Finance Business Partner - Procurement

Job Description

Locations - London or Bristol

Hybrid working - 3 days in the office, 2 days working from home

Why this job matters

Like many organisations, there has historically been a gap within our Group between what our Procurement teams think they have saved, and what our Unit Finance teams can see in their operational and capital expenditures. Our Procurement teams have therefore suffered from a lack of credibility, while together our Group has potentially missed opportunities to reduce its costs.

By working closely with senior colleagues in both the Unit Finance and Procurement Category teams, this job will play a critical role in ensuring that their respective plans become fully aligned. Having brought the necessary clarity to the planning phase, this job will then work closely with senior colleagues to track the subsequent delivery so that by measuring changes in spend we can control it better. This will give our Group CFO – and in turn our investors – the confidence that our Group will consistently deliver its financial plans so that we can connect for good in the most efficient way and become the world’s most-trusted connector of people, devices and machines.

What you’ll be doing

• Finance business partnering: create, enhance & protect financial value for BT’s shareholders by instilling financial discipline while providing Procurement teams with finance support as they work closely with Unit teams to ensure we collectively maximise the value we get from our non-pay spend.
• Embed strategic finance mentality: influence Unit & Procurement colleagues to thereby embed an ‘every-penny-counts’ value-for-money mentality across our Group.
• Unit strategy & market: develop in-depth understanding of Unit strategy & external environment (customer trends, competitors, pricing, risks, opportunities, etc).
• Supplier strategy & market: develop in-depth understanding of suppliers within Procurement Category (business models, strategies, tech trends, recent developments etc)
• Savings targets: coordinate Procurement, Unit Finance and Group Financial Planning & Analysis teams to embed challenging, fully aligned savings targets within budgets via the Group’s medium-term planning (MTP) cycle.
• Savings delivery: coordinate Procurement and Unit Finance teams (e.g. via Procurement Category Boards) to deliver tangible savings that generate long-term sustainable value by improving profit margins and returns.

The skills you'll need

Essential:

• Qualified Accountant (CIMA, ACCA or ACA Preferred)
• Strategic financial literacy: able to analyse data to draw insights that can be used to achieve value-accretive behavioural change.
• Constructive stakeholder engagement: thrive on opportunities to support and challenge senior and/or more experienced colleagues, and build productive collaborative relationships with colleagues at all levels and across all functions.

Desirable:

• Business acumen: knowledgeable in business strategy and the drivers of organisational performance.
• Ability to excel in ambiguity: can adapt to evolving situations and retain focus on delivering overarching team objectives to contribute to Group strategy.
• Adaptable focus: able to shift seamlessly between big-picture overarching objectives & an intense focus on granular details, while recognising their interdependency.

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle.

Your core benefits include:

• 10% on target annual bonus
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalised maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.