M&S is British value-for-money retailer focused on own label businesses, including Food, Clothing & Home and Bank & Services. Today, we operate a family of businesses, selling high-quality, great-value own-brand products in the UK and internationally, from 1,509 stores and over 100 websites globally. Together our 70,000 colleagues across our stores, support centres, warehouses and supply chain serve nearly 30 million customers each year.

We are on our biggest ever transformation programme! With the objective to restore the M&S business and brand, to deliver long-term, sustainable, profitable growth for our investors, colleagues, and wider communities. Data & Digital (D&D) is in a period of high growth, covering Sparks & Personalisation, Data & Data Science, Omnichannel and Innovation, partnering across all areas of the business.

You'll be playing a pivotal role in the team, supporting the delivery of the Digital & Data (D&D) roadmap, across Data & Data Science via the Beam Platform, Data Products and Academy, Innovation and Central costs, and supporting the wider Data & Digital Finance team.
Key Accountabilities:

• Ownership of Data & Data Science and Innovation financials, specifically month end, forecasts, and annual Budget process. Ensuring all business partners are engaged and aligned in the process
• Ownership of the Month End process, communicating the story across both Finance and the D&D Leadership team. Ensuring timely and accurate reporting of cash investments between specific projects and Business Divisions
• Building positive relationships with the Data & Data Science and Innovation D&D teams, as well as with the other business divisions and group FP&A teams
• A key support to the D&D Finance team, supporting the Senior Finance Manager and other Finance Managers in the team across pinch points
• Lead financial reviews of Data & Data Science and Innovation Business cases. Understanding and communicating benefit impacts across Data & Digital and championing this to the business divisons and Group FP&A teams
• Control the quarterly buy process including quarterly agile investment review
• Upholding key financial controls including FAR and AICC maintenance and ensuring accurate accounting policies are in place and being adhered to for capitalisation of development costs

Key skills:

• A qualified accountant
• Excellent attention to detail and an inquisitive nature to get under the skin of the issue
• Confidence to challenge and ability to pull together the simple story from seemingly complex information
• Collaborative approach, with natural style that builds a strong network
• Great teammate but also happy to work independently on own initiative
• A drive for continuous improvement: implementing or coordinating changes to processes which improve the team's efficiency and outputs
• Ability to work at pace and respond quickly to changing demands and priorities

What you'll get from the role

• Frequent exposure to D&D leadership, through preparing updates for and ongoing communications. As well as collaborating closely with the relevant 'Heads of' for specific Data & Data Science or Innovation initiatives
• Oversight and understanding of key financial information, including P&L, cashflow, and balance sheet
• Development of a broad network across finance, engaging with FP&A teams across M&S
• Ownership of key outputs and processes, combined with a supportive team to give on-the-job coaching

Key Benefits:

• Flexible working approach, with a balance of being in the office and working from home
• 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) + 1 celebration day
• 20% discount on M&S products
• A range of wellbeing support (including free expert mental health support and a virtual GP for you and immediate family)
• 25% off gym memberships, access to online fitness classes and discounts for complementary health services, such as nutrition and lifestyle coaching

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That's why we're revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There's never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact. We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty which means you are unable to complete the application process online, please get in touch either by phone on 0345 300 3725 or by email so we can make alternative arrangements for you.

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