2025 Finance Development Programme - Financial Management

As part of the Financial Management development programme, you'll develop skills in different work situations, contributing to the development and improvement of processes, products and services in your department.
This three-year programme comprises of three 12-month placements, progressively building on your skills, knowledge, and experiences to reach an Accountant level role.
This includes support throughout the programme to study for and obtain the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification - helping you learn and embed key management accounting practices that you can apply in your role.
You'll also attend development workshops and complete any training aligned to achieve your best.
Here in the Finance function, we make sure we spend our customers money wisely, so they get the most benefit.
As a function, we are made up of diverse individuals, skills and capabilities that enable us to provide financial partnering services, produce statutory and regulatory reporting, raise wholesale funds & maintain liquidity.
We provide lending for social housing, create and deliver a financial plan, manage stress testing requirements, provide and maintain financial systems and technology and drive the development of our Society Strategy.
Location At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible.
More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working.
We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.
For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, based at our Swindon head office.
You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.
What you'll be doing If you're ambitious and driven to succeed, you've come to the right place.
Attention to detail, asking questions, and an eagerness to find solutions are key to succeeding as you'll be working on important deliverables for the UK's 2nd largest mortgage and savings provider, ensuring we spend our customers money wisely, whilst pushing for better by improving efficiency and productivity in everything we do.
Financial Management at Nationwide consists of our business partnering teams and our Financial Planning and Stress Testing (FP&ST) team, with each of your three rotations spent within these areas.
We have three business partnering teams in Finance and their role is to partner with different parts of the Society to provide financial information, insight, analysis, and challenge to support income, costs, and balance sheet objectives.
The FP&ST team are responsible for producing key planning deliverables including the 5-year financial plan, cost plan and developing the relevant stress scenarios to test the Society's resilience within diverse macroeconomic and market stresses.
The team also help to manage Society's in-year performance including the reporting of a balanced scorecard to the Board and meeting cost and efficiency targets.
1st year During your first year you'll build a foundational understanding of management accounts, paving the way to success in your following years and supporting your first years' worth of exams in your accompanying professional qualification study.
You will be in the equivalent of an assistant accountant role where you will support the creation and analysis of month-end balances and reporting.
We'll be looking for you to identify process improvements and work collaboratively across the teams to improve efficiency.
2nd year In this pivotal year of your journey, you're positioned at the intermediate level, ready to enhance the skills you've already begun cultivating.
This phase is about owning a greater share of the commentary that bolsters the management accounts, placing you in a central role where your insights will produce valuable management information.
Expect to amplify your impact as you actively contribute more substantially to supporting business cases and reporting.
It's not just about skill enhancement; it's about taking ownership and playing a more influential role in the production, analysis, and evaluation of the management accounts.
You'll also actively build and nurture relationships with stakeholders, gradually gaining ownership of these crucial connections.
3rd year In the final year of your journey, you can expect to be in a role that is the equivalent of a senior assistant accountant, with this your chance to hone essential skills in influencing and stakeholder management and showcase the skills you've learnt across the Financial Management journey to propel you into life beyond the programme and your future career at Nationwide.
Your scope of responsibility extends to more intricate business areas, such as the financial planning and stress testing teams, where you'll be at the forefront of providing invaluable insights and recommendations derived from the intricacies of financial management data to stakeholders across the business.
Having contributed to key deliveries across your programme, developed skills that display your competency within Financial Management, and successfully passed your CIMA qualification, we would expect you to be well positioned to move into an Accountant equivalent role.
You'll gain access to a bespoke 18-month learning journey to develop core business skills that complement role-specific development and you'll meet and work alongside a range of diverse like-minded individuals from across the organisation.
About you Dare more.
Develop more.
Deliver more.
• Bold in living our Customer First behaviours, you are innovative and have a growth mindset.
• Development is something you expect and embrace.
• You push for high performance - from yourself and those around you.
• You have a high standard of numerical, written, and verbal communication skills.
• You'll have the ability to analyse data and problem solve to identify challenges and propose solutions.
• Through research and experience, you'll have commercial awareness of Nationwide Building Society and the Financial Services industry.
Entry requirements: Whether you're a recent graduate, contemplating a career change, or are already working in finance but seeking your next challenge, our finance development programme paves the way for a fast-paced career in finance.
You'll need to have: • Two A Level qualifications (A*-E) and three GCSE's at grades A-C/grade 9-4 (or equivalent) including Maths and English Language • You have an inquisitive mind and an aptitude for problem solving.
• Experience using Microsoft Excel.
• Strong organisational skills to plan and deliver work with attention to detail.
In addition, we will also be looking for: • Determination and drive to make a difference.
• Good time management and prioritisation skills for working in a fast paced environment.
• You want to get involved in activities across the Finance department, such as working with our recognition team or Network and Knowledge events.
Nationwide will support your studies with time off work for your accountancy exams and for study and revision courses run by an external study provider.
To be successful you will also need to dedicate a significant amount of your own time for self-study, revision and exam practice.
Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together.
You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.
• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room.
It's also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.
We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you're sending an application into a black hole.
We review each application individually.
So, it's a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.
The extras you'll get As well as a permanent contract and a competitive starting salary (£32,500pa), as a valued member of the team we offer you: • A personal pension - if you put in 7% of your salary, we'll top up by a further 16% • Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year • Life assurance worth 8x your salary • A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme • Wellhub - Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• Access to an annual performance related bonus • Access to training to help you develop and progress your career • 25 days holiday What makes us different At Nationwide, we're making banking fairer, more rewarding and for the good of society.
Unlike the banks we are owned by our members, not shareholders.
That's anyone who banks, saves or has a mortgage with us.
Which means we can always focus on what's best for them.
It's our fundamental difference.
You'll feel that difference when you join our Early Careers programmes.
When you're inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about customers, you're one of us.
An advocate for positive change.
What to do next If this role is for you, please click the 'Apply Now' button.
You'll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.
We'll send you our online assessments to complete and there will also be a short video interview to find out more about you.
If you are successful, you'll then be invited to attend one of our assessment centres which run from January 2025.
More details on the Finance Development Programme can be found at: here For more information on our application process and useful hints and tips, please visit: https://www.nationwide-jobs.co.uk/application-hints-and-tips/ Please refer to our FAQs page to find out more about visa sponsorship and requirements.
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