Strategic Expenses FP&A Analyst

At M&G our vision is: to become the best loved and most successful savings and investment business and we're looking for people who are excited about joining us on our journey. We're digitally transforming and investing heavily in technology and innovation to develop new and improved customer propositions that really raise the bar for our customers. To help us achieve our vision we're looking for exceptional people who live our values and behaviours and who can inspire others; embrace change; deliver results and keep it simple.

We know that an inclusive environment makes us more accessible and ensures we attract, engage, promote and retain exceptional people. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity/nationality, disability, or military service and welcome those who have taken career breaks. We will consider flexible working arrangements or home working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

What you can expect from us:
We are committed to creating an environment where you can be exceptional at all you do. To help us deliver this, we promise to:

• Challenge Your Limits by creating a stimulating working environment and providing opportunities for you to be involved in meaningful and challenging work
• Support Your Aspirations with a commitment to learning and development that helps you achieve and build your experience with people who want you to succeed
• Value Your Input whereby leaders and managers will involve you in key decisions, listen to your thoughts and recognise the important contribution you make
• Balance Your Life through a work life partnership that focuses on making this an inclusive, diverse and friendly place to work and offers the flexibility and support that enables everyone to be at their best

How do we support our employees:
All M&G plc employees will be supported in the workplace through our M&G Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). If you need counselling, confidential financial or legal advice. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers access to qualified professionals who can provide specialist information, advice and support on many issues. It offers a broad range of services, including help with family issues, maintaining work/life balance and mental health support.

The Role:

The Strategic expenses FP&A analyst will support the delivery of, and improvement in, a number of key management reporting and planning processes in relation to the M&G PLC group wide expense base. By providing consistent, high quality commercial insight the role will play a key role in supporting decision making and the delivery of the Groups long term expense aspirations.

The role work closely with the finance business partnering community from across the Group in order to review, challenge and report on functional and segment expense plans and performance.

Finally, the role will also support transformation efforts to embed and integrate new tools and ways of working as we look to simplify our processes.

The role will involve a blend of home and office based working from our Edinburgh or Stirling offices.

Key Work Level Accountabilities:

Experienced Colleague:

• Accountable for providing a quality service or product to customers and stakeholders, using skills/experience built through significant practical experience or training.
• Accountable for ensuring the regular and adhoc outputs are of a high standard.
• Works within established frameworks and procedures, with the freedom to interpret them to solve a range of problems
• Delivers outputs that are clearly defined, using discretion over how to achieve them.
• Makes suggestions for improvements to the work of the team, based on previous experience and knowledge of similar situations.

Key Responsibilities for this role:

• Responsible for the delivery of group level management expense reporting and forecasting.
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders including finance business partners to support commercial decision making and the co-ordination of key processes.
• Oversee the end to end completion of all key processes related to Oracle Enterprise Performance Management including the input of assumptions and data sources (eg. actuals) working with Commercial Finance Technology team as required.
• Deliver high quality management information, performance reporting and analysis by preparing, developing, and analysing key financial information.
• Remain up to date with key performance and financial matters and develop an understanding of the KPIs and cost drivers that impact business performance.
• Manipulate and analyse data to provide adhoc value add commercial insight and commentary to support in maximising results.
• Working with BAU and transformation teams to identify and deliver on potential areas of improvement in our tools and processes. Taking ownership to see issues through to conclusion.
• Work closely with the offshore expense team to ensure we deliver processes & outputs in the most efficient manner.

Key Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

• Experienced in planning & reporting of business performance with strong numerical and analytical skills. Experience of using, maintaining and improving consolidated finance systems to support key processes.
• Strong organisation skills supporting large, complex processes. Also comfortable in dealing with ambiguity and applying financial techniques to review submissions and draw sensible conclusions from large datasets. Strong attention to detail is a must.
• Comfortable in developing a broad base of relationships with key contacts and having the confidence to challenge business performance and submissions.
• Experience in working across multi disciplinary, virtual teams would be beneficial.
• Proven track record of combining advanced financial analysis with qualitative investigation to generate insights. Adept at compiling robust financial projections aligned with other relevant management processes.
• Comfortable in identifying issues and trends when analysing financial data.
• Strong Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint skills are a prerequisite. Experience in Oracle EPM, Hyperion Smart View and Microsoft Power BI reporting would also be beneficial.
• Previous experience of accurately communicating business issues to appropriate parties and providing support to stakeholders.
• This role would be suited to a qualified/ working towards qualification Accountant.
• Financial Services experience preferable.

Work Level: Experienced Colleague
Recruiter Name: Matt Campbell
Closing Date: 4th July 2022

We live by four behaviours at M&G and we ask all our employees to:

• Inspire Others - Support and encourage each other, creating an environment where everyone can contribute and succeed
• Embrace Change - Be open to change, willing to be challenged and able to adapt quickly and imaginatively to new ideas
• Deliver Results - Focus on outcomes, set high standards and deliver with energy and determination
• Keep it Simple - Cut through complexity and bureaucracy, be clear and decisive and never overcomplicate things