for the Masterplan capital budget, forecast and five year plan for retail and head office projects.
• Supporting the bi-weekly Selfridges capital approval process.
• Monitoring and reporting on brand contributions, ensuring adequate back up is obtained and instructing payment.
• Support the Senior Finance Manager with any ad-hoc related queries
• Be able to manage and develop their direct report
• Build effective working relationships with stakeholders across the business

General Responsibilities:

• To represent the finance community in line with the Selfridges values and embed into the teams ways of working
• To be seen as a key leader and role model within the finance community
• Understand and support the delivery of the Selfridges Strategy and initiatives
• To contribute towards the creation and delivery of the Finance People Plan

A bit about you

Experience

• Held a number of finance roles across various areas of a business
• Hold several years' PQE
• Managed a direct report or team
• Sound business knowledge, preferably retail

Technical Skills

• Qualified - CIMA/ACCA/ICAEW or international equivalent

Personal Attributes/ Behavioural Skills

• Curious, analytical and numerate
• Strong customer orientation – passionate about setting and delivering exceptional standards of service
• Clear and confident questioning style, with the ability to influence customers
• Competently applies their technical qualification and ethics to the situations at hand, seeking out assistance where needed
• A change mindset, happy in an environment of continuous review and improvement
• Good verbal and written presentation skills, able to adapt their style to the audience
• Acts with authenticity, honesty and integrity
• Works effectively and collaboratively cross functionally
• Flexible in work style able to reprioritise effectively according to the changing demands of the business
• A credible manager who is able to develop and motivate a team.

A bit about us

Our creative spirit

We are more than a shop. We are a social space where culture and commerce collide to release an energy that we call the Selfridges spirit. We are here to make our world brighter, and everyone is welcome.

Our awards cabinet

We’re not ones to brag, but since you asked...Selfridges has won the award for The World’s Best Department Store an unprecedented four times at the IGDS awards, with an additional award for the Best Sustainability Campaign.

Our future

Since 1909 we have been at the forefront of retail and today our stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham – alongside selfridges.com and the Selfridges App – continue to redefine the way we shop and socialise. As a Selfridges team member, you will learn what it takes to consistently drive innovation, success and amazing customer experiences.