Head of Financial Planning and Analysis

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Hatfield (Blended working – 3 days in the office)

Direct Reports: 2 Finance managers (with three other indirect reports)

Reporting to: Finance Director

Application closing date: Monday 8th September 2025

About Us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service, and reassuringly good value. We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, but it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic Head of FP&A to join our dynamic finance team. This is a pivotal senior finance role, one of four direct reports to the Finance Director, with significant exposure to the C-suite. This role will also sit on our overall company senior leadership forum. You we continue to grow at a strong and consistent pace, this role will will be instrumental in shaping the strategy and driving decision making of Ocado Retail.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Financial Leadership: Act as a key strategic partner to the C-suite, providing insightful financial analysis, challenging assumptions, and contributing to overall business strategy.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead and develop a high-performing team of 5 finance professionals, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, analytical rigour, and strategic thinking.
• Management Reporting Excellence: Oversee the timely and accurate production of weekly and monthly management reports, ensuring they provide clear, actionable insights into business performance. Drive enhancements in reporting efficiency and effectiveness.
• Board Reporting & Commentary: Prepare and present comprehensive monthly board commentary, explaining financial performance, providing strategic insights, and outlining future plans to the Ocado Retail Limited (ORL) board.
• Investor Relations: Create and validate financial results and KPIs for the Investor Relations teams of both our FTSE-listed shareholders, and assist in crafting key messages to their investors about Ocado Retail performance.
• Forecasting & Budgeting: Lead the end-to-end forecasting and annual budgeting processes, ensuring robustness, accuracy, and alignment with business objectives. Implement and embed our Integrated Business Planning process across the organisation, ensuring alignment between commercial, financial, and operational strategies.
• Long Term Planning: Drive the development and refinement of the 5-year strategic financial plan, translating long-term business goals into comprehensive financial models and scenarios.
• Performance Analysis: Track financial and non-financial performance against KPIs and targets, identifying risks, deviations, and opportunities. Conduct deep-dive analysis and provide impartial recommendations to optimise performance. .
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across all functions in Ocado Retail and also with key stakeholders in both our shareholders. It is essential that this role is able to communicate complex financial information effectively and influence decision-making.
• Process Improvement: Continuously identify and implement improvements to FP&A processes, systems, reports and tools to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and analytical capabilities. This role is the wonder of our Oracle EPM solution and should work closely with our systems team to deliver continuous improvements and leverage the full potential of all other systems.
  
  

Behaviours

• Strategic: Able to see the big picture, anticipate future trends, and develop long-term financial strategies that align with business objectives.
• Commercially Minded: Demonstrates a strong understanding of business drivers, market dynamics, and customer needs, using financial insights to support commercial decision-making and drive profitable growth.
• Proactive: Hands on, proactive and take ownership of your and your team’s work
• Dynamic: Adaptable and proactive in a fast-paced environment, capable of responding quickly to changing business needs and market conditions.
• Structured: Possesses a highly organised and methodical approach to financial planning, analysis, and problem-solving, ensuring accuracy and clarity.
• Goal-Orientated: Driven by results, with a strong focus on achieving financial targets and delivering measurable improvements in performance.
  
  

About You

• Senior Strategic Finance Professional: You are a seasoned finance leader with a proven track record in senior FP&A roles, demonstrating a strong strategic mindset and the ability to translate financial data into actionable business insights.
• FP&A Expertise: Extensive and recent experience in all facets of Financial Planning & Analysis, including management reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and long-range planning.
• Sector Experience: Ideally, you will have recent experience within a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or retail business, understanding the unique financial dynamics and challenges of these sectors.
• C-Suite Interaction: Demonstrable experience interacting regularly and effectively with C-suite executives, presenting complex financial information clearly and concisely, and influencing strategic decisions.
• Leadership & Influence: A natural leader with exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, capable of inspiring a team and influencing stakeholders at all levels. Proven track record of building and leading high-performing teams.
• Analytical Acumen: Highly analytical with meticulous attention to detail, coupled with the ability to see the bigger picture and connect financial performance to operational drivers.
• Qualifications: A relevant professional accounting qualification (e.g., ACA, ACCA, CIMA) is highly desirable.
  
  

What’s In It For You

By joining Ocado Retail you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail.

If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with the option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.

Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast every day in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.

Never miss the moments that matter: Blended/Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays, options to buy an extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere, and lifestyle break opportunities.

Our Hiring Process

Lucky for us, we get loads of great applications and we really appreciate that so many people put the time and effort in to apply. To recognise that, we treat all applications respectfully and fairly. So, if yours stands out, you’ll follow our standard hiring process – one of our Talent Partners will talk you through this in an initial call.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer. That means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.