Finance Business Partner (Business Planning and Analysis)

Network Rail; Manchester; On-site; GBP 43,000 - 51,000; Full time

Job summary

Network Rail recherche un Finance Business Partner dans l'équipe FP&A du Northwest Route. Ce poste de 12 mois vise à soutenir les processus financiers, fournir des insights pour la prise de décisions, et faciliter des rapports pour divers acteurs. Le candidat idéal aura de l'expérience en comptabilité et des compétences en analyse financière avec un intérêt pour la manipulation de données via Power BI.

Benefits

Congés annuels pro-rata (28 jours)

Réductions sur les offres (vouchers de garde d'enfants, santé)

Subventions jusqu'à 75% sur les tickets de train

75% de réduction sur les voyages de loisirs

Choix de régimes de pension

Deux semaines de congés payés pour les réservistes

Qualifications

• Experiences en comptabilité et en gestion financière.
• Capacité à interpréter des réglementations comptables.
• Expérience dans la gestion de projets complexes appréciée.

Responsibilities

• Supporter le budget annuel et les prévisions.
• Préparer des rapports financiers mensuels et trimestriels.
• Analyser la performance financière et fournir des insights.

Skills

Analyse financière

Manipulation de données

Compétences interpersonnelles

Connaissance en Power BI

Compétences Excel

Education

Diplôme en finance, comptabilité, ou gestion

Tools

Power Query

Power BI

Systèmes basés sur Oracle

Job description

Finance Business Partner (Business Planning and Analysis)

About Network Rail

We're proud to be recognised as one of the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equity for the fourth year running. Find out more from our people here.

Network Rail operates and maintains the railway infrastructure 24/7 365 days a year. Our purpose is to connect people and goods with where they need to be and our vision is for a simpler, better, greener railway.

The 'North West Route' is part of the 'North West and Central Region' and runs from Cheshire in the south to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Cumbria in the North, with the two Northern Powerhouse cities of Liverpool and Manchester on the route, as well as the tourist destinations of Blackpool and the Lake District.

Major stations across the route include Crewe, Liverpool Lime Street, Preston, Manchester Victoria, and Manchester Piccadilly.

We're a very busy region, with 1.3 million passengers travelling on our rails every weekday and 700,000 tonnes of freight moved a week. With 571 stations in the North West & Central region, we make up a quarter of Britain's railway system.

For us, 'Diversity' means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make. 'Inclusion' means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourages innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

We value the commitments you may have outside of work and will consider flexible and hybrid working applications. If we can make it work - we will! Please click here for more information .

Brief Description

An exciting 12 month fixed-term Finance Business Partner opportunity has become available in the Northwest Route FP&A team.

We are seeking a detail-oriented FP&A Analyst with foundational knowledge in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and experience with basic data analytics tools such as Power Query and Power BI. The ideal candidate will assist in driving key financial processes, providing financial insights to support business decision-making, ensuring accurate financial reporting, and providing various summary reports for stakeholder business review meetings.

You will be engaging with a multitude of stakeholders around the business, including Route FD, Route Director, Heads of Maintenance and Operations.

You will have a working knowledge of Power BI and an ability to manipulate and interpret data from multiple systems and transform into relevant insights for stakeholders.

*Please note this is a 12 month secondment/fixed term contract and may have the potential to be extended*

About the role (External)

Financial Planning & Analysis:

Support the annual budgeting and quarterly re-forecasting (RFs) processes by gathering, analysing, and consolidating financial data.

Develop and maintain financial models to project future performance and help assess potential risks and opportunities.

Analyse, manipulate and interpret historical financial data to identify trends and variances, offering insights for improvement.

Reporting & Data Analysis:

Assist in preparing monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports, presenting variance analysis, and key financial metrics.

Use Power Query and Excel to extract, transform, and load data from various financial systems for analysis.

Leverage Power BI dashboards and reports that visualize key financial performance indicators (KPIs).

Financial Insights:

Analyse financial performance to identify trends or anomalies.

Present actionable insights and recommendations to management to improve efficiency, controlling costs, and optimising resource allocation.

Collaboration:

Work closely with cross-functional teams (e.g. Delivery Units, Regional finance teams and X-Route Finance stakeholders) to collect relevant financial data and ensure accuracy in reporting.

Assist in identifying opportunities to improve financial processes and reporting mechanisms.

Ad-Hoc Analysis:

Provide ad-hoc financial analysis and reporting support as needed for special projects, business initiatives, or strategy meetings.

About the role:

Every day will be different, but you can expect to be involved in the following activities:

1. Lead and provide financial advice and guidance to senior budget holders to understanding the impact of the period results and forecasts against budgets so they can understand their business better.

2. Be the expert in the function on accounting practices and advise on financial results and forecasts for budget holders, including preparing accruals, transfers, and adjustments to validate accounts are accurate.

3. Deliver expert and accurate business review information and reporting to highlight any significant issues with both financial and other business results to enable informed decision making.

4. Engage and influence senior members of the team to help them understand their financial position and use professional expertise to guide in initiatives to improve business performance.

5. Build detailed plans to manage and develop the production of business plans and budgets to enable good corporate governance and value add analysis for senior leaders

6. Model and analyse the cost base to identify and drive opportunities for efficiencies to achieve cost targets.

In order to be successful in this role, we would like you to have/to be:

• Demonstrate strong understanding of business needs and relevant application of accounting standards.

• Expert knowledge and experience of creating and maintaining accounts and annual budget.

• Significant experience within relevant finance disciplines.

• Strong excel skills and use of data manipulation.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

• Ability to interpret technical accounting regulations into everyday language.

• Demonstrable effective influencing skills at a senior level.

• Significant understanding of financial control and risk.

• Excellent technical finance and accounting knowledge.

We would also like, but it isn't crucial to have/to be:

• Understanding of project management principles and experience of managing complex projects

• Experience of Oracle based systems.

• Membership (or working towards a membership) of a relevant accounting body (CIMA/ACCA)

• Degree or equivalent qualification in finance and accounting or business management or experience

How to apply (External)

We are a Disability Confident Leader and want to make the most of the skills and talents disabled people bring to the workplace - skills and talents we need in our business Click here for more information

Salary and benefits:

• Salary: Band 4C, starting at £43,588 and increasing to £50,018

• Pro-rata annual leave entitlement (28 days)
• My benefits - our discounted online shopping site
• A range of discounted offers including, childcare vouchers, healthcare offers - cycle to work, healthcare club discounted membership and other benefits.
• Subsidies of up to 75% on rail and underground season tickets
• 75% discount on leisure travel
• A choice of contributory pension schemes
• 2 weeks paid reserve leave for our Armed Forces community.

Want to find out more about what fantastic benefits we offer? Click here

Network Rail adheres to a structured pay framework, any salary offered will be within the pay range advertised.

All offers of employment are conditional upon satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks. Click here for more information

Closing date: 8th July 2025. Late applications will not be accepted.

Click 'apply now' to apply.

Safe behaviour is a requirement of working for Network Rail. Applicants should be able to demonstrate their awareness of our safety vision

We will endeavour to offer a diverse interview panel wherever possible.

This is a fixed-term opportunity for 12 months.