Halfords

About us 

At Halfords, our mission is to inspire and support a lifetime of motoring and cycling. As a specialist retailer, we lead the market through customer-driven innovation and a distinct product range. We are dedicated to providing our customers with an integrated, unique, and convenient service experience, from e-bike and electric vehicle servicing to on-demand solutions. Our commitment is to foster customer loyalty by offering compelling reasons to keep coming back to our stores, ensuring a lifetime of motoring and cycling enjoyment. 

The teams at our Support Centre work with every other area of our business, putting them at the heart of the action and playing a key role in our success and growth. Everyone brings their individual knowledge and experience to work every day, working as one team to keep things moving smoothly. 

If you’re willing to get stuck in, you’ll love it here too. So put yourself at the heart of a dynamic, fast-paced working environment where expertise and focus take people far. 

The role 

As a Group Controls Accountant at Halfords, you’ll play a key role in strengthening our internal control framework across a diverse and fast-moving business. Working as part of our growing Group Controls team, you’ll help ensure our financial, operational and compliance controls are robust, effective and embedded in how we operate. From mapping processes and identifying risks to implementing control improvements and supporting business-wide remediation, you’ll be central to how we maintain control integrity across a £1bn Group that spans retail stores, autocentres and distribution hubs nationwide. 

You’re a qualified accountant with solid experience in audit, controls, or risk from either a practice or an in-house. You enjoy problem-solving and bring strong analytical skills, a commercial mindset and the confidence to engage stakeholders up to CFO level. You’ll be hands-on in testing controls, reviewing findings, and helping business process owners implement improvements that are effective as well as compliant. Above all, you’re proactive and curious, eager to challenge the status quo and add real value to how we manage risk and control across the business. 

This is a genuinely broad and developmental role with variety, visibility and great progression opportunities. You’ll work with talented colleagues across finance, audit and operations, and gain exposure to transformation projects that will continue to evolve Halfords’ control environment. If you’re looking to grow your career in a dynamic, listed business where your expertise drives meaningful impact, we’d love to hear from you. 

Key responsibilities 

• Map end-to-end business processes, identifying key risks and mitigating controls. 

• Evaluate control effectiveness and recommend practical process improvements. 

• Support business leaders with control implementation and remediation activities. 

• Perform testing of key controls and document findings in line with the controls testing plan. 

• Maintain and update the Group risk and controls matrix for assigned process areas. 

• Produce process maps and supporting documentation using Microsoft Visio. 

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including the CFO, Group Financial Controller and Internal Audit, to ensure controls are fit for purpose and well communicated. 

• Identify and address control weaknesses, non-standard processes, and manual workarounds. 

• Support the rollout and continuous improvement of the internal control framework across the Group. 

About you  

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, MCIIA, CIA or equivalent) with strong technical and analytical grounding. 

• Proven experience of internal or external audit, including controls testing and documentation. 

• Experience of process mapping, identifying risks, and recommending or implementing control improvements. 

• Strong ability to build relationships and influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership. 

• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a pragmatic and commercially minded approach. 

• Highly organised and detail-focused, with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively. 

• Demonstrated capability to work independently and collaboratively within a growing team environment. 

• Experience of using Microsoft Visio or similar tools for process documentation (advantageous). 

• Exposure to the retail or multi-site industry would be beneficial but not essential. 

Reward & benefits  

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave. 

• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations. 

• We offer hybrid working with a blend of working in our Support Centre and from home.   

• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.  

• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords. 

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.