Centrica Hiring for Finance Analyst Job at Windsor, South East England, England Full Time

The Energy Commercial Business Finance team provide financial and commercial support to the Energy business with a focus on Gross Margin, as well as responsibility for the overarching BPM deliverables. British Gas Energy has annual revenue of c.£7bn & gross margin c.£900m. The team set and drive performance management, provide decision support, and jointly manage the planning and forecasting process, with the overall aim of assisting the business to achieve its financial goals.

This role within the team will support the Residential Energy business, where British Gas is the leading supplier by market share of Gas & Electricity. This offers a fantastic opportunity to gain first-hand experience in a complex and exciting area. The successful candidate will work with work closely with the Energy Margin and Energy Cash Flow managers with a primary focus on P&L and cash flow reporting, forecasting and analysis. Key to ensuring success in this role will be building strong working relationships both within and outside of Finance, for example, with Pricing, Energy Supply & Hedging, Demand Forecasting and Financial Control teams. The role holder will gain a great financial and commercial understanding of the Energy business and commodity markets while also strengthening their analytical and stakeholder management skills.

Location – Windsor or Stockport with flexible home working available

Key Accountabilities:

• Supporting and leading ad hoc analysis of commodity and other margin items variances to expectations in order to support the messaging of key variances upwards and to Group
• Work collaboratively with the Energy Supply & Hedging team and Financial Control in order to help understand commodity cost and other margin variances at month-end and at each forecast.
• Monthly analysis of month end cash flow variances, with a specific focus on the gross margin impact on working capital (e.g. weather and consumption)
• Working dynamically with the various teams that provide evolving inputs into the forecast and month-end reporting processes, to ensure a) our team are kept informed and b) our processes can work with new inputs/source process change
• Forecasting support for margin and cash flow, taking ownership of specific elements of the P&L and cash flow statements. Review & challenge to ensure clarity and consistency regarding assumptions taken and ensure sensitivities are understood
• Support with the development and delivery of clear supporting analysis and commentary that can be used for upwards reporting (e.g. Group deliverables & FPRs)
• Support causals/analysis of forecast vs. comparatives (e.g Plan, P/year) ensuring margin and cash flow movements are explained & production of summary level messaging for senior stakeholders
• Financial modelling to evaluate impacts of changes in forecast drivers, for example sensitivity analysis or high level re-forecasting
• Work in conjunction with business teams to assess impact of proposals (such as product launches) to support decision-making forums
• Providing a high-quality response to adhoc queries demonstrating business understanding and analytical excellence
• Maintaining and improving efficiency/effectiveness; explore opportunities to develop forecasting and reporting methodology to drive greater understanding, efficiency, and standardisation

The role will enable the person to develop the following skills and experience:

• Commercial awareness: how movements in cost base affect retail pricing decisions and the impact of the regulatory environment
• Industry knowledge: e.g. hedging strategy & energy supply market dynamics
• Performance Reporting / Forecasting: Production of standard deliverables to the agreed format, timelines and quality; understanding how forecasts are prepared, reviewed & communicated
• Opportunity to strengthen analytical skills & develop ability to present analysis and summarise complex data/analytics into clear and concise messaging
• Stakeholder management: e.g. managing expectations upwards
• Creating a clear & succinct communication style by liaising with multiple & diverse stakeholders
• Continuous improvement: owning the integrity of the data and reporting produced, driving improvements where needed to ensure one version of the truth
• Excellent ongoing development opportunities within an evolving and high-profile finance team to develop breadth of understanding & strong network across Energy

The ideal candidate will:

• Studying for or has completed Accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA)
• Work quickly and accurately under pressure in order to meet tight deadlines. Able to stand back and sense check analysis
• Be intellectually curious about the energy retail environment. Absorb multiple issues and complexity; respond well to change
• Enjoy working collaboratively and sharing knowledge
• Comfortable with manipulating large quantities of data to provide insight (e.g. in Excel, Power BI)
• Be motivated by continuous improvement and high-quality output
• Have strong analytical skills and a logical approach
• Be highly numerate with the ability to identify a problem and think through an approach to develop a solution
• Develop an understanding of the business to translate drivers into accurate forecasting & reporting and vice versa
• Build relationships & trust with stakeholders across the team and at director level
• Focus on personal development and making the most of the experiences available

At Centrica we embrace diversity and actively seek to attract individuals with unique backgrounds and perspectives. To build a more sustainable future, we need the best team – a team with a diverse mix of people and skills, where everyone feels welcome and able to succeed. We are dedicated in helping to close the diversity gap across the technology sector and would love to see more females, people of colour and LGBTQ+ employees, as well as those from a variety of cultures and ethnicity to veterans and the differently abled. Supporting diversity and inclusion is a big part of who we are, we are not looking for people to fit into our culture but to add to it!

PLEASE APPLY ONLINE by hitting the ‘Apply‘ button.

Applications will ONLY be accepted via the ‘Apply’ button.

This role is being handled by the Centrica recruitment team and NO agency contact is required.