Finance Transformation & Change

Tax Transformation Lead

The Finance Transformation & Change team exists to ensure that Finance’s requirements are known to the various cross-functional change programmes being navigated across ASOS and change is delivered successfully into the department, as well as delivering internal change to enable Finance itself to offer the best service to its numerous stakeholders by championing automation and process excellence. Finance Transformation & Change does this by tracking and communicating our Finance Change roadmap to finance and other stakeholders, ensuring sufficient finance resource is in place to support transformation programmes and appropriate governance around decision making and priority calls is in place to ensure management make the best decisions for ASOS as a whole. The Finance Transformation & Change team are ambassadors of change collaborating across the business to help shape the future of ASOS Finance.

This role will partner closely with our Tax team in Finance to help transform our processes and function to minimise time spent on compliance work in order to free up time to focus on advisory and business change support. Our tax team is responsible for the following taxes, and hence this role will require experience and expertise in the transformation and best-in-class solutions across these areas too:

• Corporate taxation

• Indirect taxation

• Customs & duty compliance

• Employment taxes

• Specialist UK, EU and US tax knowledge based on the businesses current global footprint

What you’ll be doing…

Primary responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Develop a global tax process, data, systems and people strategy, along with implementation plan and benefits tracking, adopting an automation first approach and ASOS Lean Methodology to deliver efficiencies and control benefits in the most efficient way

• Process documentation, standardisation and streamlining, ensuring removal of silos and transfer of transactional work to shared services/outsourced partners

• Responsible for project managing the scoping and delivery of Tax improvement activities, with appropriate Tax & Finance SME support including:

• Organising and project managing Working Groups and establishing other forums as required, to ensure Tax/Finance/Business functional leads are involved in scoping the impacts of this change and led through all relevant consideration areas to produce a comprehensive review of change impacts for SLT consideration and review

  • Sequencing the projects needed to create a roadmap for delivery and an aspirational vision to ensure Tax/Finance/Business buy-in to achieve the operating efficiency and cost benefits

  • Compile a stakeholder management plan to ensure the most efficient use of time and resource and track stakeholder engagement to ensure all required stakeholders are engaging adequately and if not, this is discussed with them and their line management as relevant

  • Identification of interdependencies of Tax/Finance/Business teams to input into this internal change programme given business-led change priorities and highlighting any change absorption concerns which would jeopardise the successful delivery of tax initiative plans

  • Preparing content required to present the vision and change journey tax is on to ensure sponsorship and engagement across senior ASOS Execs, Finance SLT and the Finance department

• Lead initiatives and projects to ensure effective delivery of tax transformation internal to the function, as well as part of wider business change transformation/changes

• Ensure that delivery of tax changes & transformation processes are managed effectively, with regular communication to key stakeholders and that knowledge transfer is effective to BAU

• Input into Finance Change roadmap governance and communication activities, and be an engaged member of the wider Finance Transformation & Change team

• Support Finance Transformation Director to ensure stakeholder, client and partner relationship management, acting as tax transformation ambassador at key senior-level meetings

• Provide commercial insight, tax and financial expertise, simplification and standardisation of systems and processes globally

• Deliver solutions to improve ability to meet reporting obligations and empower staff to make better business decisions

• Take ownership of the tax elements of the finance systems portfolio and plan for further system requirements & implementation as required

• Represent and manage prioritisation of tax investments as Finance Change Boards (on behalf of the BAU Tax team), as well as representing tax interests at relevant cross-functional change boards

• Drive engagement and development across the tax function of how to enact process, data, system and people change to improve tax BAU processes and seat at the table across the business

• Champion company- and finance-wide communication, engagement, change management and celebration of success of major change programmes and own the maintenance and update of materials and information on the Finance Hub to ensure a consistent employee experience across Finance

What Success Looks Like:

• Clear & comprehensive tax change plan providing confidence to senior stakeholders and successful delivery against this plan

• Successful delivery of tax change initiatives into Tax BAU including communication, training and engagement solutions

• Measurable successes underpinned by clear testing and business readiness scope and progress against these 

• Good working relationships with key stakeholders and adopting a partnership approach by working in collaboration with others

We’d like to meet someone with: 

• Ideally CTA / ACA / ACCA qualified (or equivalent) with a background in IFRS tax accounting

• Global tax, regulatory and accounting experience, with specific experience of international Corporate Tax, VAT and Duty/Customs

• Experience in guiding tax-related projects and process improvement initiatives

• Experience of fast-paced Retail and Ecommerce businesses, working within Tax functions 

• Experience working closely with Tech delivery teams as well as Tax/Finance/relevant business stakeholders

• Experience of, and commitment to, continuous organisational improvement, automation and the ability to act as a change agent

• Good leadership skills, delivery focus and gravitas to project positive energetic attitude and resolve disputes and challenges while exhibiting influencing and interpersonal skills

• Ability to engage, conduct diagnosis, analyse findings, generate options and build commitment to solutions

• Ability to effectively articulate and present technical information and risks to non-technical users and business sponsors 

• Possess a high degree of project planning, organisational skills, presentation & communication skills, alongside systems & process improvement experience 

• Self-motivated, proactive, enthusiastic and results-focus

• Flexible, adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity – a can do attitude

• Ability to work with cross organizational users – Finance, Commercial, SC, Tech etc – to identify opportunities and drive them to resolution, translate business issues into solutions that address complex situations

• Ability to deal with highly demanding and complex delivery landscape

• Flexible mindset

• Meticulous attention to detail, superb organization skills, and strong sense of ownership

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills