Finance Manager - Food, Risk & Controls

Marks and Spencer; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Colleague discount

Holiday allowance

Discretionary bonus schemes

Pension and life assurance

Induction and training

M& S Choices portal

Family policies

Wellbeing support

Volunteer day

Job summary

Marks & Spencer is seeking a senior Governance, Risk & Compliance professional to lead risk management across the Food business, partnering with Finance, Buying and Product Technology to identify, assess, and mitigate key risks. You’ll drive improvements in controls and governance, enabling confident decision‑making across a high‑visibility area.

The role is central to the business with exposure to senior leaders, regular reporting to the Group Risk team and Food Finance Director.

Qualifications

• Qualified accountant with governance, risk, internal audit, compliance, or strategy experience.
• Proven ability to design and improve risk management frameworks and internal controls.
• Strong project management, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Confident communicator who can influence senior finance and non-finance stakeholders.
• Organised self-starter with curiosity and continuous improvement mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead risk management across the Food business with cross‑functional partners; drive mitigation plans and reporting.
• Act as GRC SME for Food; advise on processes, projects and control frameworks; lead reviews to strengthen controls.
• Coordinate governance and assurance activities with Internal and External Audit; support audit actions.
• Drive reporting to senior stakeholders; chair risk updates and monthly reviews with Finance Director.
• Support change and control programmes and contribute to non‑financial reporting assurance.

Skills

Governance

Risk management

Internal audit

Compliance

Project management

Stakeholder influencing

Communication

Education

ACA/ACCA/CIMA-qualified

Job description

Shape the Future of Risk & Control in One of the UK's Most Loved Food Businesses,

All the details

Summary

At M&S, we're redefining what it means to be a modern retailer. Our Food business continues to set the standard for quality, innovation and trusted customer experiences, serving millions of customers every week.

This is a highly visible role partnering with senior leaders across the Food division, sitting at the heart of the business and working closely with Finance, Buying, Product Technology, Logistics and wider commercial teams. You'll influence how we identify, manage and mitigate risk, while helping to shape a culture where strong governance, effective controls and confident decision‑making underpin business success.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What You'll Do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Lead risk management across the Food business, partnering with risk leads across Buying, Product Technology, Finance and Logistics to identify, assess and monitor key risks and controls, drive mitigation plans, and support quarterly and bi‑annual reporting to the Group Risk team for external disclosures.
• Act as the Governance, Risk & Control subject matter expert for the Food business, providing advice on new business processes, projects and control frameworks, leading process reviews that challenge existing ways of working, improve controls, strengthen controls culture, shape risk awareness and help teams make confident decisions.
• Manage key governance and assurance activities, partnering closely with Internal and External Audit teams to support audit planning and delivery, ensuring timely closure of audit actions, supporting the GSCOP compliance programme, and contributing to annual testing of material controls for UK Corporate Governance Provision 29 reporting.
• Drive accountability through effective reporting and stakeholder management, tracking open Risk, Audit and Change & Control actions, providing regular reporting to senior stakeholders, chairing quarterly Food Leadership Team risk updates and monthly risk reviews with the Food Finance Director, while influencing and challenging stakeholders to deliver against agreed actions.
• Support strategic control and compliance initiatives across M&S Food, including presenting annually to the Audit & Risk Committee, partnering across Finance and the wider Food business on projects that strengthen the control environment, and providing ad hoc support on Group Change & Control programmes such as non‑financial reporting assurance.

Who You Are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with strong experience in Governance, Risk, Internal Audit, Compliance, Controls or Strategy within a large international organisation or Big 4 environment.
• Proven track record of designing, implementing and improving risk management frameworks and internal controls.
• Strong project management, analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to drive change and implement new ways of working.
• Confident communicator who can influence, challenge and build credibility with senior finance and non‑finance stakeholders.
• Highly organised self‑starter with strong intellectual curiosity, a continuous improvement mindset, and the ability to operate effectively in a fast‑paced, evolving environment. Experience within Retail, Consumer, FMCG or Food retail would be highly desirable but is not essential.

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast‑moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third‑party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
• Market‑leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you

Everyone's welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.