Investments Business Partner (Anaplan) - Profitability

Job Description

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group.

Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent.

Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About The Department

The Finance function is led by the Chief Financial Officer and comprises four specialist, centralised teams, and three divisional focused commercial teams, supported by a small CFO Office to run the function.

• Group Finance Control – responsible for all external reporting activity (group, statutory and regulatory) with the goal to produce high quality reporting materials, on time and reflective of best practice.  Oversight and development of the Finance control environment also sits here, together with the management of the relationship with external audit and the Audit Committee.
• Finance Operations – responsible for all processing and production activity is centralised here, largely on an outsourced basis.  The goal is to combine maximum efficiency and increasing automation with robust controls. All P&L, balance sheet and ledger control activity, including outsourced oversight, is brought together here.
• Capital and Tax – responsible for running all capital and tax matters centrally for the whole group, as a global, specialist function.
• Performance and Planning – responsible for all performance and planning activities centrally for the group, including coordination of planning, forecasting, quarterly business reviews and investor relations.

Segment CFO teams – are responsible for supporting segment CEOs and CFOs by driving the commercial agenda of the business and rely on the other areas to produce core materials

About The Role

The role holder will work closely with colleagues across the Investments Business ensuring the commercial objectives of the business are met through the provision of informed management information.

Key Responsibilities:

• Owning the profitability models for Investments business including the governance and oversight of inputs, assumptions (allocation basis) and outputs.
• Collaborating and work closely with Profitability modelling implementation partners to enhance Anaplan modelling and reporting, assumptions, and further develop profitability KPIs.
• Owning and maintaining the profitability methodology for Business and Regulatory modelling including cost classification and allocation methodology to Asset Class, Desk, Strategies and Fund to ensure they reflect commercial reality, operating model and strategic priorities. 
• Delivering quarterly profitability performance for Asset Classes, Investment Desks and Funds working with the business partners and managers to ensure profitability performance is transparent and understood and responding promptly to queries.
• Overseeing the offshore WNS team responsibilities for the production of the profitability data hub each quarter. Ensure the WNS team process is performed robustly to ensure data accuracy, process control and timely delivery to support the quarterly models production.
• Driving automation and process optimisation across data inputs, handling and reporting workflows using data visualisation tools to provide efficient Executive reporting and insights.
• Working with the business and function areas to ensure the cost centre allocation basis to Asset Classes, Desks and strategies are refreshed and correlated to the costs associated with the allocation.
• Providing swift and insightful responses to requests for ad hoc profitability analysis, financial modelling, scenario analysis to enable proactive business management.
• Providing analysis and insight that links financial reports to business strategies. Providing timely and impactful of Profitability reporting and insights on business performance, including relevant performance KPIs.

About The Candidate:

• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) (Desirable)
• Asset management or financial services background and knowledge of investment strategies and asset management principles (Desirable)
• Excellent analytical ability with a good attention to detail.  Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to interpret complex financial data and provide actionable insights
• Expertise in financial modelling tools (Excel, PowerBI, Anaplan etc.)
• Data science, governance and visualisation skills
• Proven accounting skills, diligent and accurate
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to present plans to support business decisions.
• Be driven and assertive, prepared to get into the detail to understand the sophisticated cost drivers of the business.
• Takes personal accountability for quality delivery.
• Manage priorities, delivering at times to tight deadlines and coping with a varied portfolio of work will also be important.
• Collaborate across Finance and the Business in order to develop a network of people from which the role holder can leverage support.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our Benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our Business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’Re Committed To Providing An Inclusive Workplace Where All Forms Of Difference Are Valued And Which Is Free From Any Form Of Unfair Or Unlawful Treatment.  We Define Diversity In Its Broadest Sense – This Includes But Is Not Limited To Our Diversity Of Educational And Professional Backgrounds, Experience, Cognitive And Neurodiversity, Age, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Disability, Religion Or Belief And Ethnicity And Geographical Provenance.  We Support A Culture That Values Meritocracy, Fairness And Transparency And Welcomes Enquiries From Everyone.

If You Need Assistance Or An Adjustment Due To A Disability Please Let Us Know As Part Of Your Application And We Will Assist.