Finance Analyst - Assessment Day

At M&S, Finance plays a vital role in helping the business make confident, well-informed decisions. From delivering accurate financial reporting and maintaining strong controls to turning data into meaningful insight, our Finance teams help us understand performance, find opportunities and make smarter decisions.

Based in Salford Quays, you’ll join a collaborative Finance team that is continuing to evolve and improve how we work. This is a great opportunity for a part-qualified accountant who enjoys working with data, solving problems and partnering with colleagues across the business to make a real impact.

We have a number of Finance Analyst opportunities available across different areas of our Finance team. If you’re invited to our assessment centre, we’ll talk you through the opportunities available and the different areas you could join.

Assessment Centre

If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to join us at our Salford Quays office for an in-person assessment centre on Thursday 19th November.

The session will last approximately 2.5 hours and will include:

• A structured interview
• A practical finance-based exercise
• A collaborative group task

The assessment centre is an opportunity to showcase your skills and approach across a range of activities, while meeting members of our team and learning more about what it’s like to work in Finance at M&S.

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Deliver accurate and insightful financial reporting and analysis, helping colleagues understand performance, trends and key drivers to support effective decision-making.
• Use data to challenge assumptions and uncover opportunities, providing clear commentary and recommendations that can drive better business outcomes.
• Maintain a strong financial control environment, supporting reconciliations, investigating variances and ensuring financial information is accurate, complete and appropriately supported.
• Partner with colleagues across Finance and the wider business, resolving queries, communicating financial information clearly and building strong working relationships.
• Drive continuous improvement, finding opportunities to simplify processes, improve efficiency and strengthen the quality and consistency of Finance outputs.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Part-qualified accountant working towards ACCA, CIMA or ACA, with a commitment to progressing your professional qualification.
• Previous experience within a finance or accounting environment, with exposure to areas such as financial reporting, reconciliations, financial controls or month-end processes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the confidence to work with financial data, identify trends and turn information into meaningful insight.
• Strong Excel skills, alongside confidence using Microsoft Office and financial systems.
• A confident and effective communicator, able to build relationships with different business partners, explain financial information clearly and work collaboratively across teams.

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
• 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
• Full study support for CIMA, ACCA or ACA

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.

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