Finance Manager Co-Pilot Finance Manager Co-Pilot

Nestle Operational Services Worldwide SA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

As the Finance Manager Co-Pilot, you will be the key financial co-pilot of a large customer team, as well as playing a key role in the future-state design of Nestlé USA trade management systems, analytics and processes. Financial oversight includes detailed event level planning, promotional spend review, forecasting, reporting, and ad-hoc customer analysis, with an emphasis on maintaining sound financial controls around trade budget spending. The position is instrumental in allocating resources to accounts, maintaining control of NPS, trade spend, NNS, and evaluating overall efficiency of trade plans. The successful individual will have a strong finance or accounting background, superior communication and people skills, ability to learn quickly, a solid understanding of Nestlé (or another FMCG/CPG business) and the ability to deliver high performance work both within a team and independently. The Key Performance indicators are sales volume, real internal growth, organic growth, trade, and profit. The key quality indicators are trade management, forecasting and customer service.

Requirements

College degree required; Bachelor in Accounting/Finance or equivalent required.
5+ years finance management experience; Consumer Goods company/industry preferred.
Intermediate/Advanced in Excel and SAP (or other ERP System) required.
Previous experience with Sales Analysis, trade fund management a plus
Position will be located in Arlington, VA Nestlé Corporate Office
Demonstrated critical thinking and analytical problem-solving skills.
Superior execution skills in a changing environment and ability to work in a fast-paced environment
Strong data management and analytical skills, and critically important to be able to deliver the message to non-finance professionals.
Proven ability to not only deliver, but drive excellent work in a team and matrix organization
Excellent inter-personal communication and the ability to influence cross-functional teams; negotiation skills a plus.
Self-starter and shows initiative and quickly learns the specifics of the customer and sales finance.
Ability to drive change
Critical thinking/ Curiosity
Strong Business acumen
Understanding of Customer Profitability concepts and the use of customer P&Ls to drive business decisions.
Strong Excel and data management skills.
SAP (including AFO).
Ospreyor other TPM system a plus (but can be learned)
Experience in generating reports with actionable recommendations
Demonstrable experience illustrating insights from data through statistics or data visualization.

Responsibilities

Work proactively with Category Account Managers (CAM) during annual planning, ensuring alignment with Commercial Action Plans and ROI thresholds for promotions.
Ensure promotional events are properly set up by CAMs (based on contracts & yearly plans) on a timely basis in the trade management system (Osprey).
Review plan adjustments as needed throughout the year.
Ensure CAMs maintain trade events accurately throughout the year in Osprey.
Use trade analytics (promotion ROI analysis and PTE) to ensure efficient allocation of trade to planning accounts.
Drive monthly Business Review process, including analytical review of monthly/annual forecasts and promotional plan performance - leading to objective, timely and fact-based communication of volume/trade opportunities and gaps to the divisions.
Meet with CAMs/ Sales Directors to understand variances to goals, on both sales and trade. Communicate results and work with CAMs to develop solutions for driving sales or for adjusting trade activities to ensure goals are met.
Work closely with SRM team (Strategic Revenue Management) on Post Promotional Analysis and collaborate with CAMs to improve promotional profitability through PTE.
Work closely with Division Finance team to understand overall changes in business strategy and impacts to customers, and targets.
Work closely with CAMs to understand consumption data and identify base and incremental volume trends and their impact on financial performance.
Review sales and trade rate objectives (via weekly reports) to analyze and provide variance explanations, including understanding implications on customer profitability.
Review Unauthorized Deductions and work closely with CAMs and Credit Department to enable payback.
Perform financial modeling and scenario planning to analyze cross-functional business results and opportunities.
Partner with CAMs to build and review incremental sales/trade opportunities.
Provide insight to improve forecasting accuracy.
Project work, as needed.
Develop and maintain monthly forecasts for Retail Digital Media (RDM) investments, analyzing trends and month-over-month performance to ensure accuracy and strategic alignment.
Prepare and analyze monthly eNPS and eCommerce financial metrics, ensuring accuracy and providing insights for performance improvement.
Serve as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Retail Digital Media investments, focusing on driving and analyzing return on investment (ROI) for RDM investments, ensuring compliance with established accounting principles and financial standards.
Act as SME and work stream owner for major projects (Integration of Acquisitions, Other Business Process Revisions)
Drive efficiency and accuracy in annual planning process.
Assist in account specific activities.
Focus on process improvements across Sales Finance.
Automate manual data processes.
Establish and document best practices.
Travel estimated up to 15% (Planning Sessions/Design Workshops/Team Meetings).