Strategic Finance Senior Manager

Founded in 2003 by Dong Hyun Kim, he began with a simple yet ambitious mission: to make fresh, flavourful sushi and bento accessible to everyone. After more than 20 years, Wasabi has grown to 40 thriving branches across London, major UK cities, and New York.

In 2019, the journey expanded with the introduction of Wasabi Home Bento, launched exclusively in Sainsbury s. Building on that success, the grocery business broadened its reach to Tesco in September 2022, followed by exciting launches in Co-op and Morrisons in 2024. Today, Wasabi proudly stands as the No. 2 chilled ready-meal brand, driving significant market growth and setting new standards for quality and innovation. And this is just the beginning.

Wasabi s menu is celebrated for its unique character, exceptional freshness, and bold flavours. Our diverse range is designed to delight a wide audience, delivering both comfort and excitement with every bite.

Our leadership team has unveiled an ambitious 5-year strategy, focusing on company growth, franchise opportunities, and international expansion.

As we embark on our next phase of growth and innovation, we re thrilled to offer an exciting opportunity for a Strategic Finance Senior Manager to join our Finance team based in Park Royal.

The Role:

This is a key role reporting to, and partnering, the CFO to manage and communicate the overall long-, mid- and short-term financial P&L targets and delivery for the Wasabi Group. This role will lead the strategic planning cycle from a financial, strategic, and operational lens. This process includes leading the Wasabi Group 3-year plan, the Wasabi Group Budget, and ultimately the in-year forecasting and trade-off/investment opportunities. This also includes owning/developing the monthly Wasabi Board of Directors materials. This role has 1 Direct Report, who manages the FP&A consolidation and reporting, as FP&A is part of this role.

In addition to the Strategic planning elements above, this role will be the Financial Business Partner to the Property team to support our strategic growth agenda. This involves working with the team to quantify the financial contribution of potential new sites, and playing a key part in providing this information, analysis and recommendations in a fast-paced, timely manner. This role will also support the potential franchise and other growth opportunities as they arise. As expansion (both own-company restaurants and franchise restaurants) are an exciting part of Wasabi s future expansion, this role is critical to support this growth pillar.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead the structure and coordination of our strategic planning cycle (Target Setting & Resource Allocation)
• Coordinate the content and build of investor/board presentations
• Lead the business case development for growth projects and new revenue opportunities and perform the role of finance lead for our UK equity owned property development and franchise partnerships
• Partner the Head of Property and her team on all financial aspects related to property investment cases and financial analysis in preparation for the Property Investment Committee
• Oversee all FP&A activity and support the FP&A Manager in developing structure and sequence to our budget, cost tracking and reforecasting activity
• Set out the structure and governance to ensure our IT People and Marketing spend remains within the agreed budget
• Take the role of Business Owner in our journey towards Finance Digitisation and automation
• Lead alignment and consistency in financial processes across Restaurants, Grocery, Food, Manufacturing and Supply Chain (e.g. COGS, Business cases).
• Take on ad-hoc strategic projects as they arise and work cross-functionally and with external suppliers where appropriate to ensure they are scoped, well managed and support effective decision making

Our requirements:

• The ability to influence and impact across multiple functions, businesses and levels across the organization
• Strategic finance experience, likely in consulting or investment banking or similar industry role
• Strategic planning / financial planning capability
• Savvy communication skills (verbal, written, presentation)
• Prior experience in Retail Property, and Property expansion
• The ability to produce structured business cases, financial models and be able to produce data driven analysis and recommendations.
• The ability to work accurately with large datasets, as well as incomplete information, and be self-sufficient to acquire better data.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• A high level of attention to detail.
• That they are organized, fast-paced, with a flexible approach, ability to work under pressure and to meet tight deadlines.
• Requirements:
• ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualification preferred.

In Return we provide:

• A great working environment
• Pension scheme
• Target Bonus
• Refer A Friend Scheme
• Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available)
• 50% discount in our Branches
• Employee Assistant Programme
• (a service providing health and wellbeing support)
• Long Service Awards
• Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings
• Life Assurance
• Cycle To Work
• Free on-site parking
• A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox and
• The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

Our people make us who we are. If you're looking for an exciting challenge and this sounds like the job for you please apply today as we can't wait to hear from you.

COME ROLL WITH US!