Finance Manager

Global Retail Finance – Compliance Manager

Location: Leavesden Park, Watford, UK

Contract Duration: 6 months, with potential for extension

Working Arrangement: Hybrid – generally 3 days per week on-site, with some flexibility to work remotely depending on business requirements

Reporting To: Executive Director of Finance, with a dotted line to the Senior Manager, Compliance, Global Experiences

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Global Retail Finance – Compliance Manager to support the global rollout of Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) across retail operations, bringing a strong finance and controllership perspective to the implementation.

The successful candidate will work closely with technology teams, finance stakeholders and international colleagues to support implementation activities, ensure that financial processes and controls are appropriately represented, and help maintain accurate and reliable financial reporting throughout the rollout.

The programme involves collaboration across the US and APAC regions, alongside finance and audit teams based in Poland. The role is suited to a finance systems professional with practical D365 implementation experience and a sound understanding of finance operations, financial controls and audit requirements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Implementation

• Support the global rollout of Microsoft Dynamics 365 across retail operations, representing the finance business function throughout implementation.
• Work closely with technology teams and business stakeholders to ensure system design and implementation align with finance requirements.
• Contribute to implementation activities, including process mapping, system configuration discussions, data migration, testing and deployment.
• Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT), ensuring finance processes are appropriately tested and business requirements are met.
• Help identify and resolve system issues, data discrepancies and process gaps during implementation.

2. Finance Systems and Controllership

• Support finance systems and controllership activities associated with the global retail business.
• Ensure finance requirements are considered throughout the D365 rollout, including the accuracy and integrity of financial data and transactions.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to support reliable financial processes, reporting and reconciliation.
• Support the flow of data between retail and warehousing systems and SAP, particularly where it affects financial reporting and record-to-report processes.

3. Audit, Compliance and Financial Controls

• Support annual audit activities in collaboration with internal finance and audit stakeholders.
• Work with the Poland-based finance and audit teams to support audit readiness and help achieve clean audit outcomes.
• Assist with maintaining appropriate financial controls, data accuracy and compliance across relevant processes.
• Help investigate discrepancies, address control gaps and support the resolution of audit-related issues.

4. Global Stakeholder Collaboration

• Collaborate with finance, technology and business teams across multiple regions.
• Support rollout activities involving stakeholders in the US and APAC.
• Demonstrate flexibility when coordinating with international teams across different time zones.
• Work closely with the Executive Director of Finance and the Senior Manager, Compliance, Global Experiences, as well as other relevant stakeholders.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Practical experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 , preferably D365 Finance & Operations or relevant finance-focused D365 functionality.
• Experience supporting a D365 implementation, deployment or rollout; implementation experience is strongly preferred over general system usage alone.
• A solid finance background, with experience in finance systems, financial controls, finance operations or controllership.
• Experience participating in implementation activities such as UAT, testing, data migration, process mapping or finance transformation.
• Strong understanding of financial processes, data accuracy and the importance of reliable financial reporting.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with business stakeholders, technology teams and finance colleagues.

Desirable Experience

• Experience supporting annual financial audits, audit remediation or internal financial controls.
• Retail, FMCG, supermarket or multi-entity finance experience.
• Knowledge of retail and warehousing transaction flows and their integration with SAP.
• Experience supporting global implementations involving the US and APAC regions.
• Experience with accounts payable (AP), retail transactions or broader finance operations.
• Professional accounting qualification such as ACCA, CIMA, ACA or equivalent. Candidates qualified by experience will also be considered.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate may come from a background such as Finance Systems Manager, D365 Finance Functional Consultant, Finance Transformation Manager or Finance Manager with relevant D365 implementation experience.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can combine practical Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation knowledge with an understanding of finance processes, financial controls and audit requirements.

Candidates whose experience is limited exclusively to regulatory compliance, general accounting without relevant systems implementation, or Dynamics CRM/Customer Engagement without finance-focused implementation experience are less aligned with this opportunity.

Contract and Working Arrangements

• Duration: Initial 6-month contract, with potential for extension.
• Rate: £500 per day on PAYE.
• Location: Leavesden Park, Watford.
• Office attendance: Generally 3 days per week on-site, with remote-working flexibility depending on business requirements.
• Working across time zones: Some flexibility is required to collaborate with stakeholders in the US and APAC.