Finance Business Partner
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Finance Business Partner – | Coventry | 12–14 Month Fixed-Term Contract
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for a commercially focused Finance Business Partner to join a dynamic finance team. This role is ideal for someone who combines strong technical accounting knowledge with the ability to influence decision-making and drive business performance.
This is a hybrid position, with home working alongside two days per week in Coventry.
The Role
In this role, you will work closely with both commercial and supply chain teams, providing financial insight and analysis to support strategic objectives. You will play a key part in evaluating business performance, identifying opportunities to improve margins and optimise costs, and supporting key initiatives across purchasing, logistics and operations.
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with commercial and supply chain teams to drive performance and support strategic decision-making
- Analyse margins and cost drivers to identify improvement opportunities, including pricing and sourcing optimisation
- Provide data-led insight to support supplier negotiations, including incentives, payment terms and volume agreements
- Model the financial impact of new products, tenders and procurement decisions
- Develop cost-to-serve models and assess profitability across distribution channels
- Improve inventory efficiency and support working capital optimisation initiatives
- Review logistics and operational costs to enhance overall supply chain efficiency
- Produce and enhance insight-driven reporting and dashboards to support business decisions
- Lead variance analysis on margins and overheads, translating financial data into clear commercial insight
- Own budgeting and forecasting for supplier-related income and supply chain costs
About You
- Qualified accountant or qualified by experience
- Proven experience in a multi-site or branch-based environment
- Strong finance business partnering skills with the ability to influence across functions
- Experience of providing key analysis and commercial insights
- Naturally curious with a proactive, analytical mindset
- Comfortable working with non-finance stakeholders
- Available at short notice to begin a role
Desirable Experience:
- Commercial finance background
- Strong Excel and data analysis skills - power BI & coding skills
- Experience with modern ERP systems
- Knowledge of contract support and stock accounting
What’s on Offer
- A highly visible and impactful role within a collaborative team
- Opportunity to influence strategic decisions and drive real change
- Hybrid working model
If you’re looking for a role where you can truly make a difference and add commercial value, this could be the perfect next step.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight your qualified accountant status or equivalent experience at the top as this is explicitly required
📊 Quantify your commercial finance impact: 'Improved margins by 12% through cost optimisation initiatives'
🌐 Emphasise multi-site or branch-based finance experience as this is specifically mentioned
🎯 Showcase Power BI and advanced Excel skills prominently as these are desirable technical requirements
🤝 Demonstrate your ability to influence non-finance stakeholders with specific examples of cross-functional collaboration
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Led margin analysis across 8 distribution channels, identifying £240k annual cost savings through pricing and sourcing optimisation initiatives
- •Developed cost-to-serve models for 150+ product lines, supporting procurement decisions that improved supplier terms by 15%
- •Partnered with commercial teams to deliver variance analysis on £2.8M overhead budget, translating findings into strategic recommendations
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Macildowie Recruitment and Retention. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Macildowie Recruitment and Retention
Dear Hiring Manager,
Macildowie's Finance Business Partner role perfectly aligns with my commercial finance background and passion for driving performance through data-driven insights. My experience in margin analysis and supply chain cost optimisation, combined with my qualified accountant credentials, positions me well to support your strategic objectives across commercial and procurement functions.
My background in multi-site finance operations has equipped me with the analytical mindset and cross-functional influence skills essential for this role. I have successfully developed cost-to-serve models, led supplier negotiation analysis, and translated complex variance analysis into actionable commercial insights that drive real business impact.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How would you approach building a cost-to-serve model for multiple distribution channels?
- ›Describe your experience with variance analysis and how you translate findings into commercial insights
- ›What methods do you use for supplier negotiation analysis and financial impact modelling?
- ›How do you optimise working capital in a supply chain environment?
- ›Walk me through your approach to budgeting and forecasting for supplier-related costs
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you influenced a non-finance team to change their approach based on your analysis
- ›Describe a situation where you identified a significant cost optimisation opportunity
- ›Give an example of when you had to present complex financial data to commercial stakeholders
- ›Tell me about a time you had to work with multiple teams to drive performance improvements
- ›Describe a challenging variance analysis you conducted and how you communicated the results
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you influenced a non-finance team to change their approach based on your analysis
Describe a situation where you identified a significant cost optimisation opportunity