Commercial Finance Analyst

First Central Services; Haywards Heath; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

1st Central, a leading insurance company, is seeking a Commercial Finance Analyst to join their Change Initiatives team. In this role, you will dive into financial analysis to support strategic projects, engage with stakeholders, and contribute to the budgeting process. With a focus on flexible working arrangements, this position aims to foster collaborative efforts while ensuring that your financial insights drive real value.

Benefits

Flexible Working

Simply Health Cash plan

Flexible Bank Holidays

Electric Car Scheme

Your Time in Need

Qualifications

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven experience in business modelling and financial analysis.
• Experience within the insurance industry is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Understand business strategy and provide insight into performance.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across Finance.
• Support the team to create the annual budget and forecasts.

Skills

Strong communication skills

Stakeholder management

Advanced Excel skills

Organised and adaptable

Education

Part-qualified Accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA) or qualified by relevant experience

Tools

Workday (including Adaptive Planning)

TM1

Job description

We’re 1st Central, a market-leading insurance company utilising smart data and technology at pace. Rapid growth has been based on giving our 1.4 million customers exactly what they want: great value insurance with an excellent service. And that’s the same for our colleagues too; we won Insurance Employer of the Year at the British Insurance Awards 2024 and our Glassdoor score is pretty mega too!

Ready to put your finance skills to work where change is the name of the game? 1st Central are on the lookout for a Commercial Finance Analyst to join our brilliant Change Initiatives team.

You’ll be diving into the numbers behind some of the most exciting projects happening across the business – helping us track performance, challenge the status quo, and make sure every pound we invest is driving real value. If you’ve got a knack for financial analysis, a head for strategic thinking, and a love for turning complex data into clear, commercial insights, what are you waiting for - we want to hear from you.

Skills that will make you a great fit:

• Strong communication skills – You’re able to explain financial info in a clear, confident way to people who don’t speak ‘finance’, helping them make informed decisions.
• Stakeholder management – You’re great at building great relationships and work closely with teams across the business, especially in Change and Finance.
• Advanced Excel skills – You know your way around complex formulas, models, and large data sets, and can use them to deliver accurate, insightful analysis.
• Organised and adaptable – You’re organised, adaptable, and comfortable juggling multiple priorities without dropping the ball.

We're big on working flexibly - you'llspend most of your time working from home, with 1 day per week in the office atHaywards Heath,West Sussex-because collaborating with colleagues is always great, right? But of course,it’syour choice - if you prefer to be in the office more -that's good with us too.

What’s involved:

Strategic and Commercial Acumen

• Understand business strategy and provide highly relevant insight into business performance
• Develop an understanding and knowledge of the change teams initiatives and performance drivers (KPI’s)
• Add value through support of the business’s change management, providing insightful financial analysis as necessary

Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders across Finance and the wider business, particularly the Business Partners and Change Management teams
• Produce detailed financial models as appropriate for the pillar cost and benefit analysis
• Support in creation of models for business initiatives development and tracking
• Summary reporting of Group Wide initiatives (ROI, Payback) on a Cash / Profit and Loss basis

Business Initiatives and Tracking

• Develop analysis and models for initiative cost benefit analysis and assist in preparing presentations to stakeholders
• Ensure the benefits of initiatives are accurately tracked and challenged where appropriate
• Support the team in driving business improvements. Act as a critical friend supporting the business to provide financial analysis to support delivery of the business strategy

Planning and Forecasting

• Support the team to create the annual budget and forecasts
• Help ensure that change initiatives are correctly reflected in the budget through relevant trading and underwriting processes
• Engage with Expense management team to ensure all initiatives driven external costs are identified and included in the expense budget/forecast

Experience, knowledge, skills & qualifications:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent time management and organisational abilities
• Logical thinker with a proactive approach to problem solving
• Part-qualified Accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA) or qualified by relevant experience
• Proven experience in business modelling and financial analysis
• Familiarity with Workday (including Adaptive Planning) and TM1 is a plus
• Experience within the insurance industry is desirable

Behaviours:

• Team player and ability to forge relationships
• Commercially aware and inquisitive
• Driven and Pro-active, self starter and enthusiastic
• Excel and modelling skills
• Analytical with a focus on detail
• Flexible approach to work with a positive attitude

If you’re curious, collaborative, and keen to make an impact, this could be the role for you. We’re all about making smart decisions, working together, and doing the right thing – so if that sounds like you, hit apply and let’s see where this could take you.

What can we do for you?

People first. Always. We’re passionate about our colleagues and know the best people deserve an extraordinary working environment. We owe it to them so that’s what we offer. Our workplaces are energetic, inspirational, supportive. To get a taste of the advantages you’ll enjoy, take a look at all our perks in full here .

Intrigued? Our Talent team can tell you everything you need to know about what we want and what we’re offering, so feel free to get in touch.

86% of people would recommend a friend to work at First Central

Simply Health Cash plan. Reclaim the cost of your eye tests, dental appts, physiotherapy and more

Flexible Bank Holidays

Eight flexible bank holidays; you can choose which festivals you observe

We’re passionate about it. Everyone gets a paid day off annually to volunteer

Electric Car Scheme

Plug into our Electric Car Scheme for a deal with insurance, road tax and servicing

Flexible Working

We’re flexible; most roles let you mix office and home working. We work fluidly around core hours

Your Time in Need

Your Time in Need: five days’ leave so you can deal with life stuff. We’ll support you