Commercial Finance Analyst

About the role

As a Commercial Data Analyst in our retail analytics team, you will play a critical role in shaping strategic decision-making by transforming complex data into high impact commercial insights. Acting as a trusted partner to senior leadership, you will drive business performance and operational excellence, directly influencing key investment decisions, store development strategies and store acquisitions. 

Our retail analytics team play a pivotal role in establishing reporting frameworks, delivering compelling insights and fostering a data led culture across the business. We are looking for a curious and confident self starter  who can operate independently, question the status quo, and leverage emerging technologies, including AI driven analytics, to challenge existing business thinking and processes and drive continuous innovation. 

Key Responsibilities 

Strategic & Financial Analysis 

• Investment & Growth: evaluating store performance KPI’s trade metrics and customer behaviour to inform strategic investments, including refits, new opening and relocations. 
• Trial Evaluation: Support the design and conduct analysis of store trials, tracking against control groups to measure the long term ROI of strategic initiatives 
• Risk & performance: Support risk management by identifying trends and anomalies that could impact financial performance and operational success 

Operational Excellence & Reporting 

• Cross functional analytics: Analyse data from multiple large datasets across retail, transport and our distribution centres to unlock efficiencies and maximise profitability 
• Best in class BI: Develop, scale and automate insightful reporting solutions using Power BI and SQL to standardise processes across the business 
• Data Governance: Collaborate with the wider data collective, to ensure data integrity, consistency and compliance. 

Stakeholder Influence & Leadership 

• Trusted communication: Translating complex data into compelling business recommendations and presentations to senior leaders to drive decision making. 
• Change Agency: An eye and desire to challenge and champion changes in existing processes to identify inefficiencies and propose data driven recommendations for continuous improvement and optimisation. 
• Mentorship and team development: Eager to guide and mentor junior analysts, attend and lead education sessions, fostering a collaborative and data drive culture across the organisation. 

About You

Key Skills & Experience 

• Experience: Experience as a Commercial Analyst or Data Analyst, ideally within a retail, FMCG, or fast-paced commercial environment. 
• Technical Skills: Advanced proficiency in Power BI, SQL, and Excel, with a proven track record of building automated reporting frameworks from scratch. 
• Commercial Acumen: Strong understanding of financial metrics, store performance drivers, P&L levers, and supply chain/operational efficiencies. 
• Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication skills with a proven ability to tailor communications for different audiences 
• Ambition & Autonomy: A strategic mindset and a proactive self-starter who thrives in a fast moving business, comfortable establishing best practices independently. 
• Forward-Thinking: Familiarity with or strong interest in leveraging AI-powered analytics and automation for predictive modeling and forecasting is beneficial 

Why Join Us? 

Even if you don’t tick every single box on this list, please apply anyway! We value a true "development mindset" above perfection. If you are commercially curious, love turning numbers into real-world, actionable insight, and want to build a world-class team while growing your own career, we want to hear from you. This role offers an exceptional opportunity to directly shape our strategic direction, making it an invaluable and highly rewarding step in your professional journey. 

About Matalan

From humble beginnings to disruptive innovations in the retail industry, find out about how Matalan is ever-evolving  here.

We know as a team, we are stronger together – we champion equality for all and make lasting connections that go beyond work. We thrive off our inclusive culture, encouraging our colleagues to bring their true selves to work and contributing to collective creativity, open-mindedness and growth.

We want give every candidate the opportunity to perform at their best throughout the application and interview process and then ultimately in their role. If you require any adjustments during our recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

In the event that a high volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested. 

Benefits

In addition to competitive salaries, we also offer the below core benefits:

• 20% staff discount, which increases with length of service
• Thrive Recognition Scheme 
• Wellbeing support provided by the Retail Trust 
• Life Assurance 
• Retail Rewards platform offering discounts for other retailers 
• Pension Scheme 
• Access to a wide range of career development 
• Additional benefits may apply depending on your role and area of the business