Group Head of Planning and Forecasting

About the Role

The Head of Planning & Forecasting is responsible for leading the planning and forecasting capability within the Group FP&A Centre of Excellence. The role defines and governs how financial planning and forecasting is delivered across the Group, ensuring outputs are consistent, robust, and support effective decision making. The job holder is accountable for establishing planning frameworks, improving forecast accuracy, and ensuring clear alignment between planning, forecasting, and performance management outputs.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead planning & forecasting across the Group.
• Accountable for the delivery of the Group wide annual business planning process, including governance, timelines, and coordination across business units.
• Responsible for quarterly forecasting and rolling reforecast processes, ensuring outputs are consistent, accurate, and aligned to business performance.
• Defines and embeds driver based planning methodologies across the organisation.
• Challenges assumptions with senior stakeholders to improve the quality and robustness of financial plans.
• Ensures scenario analysis, stress testing, and sensitivity modelling are embedded within planning processes.
• Supports long term planning, ensuring alignment with capital requirements, risk considerations, and actuarial assumptions.
• Acts as Group process owner for planning and forecasting, setting standards, governance, and policies.
• Drives standardisation and simplification of planning processes across business units.
• Improves forecast accuracy and transparency through enhanced modelling, data, and assumptions.
• Leverages systems and automation to improve efficiency and reduce manual activity.
• Owns the integration between planning outputs and management information, ensuring consistency between plan and forecast outputs.
• Partners with the Performance Management Team to align KPI definitions, assumptions and reporting structures.
• Ensures MI outputs reflect key business drivers and provide a clear link to forecast assumptions.
• Drives improvements in clarity, consistency and efficiency of MI processes, with a focus on forward looking insight and decision support.

Must Haves

• Strong FP&A leadership experience with deep expertise in financial modelling, planning and forecasting.
• Experience in insurance or financial services is preferred.
• Degree level education and a professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of finance processes within a complex organisational environment.
• Experience of off shoring processes is preferred.
• Excellent analytical capability, with the ability to interpret financial data and translate it into clear business insight.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, challenge and build credibility with senior leaders.
• Experience of driving process improvement and supporting change within finance environments.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to present complex information clearly and effectively.
• High level of attention to detail, sound judgement and strong commercial awareness.
• Experience of using financial systems, planning tools and data analytics to support decision making.
• Proactive and independent approach, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver to deadlines.