Finance Project Manager - Integration & Value Realization

Schneider Electric•Buffalo, NY

7d•Onsite

About The Position

This role is pivotal in driving financial integration and ensuring value realization across transformation initiatives. Acting as the financial anchor for integration programs, this position ensures disciplined planning, cost transparency, and governance while enabling leadership to make confident decisions during periods of change. The Finance Project Manager – Integration & Value Realization plays a critical leadership role in ensuring financial discipline, transparency, and value delivery across integration and transformation initiatives. This role serves as the financial anchor for integrations—translating strategy into measurable financial outcomes, ensuring synergy capture, and enabling leadership to make informed, confident decisions during periods of change. You will operate at the intersection of finance, strategy, and operations, bringing structure to complexity and ensuring that every dollar invested delivers tangible value.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field (required)
8–12+ years of progressive finance experience
Proven track record in M&A integration, transformation programs, or large-scale strategic initiatives
Strong experience in FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling
Strong experience in month-end close, financial reporting, and controllership processes
Experience ensuring alignment between management reporting and statutory financials
Experience in synergy tracking, cost optimization, and value realization frameworks
Exposure to manufacturing, industrial, or complex multi-entity environments preferred
Experience working with senior leadership
Advanced financial modeling and scenario analysis
Strong understanding of cost structures (GM, SFC, overheads)
Familiarity with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle) and reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau)
Strong knowledge of accounting principles, including financial close processes, journal entries, accruals, capitalization, and cost allocation
Understanding of financial close cycles, reconciliations, and audit requirements
Strategic yet hands-on—able to move between detail and big-picture seamlessly
Strong analytical mindset with a focus on value creation and cost discipline
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and fast-paced, evolving environments
High ownership and accountability with a governance-first mindset
Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills
Clear communicator who can simplify complexity for executive audiences
Strong attention to detail with a no-surprises mindset in financial reporting

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent professional qualification (strongly preferred)

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end financial integration agenda, ensuring alignment with deal thesis and strategic objectives
Develop and maintain a robust integration roadmap with defined milestones, KPIs, and accountability owners
Act as the single source of truth for all integration-related financials
Partner with business and functional leaders to embed financial rigor into integration execution
Lead tracking and governance of integration costs, ensuring alignment to approved budgets
Monitor synergy realization against targets (cost and revenue), proactively identifying risks and mitigation plans
Provide clear visibility on value capture, ROI, and payback timelines
Establish disciplined reporting mechanisms for integration spend and benefits
Integrate transformation impacts into annual budgets and rolling forecasts
Drive scenario planning to assess risks such as delays, cost overruns, and synergy shortfalls
Conduct prior-year and baseline analyses to establish credible synergy benchmarks
Ensure financial plans reflect both operational realities and strategic ambition
Own and deliver AOCs for Gross Margin (GM) and Support Function Costs (SFC)
Clearly distinguish integration-driven impacts vs. business-as-usual performance
Provide transparency into key cost drivers (restructuring, transition costs, efficiencies)
Validate assumptions and track delivery in partnership with business leaders
Track R&D investments within the integration scope, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities
Govern capitalization of R&D costs in line with accounting standards and audit requirements
Provide clear visibility into innovation spend vs. integration commitments
Rationalize and harmonize cost structures across legacy and integrated entities
Establish consistent reporting hierarchies and cost allocation frameworks
Drive accountability for costs across newly integrated teams
Enable clean post-integration performance tracking
Lead quarterly EXCOM reporting on integration progress, including: Financial performance vs. plan, Synergy realization, Key risks, decisions, and trade-offs
Translate complex financials into clear, executive-ready narratives
Support leadership with insights that drive timely decision-making
Establish and enforce a robust financial controls framework across integration programs
Ensure adherence to governance, compliance, and trust standards
Identify control gaps and lead continuous improvement initiatives
Safeguard disciplined use of capital during transformation
Oversee and validate monthly payroll accuracy and completeness
Ensure alignment with budgeting assumptions and workforce plans
Strengthening controls and transparency in people-related costs
Own and oversee the month-end close process for integration-related entities and adjustments
Ensure accurate, timely, and compliant financial reporting during integration phases
Review and validate integration-related journal entries, accruals, and adjustments
Partner with Accounting/Controllership teams to ensure alignment between management reporting and statutory reporting
Ensure proper classification of integration costs (e.g., restructuring, one-time vs. recurring)
Drive consistency between reported financials and integration tracking (synergies, costs, AOCs)
Identify and resolve discrepancies between ERP financials and integration reporting decks