Senior Manager, Commercial Finance

Title:  Senior Manager, Commercial Finance

Reports To: Head of Commercial Finance

Location: Chicago, IL

Looking for a job that can grow into a lifelong career?

At Lactalis USA, we believe in promoting from within and giving our employees meaningful opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Whether you're just starting out or bringing years of experience, we'll provide the tools and support you need to succeed.

Lactalis is the world leader in dairy—a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Every day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together every day.

In the US, we offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone's cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Oui, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Green Mountain Creamery, and Mountain High, along with sour cream and a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun, Gopi, and Arz.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We're building a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone's unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us make an impact. 

From your PASSION to ours 

The Senior Manager of Commercial Finance & Accounting is responsible for monitoring, challenging, and analyzing the full P&L (volume/demand, pricing, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, marketing, and SG&A) for Lactalis Heritage Dairy, a $1.4Bn subsidiary of Groupe Lactalis. They will drive technical performance & analysis in key areas such as pricing, trade/promotions, marketing expenses, and SG&A and provide primary explanations to help the Marketing and Sales teams achieve their targets. This role forecasts data trends for the overall business and makes recommendations to improve profitability. The Head of Commercial Finance also develops, produces, and improves weekly monthly, and annual reporting.  

From your EXPERTISE to ours  

• Provide leadership on challenging and monitoring the P&L indicators 
• Overseeing the daily activities of the Commercial Finance & Accounting department and ensuring that all major projects, month-end, and year-end reports are completed accurately and on time. 
• Volumes and mix, price, trade and promotions, pricing power analysis, marketing budget and overheads 
• Influence pricing strategies to accelerate top-line growth and business profitability 
• Serve as a financial voice during the monthly business reviews providing insights and strategic goals 
• Drive the monthly reporting and ensure the consistency of the full P&L 
• Give leadership and insure the alignment of the expenses against the Annual Planning for trade promotions, marketing budget, and overheads 
• Lead closely with the commercial controllers the financial monthly review with CEO, CFO and VP of the commercial business entities 
• Spearhead the monthly financial forecasting (volume, contribution margin, and full P&L) and provide insights during the process and while driving continuous improvement 
• Lead additional resources against budget and give visibility of ROI and such additional resources 
• Recommend controls and methods for commercial analysis to provide a primary support for the sales, marketing, and retail teams 
• Lead as a strategic partner providing support and guidance for all financial aspects of the business to ensure a high level of financial oversight, revenue / cost optimization, planning and analysis 
• Identify and communicate risk and opportunities for the full P&L (volume and mix, price, trade promotions, marketing budget and expenses) 
• Principal driver for motivation, coaching and developing the team 

Budget construction 

• Lead annual budget planning by delivering data driven insights to help the commercial finance team during this process 
• Work closely with the Commercial finance, Executive, sales, marketing, and cross functional managers to identify, recommend actions to achieve strategic goals and improve the planning and execution of the budget (Annual planning). 
• Lead, challenge and monitor the commercial business indicators during the budget process 
• Volume and mix, price (Gross to Net), pricing power analysis, trade and promotion expenses, marketing, overheads 
• Coordinate and oversee the consolidation of the budget with the full P&L following the group template and using the group systems. 
• Lead the budget meeting presentation to the commercial entity manager, CFO and CEO. 

Financial Analysis & Reporting 

• Develop new TM1 reports; convert legacy Excel reports. 
• Become as technical resource for the enhancement and extension of BI reporting functionality by maintaining a high degree of expertise with advanced Excel formula writing. 
• Must possess energy, drive and capability of handling multiple priorities simultaneously with a strong attention to detail while providing a high level of customer service 
• Perform miscellaneous projects and provide ad hoc data as assigned. 
• Develop closely with the team analysis and presentation regarding profitability, strategy, corporate analysis to increase profitability and efficiency 

Requirements

 From your STORY to ours  

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Economics, Accounting, or another appropriate discipline. 
• 5+ years of experience in Corporate Finance roles (FP&A, Operations, Commercial, Brand, Sales), preferably in a consumer foods products company 
• Proven capability to manage large sets of data in MS Excel 
• Demonstrated strong analytical skills, as well as broad business acumen 
• Strong interpersonal skills to influence and sell recommendations internally 
• Must be a strong team player who is able to work across multiple functions and disciplines 
• Systems knowledge is considered an asset (SAP, Market Track, Tableau/Power BI, etc.) 
• Demonstrated solid PowerPoint, communication, and interpersonal skills 

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis Heritage Dairy is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.