Senior Finance Manager - Commercial Food

Team
Support Functions
Store
London Support Office
Location
London, Greater London
Contract type
Permanent
Position type
Full Time
Salary
Competitive + Benefits
Apply now

How We Hire

Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.

About the role

This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.

Summary
This is not just any Finance team… this is the M&S Food Finance team!
All the details

Summary

M&S Food is on a mission to deliver exceptional quality, innovation, and value for our customers every day. We’re redefining what great food retail looks like, combining trusted sourcing with bold ideas to create products that excite and inspire. Our vision is to lead the market in quality and sustainability, while driving growth through data-driven decisions and customer-focused strategies. This is your opportunity to be part of a brand that’s proud of its heritage but focused firmly on shaping the future of food retail.

Fully woven into the DNA of M&S, our Finance team plays a fundamental role in shaping business decisions, delivering targets, analysing performance, managing costs, and ensuring our most vital data is accurate. We add value by helping every area of the business make data-driven decisions and understand what drives commercial performance.

We’re looking for a highly motivated and commercially minded Senior Finance Manager to join our Food Commercial Finance team. In this role, you’ll lead a team of and partner with our Trading teams to deliver the ambitious Food transformation programme, driving revenue and profit to meet business unit targets.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

  • Lead financial performance for Trading: Take ownership of the P&L, balance sheet, and controls, ensuring delivery of revenue and profit targets while influencing pricing, promotions, and supplier negotiations.

  • Provide insight and challenge: Use data and analytics to inform decisions, identify risks and opportunities, and assess strategic initiatives, ensuring shareholder value is at the heart of every decision.

  • Drive commercial planning and governance: Oversee budgets, forecasts, and performance reviews; manage robust governance processes around pricing, supplier performance, and compliance with GSCOP obligations.

  • Optimise supplier and commodity management: Support Joint Business Plans, track inflation impacts, and work with buying teams and suppliers to ensure competitive pricing and maximise supplier income opportunities.

  • Enhance reporting and capability: Collaborate with Business Service Centre and Analytics teams to improve reporting processes, deliver month-end insights, and participate in initiatives to build finance capability across the team.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

  • Qualified accountant (CIMA, ACCA, ACA, CA) with at least 5 years’ post-qualification experience.

  • Strong commercial acumen and experience in business partnering, ideally in retail or FMCG.

  • Proven ability to communicate and influence at senior levels, with a collaborative and solution-driven approach.

  • Expertise in budgeting, forecasting, business case appraisal, and governance.

  • Leadership experience with a track record of developing teams and driving performance.

What’s in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

  • 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation

  • Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more

  • Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours

  • Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future

  • Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one

  • Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal

  • Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave

  • 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services

  • One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you

Everyone’s welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-CP2

Meet the Team

support_thumbnail.jpg
A group of colleagues gathered around a table, smiling and discussing work with laptops open in a modern office setting.

Being an in-person business

We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.

Click to skip quote slider carousel
Tom Employee Experience & Engagement Lead
Jodie Head of Finance

Our ‘Closer to Customers’ programme means we all get to work in a store for seven days every year. We see how our customers experience M&S and we can appreciate the challenges our colleagues face in store. It’s all part of a determination to listen, to understand and to change things for the better.

Tom (He / Him) | Employee Experience & Engagement Lead Read full story

It takes time to turn around a business as big as M&S: you can’t just instantly pivot from managed decline to sustainable growth. But we’ve done the hard yards, there really is a momentum now and it’s not just a few green shoots of recovery. We’re clear about our strategy, our growth is strong and we’re so confident about the future. It’s great to be part of this.

Jodie (She / Her) | Head of Finance Read full story

Make Your Mark

Opportunities to be heard

Your voice and your ideas matter here. Our 8 colleague networks are places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate. You can pitch ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group).

Experience the business

You’ll spend 7 days each year helping in store and getting closer to our customers. We also organise Insight Days, so you can learn more about specific business units, like Foods.

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Colleague Networks

We want you to feel supported, no matter what.

Gender Equality Network

Addressing gender-related challenges, raising awareness, and driving action to ensure equal opportunities for all.

Forces Community Network

Supporting colleagues connected to the Armed Forces, aiding their transition to civilian life, and ensuring that they thrive in the workplace.

Cancer Network

Fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace culture, addressing stigma, providing guidance and raising awareness to empower and assist colleagues affected by cancer.

Menopause Network

Initiating and encouraging open conversations about menopause by offering support and sharing experiences.

Culture and Heritage Network

Raising awareness of various religions and cultures through events and comms, to educate others and better represent our M&S colleagues and customers.

LGBTQ+ Network

Proactively representing LGBTQ+ issues and opportunities to deliver a truly inclusive place to work and shop for our colleagues and customers.

Family & Carers Network

A support network for parents and carers, offering a space for colleagues to share experiences, exchange ideas, and access useful resources.

Health and Wellbeing Network

Providing a safe space for colleagues with all types of health conditions or disabilities and supporting with business initiatives to ensure our stores are truly accessible for our customers.

Benefits

How to Apply

Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.

Send us your application

Fill in our short application form and hit submit.

Online assessment

Depending on the role, you may be invited to take part in an online assessment.  Should you be invited to an online assessment your Talent Acquisition Partner will be more than happy to support you with any questions.

Interview

We'll invite you to join us for an interview. This could be remote or in person. Here, we'll ask you some role based technical questions and examine the behaviours we're looking for.

Decision

After we’ve decided, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.

Senior Finance Manager - Commercial Food

Team
Support Functions
Store
London Support Office
Location
London, Greater London
Contract type
Permanent
Position type
Full Time
Salary
Competitive + Benefits
Reference: 116953