Senior Finance Manager - Transformation (2 Years FTC)

Overview

Home. There’s no place like it.

And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we’ve crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming – where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.

At Dunelm, our Finance team isn’t just about numbers, we’re the powerhouse behind smart decisions, smooth operations, and spotting golden opportunities for growth. We balance the books and manage procurement like pros, but we also dive deep into financial data to uncover patterns, trends, and hidden gems that help steer our business forward.

The Senior Finance Manager – Transformation will provide financial leadership, governance and commercial challenge across the transformation portfolio. The role will act as Finance Business Partner to the Transformation Programme Office (TPO), ensuring investment decisions are supported by robust, comparable business cases and that delivery is tracked against approved financial and non-financial outcomes

Key relationships

Transformation Programme Office and workstream leads; Transformation Governance Board; programme sponsors; Executive and Board stakeholders; Director of FP&A and Investor Relations; Business Finance; FP&A initiative owners; and wider Finance and business teams.

Work your way, together

We’re a hybrid business, which means you’ll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect 3 days a week in the office or on-site, helping you stay connected, collaborate and do your best work for our customers.

What you'll be doing

• Implement and continuously improve best-practice finance governance within the TPO, giving workstream leads clear expectations and driving compliance with agreed processes.
• Act as the financial gatekeeper for transformation initiatives, defining the quality, structure and evidence required before proposals progress through stage gates.
• Own the end-to-end financial stage-gating process, aligned to investment approval frameworks and executive decision-making requirements.
• Define and enforce consistent business case methodology, including investment appraisal, assumptions, benefits articulation, risk assessment and sensitivity analysis.
• Challenge financial inputs, assumptions and valuation logic, partnering with Business Finance teams and initiative owners to make proposals robust, comparable and decision-ready.
• Monitor programme costs and benefits, reporting milestones, risks and opportunities; challenge stakeholders to drive performance and promote consistency and quality across the programme.
• Build and maintain a live model providing a rolling view of actual and forecast performance at portfolio and workstream level, incorporating key financial and non-financial outcomes.
• Establish a consistent performance measurement framework for in-flight initiatives and identify emerging risks, opportunities and deviations early.
• Lead post-investment reviews, objectively assessing benefits realisation, capturing learning and reinforcing accountability.
• Represent Finance as a core TPO member, providing insight, challenge and assurance to programme leadership and senior stakeholders.
• Prepare clear, concise and influential financial materials for the TPO, Transformation Governance Board, Executive team, Board and programme sponsors.
• Own the budget and forecast for non-workstream transformation costs, including relevant internal and technology costs where applicable.
• Act as the key interface between Business Finance, FP&A and the wider business, ensuring transformation impacts are reflected consistently in plans, forecasts and reported performance.
• Build financial capability across the organisation in investment thinking, value tracking and disciplined capital allocation.

What we'll look for in you

• Qualified accountant, or equivalent senior-level finance experience.
• Strong experience in commercial finance, FP&A, finance business partnering, investment appraisal or transformation finance.
• Demonstrable experience of developing and challenging business cases, including benefits, risk and sensitivity analysis.
• Ability to build and maintain integrated financial models and translate complex information into decision-useful insight.
• Experience of portfolio governance, stage gates, performance reporting and post-investment review is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting, management reporting and the financial implications of change programmes.
• Confident operating with senior stakeholders and constructively challenging assumptions and delivery performance.

Behaviors we look for

• Commercially curious and value-focused, with sound judgement and a disciplined approach to capital allocation.
• Influential communicator who can make complex financial issues clear, concise and actionable.
• Collaborative and pragmatic, able to connect Finance, programme teams and business leaders around a joined-up view.
• Proactive and delivery-focused, comfortable creating structure and standards in an evolving environment.
• Credible challenger who balances support with independent assurance and maintains high standards of evidence and control.
• Committed to improving financial capability and embedding learning across the organisation.