Head of Financial Planning

Our client, a diversified developer, manufacturer, and marketer of food flavorings and ingredients, serving both sweet and savory end markets is searching for a Head of FP&A to join their growing team. The role will be hybrid and located in the Addison, IL office.

Position Description – Head of FP&A

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), reporting to the CFO, to join our scaling organization. As a finance leader in our organization, you will play a crucial role in shaping and executing financial strategies. Responsibilities include financial planning, forecasting, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations. The ideal candidate will bring strategic financial insights to support our growth, manage financial risk, and contribute to the overall success of the Company. This role will need to be effective in communicating with senior management, and consistent in bringing new insights to the table, while continuing to deliver on day-to-day duties. If you have a strong background in finance, a passion for innovation, and thrive in a fast-paced scaling environment, we want to hear from you.

Essential Functions

• Under the supervision of the CFO, your primary responsibilities will be to:
• Lead and control all aspects of financial planning, oversight of payroll and compensation, cash flow, investment priorities, and policy matters, with a heavy focus on creating a culture of meritocracy driven by KPIs and metrics
• Develop and manage the financial planning processes, including (i) annual operating plan (budget), (ii) ongoing monthly forecasting, and (iii) long-range strategic planning
• Lead the annual operating plan and three-year strategic planning processes, including developing the long-range three-statement financial model with detailed customer/product/category/channel build-up and assumptions, and establishing key metrics that tie back to financial goals
• Partner extensively with Sales, HR, Operations, R&D, etc. to create and drive divisional financial processes
• Creates and coordinates calendars/timelines for budget, strategic plan, and quarterly Board meetings
• Ownership and innovation of the total company forecasting model, including consolidations, cash flow, scenario planning, management of assumptions and drivers, reporting, variance analyses, etc.
• Lead the continuous improvement of budgeting, forecasting, and reporting across the company, including management of forecasting and reporting tools, processes, and systems
• Responsible for the monthly financial close and reporting cycle in partnership with Accounting; create clear process rhythms around monthly, quarterly, and annual financial closings
• Partner closely with Accounting on journal entries and accruals to ensure accuracy and completeness
• Prepare weekly/monthly/quarterly financial reporting and analysis/insights (incl. variance and trend analyses)
• Lead monthly accounts reviews to understand variances and summarize explanations to key stakeholders
• Ensure that all expenditure is controlled, challenged, and minimized via appropriate use of systems, continuous process improvement, commitment to quality and investments in technology, and policy development
• Collaborate with department heads to develop and monitor departmental G&A budgets as well as partner to develop strategic initiatives and policies to drive a culture of ownership and accountability
• Help prioritize and budget key initiatives to ensure adequate capital for company growth by planning financial strategies and alternatives via ad-hoc financial modeling support
• Continue to enhance financial systems, business processes, tools, and methodologies for continued efficiency within the finance team to provide further visibility/value to the business
• Lead the development, monitoring, reporting, and analysis of financial and operational KPI’s with scorecards and dashboards to provide deeper insights that will help the business make smarter decisions and guide to financial and operational targets
• Develop strong internal and financial controls, information systems, reporting systems, and analytic tools
• Prepares and analyzes data, which may include locating, profiling, cleansing, extracting, mapping, importing, transforming, validating, and/or modeling
• Uses knowledge of business objectives, strategies, and needs to identify opportunities where data can be leveraged to achieve desired business benefits
• Understands current data context, processes and availability, and how current data processes and existing data can be leveraged to achieve desired benefits; creating process or system to compile data from various sources
• Ensures data integrity and consistency throughout the business and systems; performs validation and testing to confirm the accuracy of the information created
• Drive Power BI reporting via data and metrics guidance and ownership; create executive reporting dashboards and documents for daily/weekly/monthly monitoring as well as for close and other presentations
• Own the preparation of presentations for monthly business reviews, quarterly Board meetings, budget and strategic planning presentations, lender reporting compliance, and other management reporting packages
• Manage cash flow and provide timely communications regarding future cash projections and requirements via detailed monthly and quarterly forecasting processes
• Lead inventory reporting and analysis, specifically around the overall balance as well as inventory at risk; partner cross-functionally to implement proactive solutions to avoid inventory write-offs; monitor the control environment to ensure that cycle counts are being performed in-line with developed policies
• Responsible for capital expenditure project accounting, including ROI analysis, tracking project spend vs. plan monthly, and partnering with Accounting for initial fixed asset setup
• Manage the pricing process, including the development of a formal communications strategy/timing, internal ways of working, pricing tiers (optimal/desired/essential pricing), competitive analysis, and market analysis
• Manage development of standard costs, review of actual cost against standard, costing for business quotes and RFP’s; ensure that key stakeholders understand the drivers of costs
• Partner with Head of Accounting & Controllership and/or Cost Accountant to develop, implement, and maintain a costing methodology in a batch process environment with work centers
• Assist management during future M&A processes, including due diligence and integration

Location and Travel: Position will be based in Addison, IL, with periodic travel to facilities in NJ and other locations; periodic travel to other locations within the US or Canada as needed.

Qualifications

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably with a focus on finance, accounting, engineering, or related field of study; MBA or other relevant Master’s degree preferred
• Relevant experience in a similar position in a manufacturing environment is strongly desired; food and beverage or chemicals manufacturing experience preferred
• Prior experience in fast-paced and high attention to detail environments, including but not limited to investment banking, management consulting, and/or private equity, are also preferred
• Experience developing, automating, and producing regular reporting
• Experience preparing materials for presentation to and working with Senior Management and Board of Directors
• Strong financial modeling skills; automation, coding, and systems integration experience a plus
• Well versed with data modeling and data visualization
• Cost accounting experience preferred
• Self-motivated and highly-driven; pro-active, hands-on strategic thinker
• Strong business acumen and proven business partnering including the maturity and awareness to achieve the appropriate balance between supporting and challenging the business
• Strong leader and developer of people; committed to retaining an inclusive environment
• Strong cross-functional relationship builder
• High standard of accuracy, precision, and organization, with a strong attention to detail
• Strong analytic, organizational and problem-solving skills that enable strategic data interpretation
• Strong track record of developing people and teams and driving enhanced performance thereof
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills. Experience in effectively communicating key data, including presentations, to senior management, board and other outside partners

Computer Skills: Advanced Microsoft Office (including Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI); technology savvy with “hands on” experience with ERP and MIS/reporting systems; prior experience with ERP software provider, Sage X3, a plus

The job description is only a summary of the typical functions of the job, not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all possible responsibilities, tasks, and duties. The responsibilities, tasks, and duties of the jobholder might differ from those outlined in the job description and that other duties may be assigned. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. SmartHire is not legally responsible for any change of job-holder's responsibilities or activities, by our clients, that differ from this job description.