Head of Finance - Technology

Tesco Technology is a global function with over 5,000 colleagues located across Bangalore, Europe and the UK. Technology plays a fundamental role in delivering industry leading technology and data capabilities that help make Tesco a global leader. Investments in core technology deliver traditional asset replacement programmes as well as improvements to the group’s technology and data capabilities, which are leveraged to transform how the business operates and enable differentiated experiences and propositions. Technology investments directly deliver strategic projects across the business plan. Alongside this investment, technology is also responsible for ongoing operational stability of the business through its day-to-day activities.

This is a fantastic opportunity to lead a team responsible for delivering a significant part of the future long-term growth of the Tesco business both in the UK, and across the retail group. You will play a key role in partnering with the Technology business, in defining and delivering both the long-term strategy and short-term tactical plans. This role is unique, given the breadth of exposure across all parts of our business and the criticality of technology to both the ongoing operations and also the new propositions underpinning the business plan.

You will mentor and lead a successful team of three finance business partners, providing the appropriate balance between investments in new technologies as well as ensuring existing assets are maintained within their operational life, whilst providing objective, balanced critique and challenge, to ensure all decisions are well thought through. You will ensure that there is challenge between running the operations efficiently and ensuring operational stability and continuity.

The role works closely with, and has oversight of, our technology FP&A and investment governance (TAG) teams and covers all aspects of financial business partnering; developing future strategy, converting that strategy into robust investment cases, understanding current drivers of performance, and partnering to find opportunities for improvement, as well as mitigating any emerging risks. You will also take the lead on managing the end-to-end financial processes and controls over a vast portfolio of individual investment projects.

More specifically, this role is responsible for the following elements of Group Technology:

• Continuing to review & assess how we financially manage technology to ensure this remains best in class considering the pace of change within technology, including evaluating, challenging, and reporting on overall value creation of the total technology portfolio
• Leading the financial management of the overall portfolio of investments across a portfolio comprising a significant number of individual investment projects spanning multiple delivery programmes and priorities. This includes understanding & leading the business in the management of metrics including contractor to perm ratios and capitalisation rates
• Understanding the investments in technology supporting change delivery programmes across all four strategic drivers;

           ◦ Save to Invest (S2I): People Transformation, store efficiency and automated fulfilment

           ◦ Magnetic Value (MV): Price and Promotion optimisation and end to end supply chain

           ◦ Easily the Most Convenient (ETMC): Online investments including Marketplace

           ◦ I Love My Tesco Clubcard (ILMTCC): Personalisation and Media

• Investments in core strategic foundational technologies, including data capabilities and the Retail Platform powering all channels across all markets, and hardware assets used to run the business across stores, distribution centres, offices and data centres
• Understanding, evaluating, and communicating the value unlocked across the retail group as a result of core capabilities being delivered across the markets outside of the UK

• Partnering with the CTO to develop and deliver financial and strategic plans across the business
• Leading and coaching a team - providing an environment that allows the team to achieve their career ambitions, deliver their objectives and have a positive impact on the business
• Playing a finance leadership role within our broader finance team – helping to build a culture of innovation, with Tesco Finance viewed as a great place to work
• Helping to drive the longer-term strategic direction, whilst also influencing and shaping day to day decisions
• Creating a 3-year strategic plan aligned to Tesco’s strategic objectives
• Work with the business to build a plan for delivering in year financial targets (budget) including management of key ratios underpinning the cost base including contractor to perm mix as well as the capital to opex ratio through the delivery of a balanced portfolio
• Support delivering budget targets through standing over a rolling forecast and identifying solutions to managing risks/opportunities. Drive the realisation of savings to ensure the business is proactively managing risks between bottom-up plans and corporate targets
• Ensuring that performance reporting is optimal, delivering well rounded insight into variances and providing choices/actions required to improve performance
• Innovate & ensuring we are future fit: build scenarios with clear options and recommendations.

• Accountancy qualification - ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent
• Experience of managing a broad and complex technology investment portfolio across a large, multi-site organisation
• Desire to make valuable contributions / drive positive change – not settling for the way things have always been done
• To be able to successfully manage ambiguity, as plans evolve, and strategy is converted into action
• The ability to present complex information in a clear and concise manner suitable for a senior audience both finance and non-finance
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships quickly with colleagues at all levels
• Ability to understand the commercial workings of the business and how operational performance translates to financial performance

We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we give our wonderful colleagues bags of benefits. Including wellbeing services, an award-winning pension scheme and much, much more, our colleague reward package keeps on giving. And helps make every day a little better for you and your family. These include but are not limited to:

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 45% of base salary
• Car allowance of £7,320 per annum
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
• Buy holiday salary sacrifice scheme (for salaried roles)
• Private medical insurance
• Retirement savings plan - save between 6% - 10% and Tesco will contribute 1.5 times this amount
• Life Assurance - 5 x contractual pay
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave
• The right to request flexible working from your first day with us
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing
• A Colleague Clubcard for you & a family member (after 3 months of service), giving you access to lots of discounts in-store & online
• Access to our colleague networks providing a space for colleagues to come together from a range of backgrounds. For more information about our colleague networks please click here

Click Here to read more about the full range of benefits we have available for our colleagues

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is ‘Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day’. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We’re proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we’re committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We’re a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you.  We work in a more blended pattern - combining office and remote working.  Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate.  If you are applying internally, please speak to the Hiring Manager about how this can work for you - Everyone is welcome at Tesco.