Finance Lead

About Officeworks:

Officeworks purpose is we bring big ideas to life at low prices. We are Australia's leading omnichannel retailer of complete technology solutions, stationery, furniture, art supplies, and learning resources. We also offer services including Print & Create and Geeks2U. We begin with customers—our products and services provide solutions to our diverse range of customers across Australia, from households, students, small to large-sized businesses, governments, and schools.

About the Finance Function:

By joining the Finance team within the Global Capability Centre (GCC), you will play a direct role in supporting Officeworks growth and performance. You'll contribute to high quality financial capabilities that sit at the heart of how the business plans, invests, governs, and delivers value.

The GCC is a critical enabler of Officeworks purpose by ensuring strong financial stewardship, insight driven decision making, and operational discipline that supports sustainable success.

This is a unique opportunity to join as a founding member of a newly established global hub. Early joiners will help shape how the finance function operates within the GCC, influencing future ways of working, capability development, and the evolution of some of Officeworks core finance processes.

These roles are best suited for people who enjoy:

Exposure to core finance disciplines, including financial operations, reporting, governance, controls, planning, analysis, and process optimization

Why this role exists:

The Finance Lead represents the CFO by commercially partnering with functional business units to support and proactively challenge those functions to drive Officeworks profit, and EBT performance. This role is instrumental in embedding the Commercial Finance community as a sought-after, trusted team that optimizes tactical and strategic decision-making. By shifting toward a proactive model of business partnering, this role ensures the business identifies and acts on data-driven opportunities before they become challenges.

Where you will make a difference:

In this role you will:

Proactive Business Partnering & Insight Development:

• Adopt a proactive approach to business partnering, ensuring financial insights and recommendations are delivered to stakeholders before they are requested.
• Collaborate closely with Commercial Analysts to develop deep-dive insights that move beyond raw data to actionable commercial recommendations.
• Provide clear recommendations to stakeholders by understanding and analyzing financial data to support enterprise-aligned decision-making, with an emphasis on forward looking actions that deliver better outcomes for Officeworks.
• Communicate complex challenges in a concise and compelling manner to ensure optimal deliverables are understood by all stakeholders.

Opportunity Identification & Risk Management:

• Proactively identify opportunities using data, identifying trends and patterns that lead to tangible growth or efficiency for the business.
• Co-create action plans with business stakeholders to remediate risks and maximize commercial opportunities as relating to cost of doing business.
• Provide commercial insights for all material projects, including over-and-above investments such as Tech Transformation.
• Upskill business stakeholders to increase commercial acumen across the P&L, balance sheet, and cashflow, fostering accountability for financial targets.

Financial Planning & Strategic Implementation:

• Lead the preparation of annual budgets and recurring forecasts for functional units, ensuring high levels of ownership and engagement.
• Develop commercial assumptions for key investment decisions and ensure outcomes are accurately reflected in forward financial plans.
• Adopt a continuous improvement approach to enhance team efficiency and support Officeworks transition to a low-cost operating model.
• Challenge the status quo and aim to improve existing systems and processes through elimination, automation, and simplification.

Who you will be working with:

• Internal Delivery Teams: Finance Managers, Commercial Analysts, and other Financial Business Partners.
• Internal Partners: Operations teams, Finance and CFO teams, and the People team.

What success looks like:

• Analytical Quality: Requirements captured for the business are rated as high, with output that is right first time and drives quality so what and now what conversations.
• Strategic Impact: Clear insights lead to tangible opportunities and a positive impact on whole-of-business processes.
• Effective Influencing: Ability to successfully collaborate with and challenge senior stakeholders to drive commercial, financial, and customer outcomes aligned to strategy.
• Execution: Delivering requirements and deliverables to strict deadlines while advocating for Officeworks values and safety.

How you will lead:

Individual Contributor:

• Lives our Officeworks values and behaviours
• Proactively contributes to a safe working environment, escalates appropriately if there are unsafe conditions or inappropriate behaviour
• Operates in line with applicable Officeworks company policies and Code of Conduct
• Demonstrates a strong sense of personal accountability and curiosity to learn and develop

Qualifications and work experience:

Essential:

• Education: CPA / CA Qualified and a degree in a relevant field (e.g., Commerce, Economics, Finance, etc.).
• Experience: Minimum 5-7 years in Commercial Finance roles within matrix organizations.
• Partnering: Proven exposure to partnering with senior sales and/or marketing stakeholder groups.
• Technical Skills: Excellent system and data modelling skills, including SAP, Business Warehouse, and PowerBI.
• Competencies: Proactive in seeking solutions, results-oriented, and willing to question assumptions to ensure they are commercial.

Preferred:

• Industry: Retail or FMCG experience is highly desirable.
• Supporting global initiatives and strengthening scalable, efficient finance processes.
• Contributing to business transformation through financial insight and continuous improvement.
• Working in an environment where your expertise matters, your growth is intentionally supported, and your work has a visible impact on business performance and outcomes.