Commercial Finance Manager

at  Ocado Retail

ABOUT US

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivaled service, and reassuringly good value.
We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, but it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

ABOUT THE TEAM AND THE ROLE

The Commercial Finance team has exposure to the heartbeat of how our business trades and plays a key role in delivering on our financial objectives. This team provides insight, value add, and reporting for both Ocado.com and Zoom by Ocado. It’s an exciting time to join the Commercial Finance Team as we head into a pivotal period of accelerated growth and continue to Raise the bar for both our finance and commercial colleagues.
You will be responsible for supporting the Commercial and Finance team across multiple stakeholders to deliver ambitious growth and profitability targets. The role requires someone who can combine the delivery of detailed analysis with a commercial focus to drive financial performance, to support decision-making as both Ocado and the grocery market experience such rapid growth and change.
This role has high exposure to senior Commercial leadership (CCO, Buying Directors, Strategy Directors, and Heads of). It plays a pivotal role in giving a holistic understanding of business performance, decision support rich with commercial context, and knowledge of the levers available to enhance trading performance.
You’ll partner with the Buying and commercial strategy (Pricing & Promotions, Seasonal) to support leadership make the right decisions, and play a critical role in identifying, recommending, and concluding on business opportunities to create value.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Ensure weekly/monthly performance is understood from a trading and margin perspective through accurate and insightful reporting
• Review and assess key business commercial initiatives
• Work closely with the Finance Business Partners in supporting their respective buying teams
• Assist in the preparation of trading reporting and delivery of key insight
• Support the buying team with Joint Business Plans and Category reviews
• Ensure that performance vs. forecast is embedded into the trading cycle (weekly/monthly performance reviews)
• Be the trusted business partner for the seasonal team, defining the financial KPIs of success, and owning end-to-end financial evaluation of a season’s product buy.
• Work alongside the Pricing and promotions team and manage all central-driven initiatives including evaluations and post-investment reviews
• Lead the central budgeting process on behalf of the commercial team. Work closely with the supporting teams in the preparation and review of budgets and forecasts
• Participate in cross-functional project groups
• Lead the forecasting process centrally, making improvements and enabling key trade drivers to be understood