Finance Manager

Finance Manager - Cost Management - Strategic Investments

Introduction Finance Manager

We need:
* A Finance Manager - Strategic Investment & Benefits Cost Management in our head offices in Swindon. Finance Manager
* £48,861 to £62,434 (Target £54,290) a year + car allowance (£4,646), bonus, pension and benefits on a permanent contract.
* Send in your application by 27/04/2015.

This role will be integral to an experienced team of business partners that help manage a c£3bn strategic investment budget over the next five years. This new vacancy will play a key role in helping to shape the Projects Finance Business Partnering team to:

* Be a trusted business partner that delivers commercial insight to support Nationwide Strategic Investments Board, dealing with the strategic change agenda for the Society.
* Provide robust cost challenge across a portfolio of investment activity, to ensure the resources of the Society are effectively deployed and the ensuing benefits are captured and appropriately tracked.
* Establish process efficiency and assurance to provide financial control and insight to support strategic decisions.
* Contribute to creating and embedding a High Performance 'No Surprises' culture across the Group Cost Management team

Working alongside an established business partner team and the areas they support, you'll help to deliver one of the most ambitious investment portfolios across Financial Services in the UK.

Who we're looking for

You'll be a qualified accountant and your experience could be from any business sector but ideally will include Financial Services. Experience in project accounting will be a clear advantage.

You will have extensive business partnering experience and a proven track record of delivering results through influencing and challenging a variety of senior stakeholders. You will have proven ability to be agile in approach and dealing with extensive and varied change environments.

We are looking for individuals with enthusiasm and a positive attitude, who are flexible and work in a collaborative way. You will have an eye for detail and a rigorous challenge ethos, yet able to balance this with an inclusive approach.

You will be a confident communicator (written and verbal) with a proven ability to quickly get to grips with a new business, build strong relationships with key stakeholders and work with agility during peak periods.

Due to the nature of working within projects, your day to day responsibilities are not always regimented or clearly defined. So if you enjoy a fast pace, working in a changing environment and are confident dealing with ambiguity, this may well be the role for you.

What you'll be doing

Reporting to the Head of Cost Management: Strategic Investments & Benefits and working closely with business experts and finance colleagues, you'll be required to help influence and shape Nationwide's investment strategy.

You'll be a senior member working in a team of c20 business partners and analysts, dealing with senior stakeholders of a portfolio of investment projects. This is not a management role but you will need to lead on many tasks, which will require you to lead resources too.

You'll make sure that Strategic Investment business cases are funded and fit for purpose. As part of this you'll be;
* challenging the project team on costs/ benefits,
* capturing the costs and benefits
* forecasting and tracking performance against targets
* signing off and presenting to committees

There is a support team to prepare the detail, so you'll be reviewing and challenging the numbers, which requires a strong accounting background.

This role is a Business Partnering position, helping to deliver activity on the projects but also challenging where needed. Therefore, it is key to have the gravitas to be able to manage senior stakeholders and to be able to demonstrate independent thinking.