Job Description

Associate Finance Business Partner,
We drive our own success
Salary 30,000 - 40,000
Benefits: Staff Shop, MyBargains, Pension
Location :Deal
Ways of Working: Site Based
Hours of work 08:30 - 17:00
Contract Type - Permanent
Please be informed that this role offers a job share option, which aims to promote a collaborative approach to workload management and improved work-life balance by sharing a full-time role with another colleague.
Why join us?
We're constantly evolving, progressing and diversifying. And we want our people to do so too. For everyone to feel empowered, engaged and enabled. To create opportunities to move forward, climb higher and push for more. We believe in fuelling ambition and guiding success. In supporting everyone with talent and drive to own what they do, realise their potential and build a brilliant future for themselves at Bakkavor.
About the role
We're proud to offer you a career with real scope for development. To reward your hard work and ambition as a talented Associate Finance Business Partner with plenty of support and opportunity. Empowering you to drive your own success and create a career you can be proud of too.
In this busy and exciting role, you will support the (Senior) Finance Business Partners with providing insight to the Factory Management and wider Operations teams - to aid decision-making that drives site profitability.
You will become part of the broader Business Finance Team and build a positive working relationship with the Business FP&A Team - to communicate factory trends and cost drivers for input to financial models.
Transactional processing, analysis and adherence to Group controls following SOPs to execute tasks within agreed SLAs and KPIs - will be top of your agenda.
Role Accountabilities
Product Costing & Pricing (60% of focus at the beginning)

• Supporting standard cost reset activities (prepared by the Business FP&A Team) and performing deep dives into data to support any complex pricing decisions

• Contributing to the end-to-end costings process, ensuring timetable and controls are adhered to from a Finance perspective

• Ensuring adherence to agreed financial processes and controls within the costing system (Recipe Professor)

• Supporting on product costing meetings and ensuring all launch and implementation costs are captured, including opportunities and risks associated with operational processes that could impact the financials

• Supporting preparers of new and existing product development costs, escalating concerns as necessary to the (Senior) Finance Business Partners. Ensuring the correct costs are included in 'As-is/To-be' models at each stage of the Development process

• Working with Business FP&A team as necessary, to prepare any ad-hoc costing analysis as requested by the wider operations team in a timely and efficient manner

• Understanding variances against standard cost and ensuring these are accurately captured to maintain a catalogue of actual cost by product

Business Partnering (30% of focus - will increase over time)

• Supporting the (Senior) Finance Business Partners in translating complex financial data into clear and actionable business insights

• Fostering collaborative relationships with stakeholders to remain up to date with latest operation activity and priorities

• Working closely with wider business teams to accurately gather data for profit improvement initiatives to track their progress against defined financial targets

• Reviewing and analyse P&L and Tracker information to highlight trends

• Providing information and insight to the (Senior) Finance Business Partner to aid their input to the Finance Shared Services Team in their production of weekly and monthly Overhead reports and P&Ls / balance sheet reconciliations

• Supporting with cost centre reviews alongside cost centre owners and assisting with any ad hoc information requests or deep dives into data

• Generating ad-hoc operational and overhead reports to support the analysis of business performance

• Collaborating with Operational teams to understand full Redzone functionality

Forecasting (5% of focus)

• Understanding Business trends and cost drivers and ensuring these are effectively communicated to Business FP&A Team for inclusion in 13-week tracker forecasts, quarterly rolling forecasts and 3-year Business plans

• Delivering feedback to the Business FP&A Team members on any forecast data templates and supporting analysis in a timely and accurate manner, for inclusion in financial forecast submissions

• Providing Cost Centre Managers with information and analysis to aid preparation of overhead forecast plans, ensuring they accurately reflect expected inflation

• Understanding monthly and quarterly variance analysis between actual financial performance and forecasts/budgets prepared by Business FP&A Team

Capital Management and Investment Appraisal (5% of focus)

• Assisting with preparation of capital invoice additions forecast and capital cash forecast, identifying project slippage and supporting generation of corrective action plans

Communication and Change Management

• Build relationships with key internal stakeholders and effectively communicate escalations

• Work with the Business FP&A Team and Finance Shared Services to communicate related updates, progress, and challenges

• Collaborating closely with peers from the Business FP&A Team and Finance Shared Services to harmonise ways of working and drive process improvements

• Supporting the (Senior) Finance Business Partners to work closely with the wider Operations and Site Excellence teams to identify continuous improvement opportunities and cost reduction plans

• Contributing to projects as required, examples of which range from supporting centralisation projects and IS transformation projects

• Working with other parts of the broader finance function (Finance Shared Services, Group, UK FP&A) and central excellence teams as relevant, contributing to the UK finance agenda, driving best practice and standardisation

Control Environment

• Assisting and supporting in all internal & external audit related activities as required

• Ensuring site adherence to Group controls, identifying and challenging gaps and supporting wider ops teams to resolve and implement new and improved processes that align to agreed standards

• Supporting site asset verification activity

About you
Ideally, you will have a strong understanding of accounting concepts and / or will be currently undergoing professional accounting qualification training (AAT/ACA/ACCA/CIMA).
Knowledge of Operational Finance, strong written and verbal communication skills to convey information clearly and concisely, MS Office proficiency, effective time management, diligence and the ability to engage / effectively build relationships with internal and external stakeholders - will be key.
If you have a passion for Finance, are comfortable operating in a fast paced and dynamic work environment and open to change, with the competence to positively contribute to the growth and transformation of your immediate team - this could be the perfect role for you.
What you'll receive
As an equal opportunity employer, we're committed to providing a safe and rewarding environment for you to thrive in. This is why we work hard to deliver benefits, rewards and wellbeing offerings that are important to you.
You'll enjoy:

• Life Assurance (1 x salary)

• 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays as standard (may vary by role)

• Private medical insurance (after 5 years' service)

• Staff Shop

• Stakeholder Pension Scheme

• Discount & cashback platform

• Personal Accident Insurance

• Free health check

• Employee Assistance Programme

• A range of voluntary benefits (holiday purchase scheme, additional life assurance, dental & hospital cash plans)

• Salary sacrifice car lease scheme

• Free independent mortgage advice

• Discounted tutoring for children

• Access to financial learning tools and affordable loans via your salary

• Free car parking - Site dependant

Plus, a commitment to your wellbeing that includes emotional, physical and financial support services delivered by our fantastic team of wellbeing champions.
Proud to be Bakkavor
We're proud to be the market leader in the UK fresh prepared food industry. We're proud to supply meals, salads, desserts, pizza and bread to leading grocery retailers including Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. We're driven by the hard work and passion of our people and are delighted to offer a wide range of careers across our business - come and join our dedicated Bakkavor team!
Find out more and apply.
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Bakkavor
We are the leading provider of fresh prepared food in the UK, with operations also in the US, positioning the Group well in these high-growth markets. We leverage our consumer insight and scale to provide innovative food that offers quality, choice, convenience, and freshness. Around 15,000 colleagues operate from 31 sites across our two markets supplying a large portfolio of products across meals, pizza & bread, salads and desserts to leading grocery retailers in the UK and US.
Department: Finance
Location:
Tilmanstone, GB, CT15 4NL
Workplace:
Date: 2 Oct 2025
Req ID: 26114

Skills Required