Manager - Expense Planning & Analysis

Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I.•Milwaukee, WI

13d

About The Position

The Manager – Expense Planning & Analysis leads enterprise budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, expense management, and financial analysis. The role serves as a strategic finance partner to business and executive leadership, translating financial and operational information into actionable insights, scenarios, and recommendations. The manager develops FP&A talent, strengthens financial governance, and drives continuous improvement through advanced analytics, automation, generative AI, and modern planning technologies. The position leads and develops Expense Management team members, setting priorities, allocating resources, managing performance, and building capabilities. It owns and improves enterprise planning processes, including annual budgets, rolling forecasts, workforce and capital planning, and multi-year strategic financial plans. It oversees consolidated expense and staffing forecasts, monitors accuracy and variances, identifies risks and opportunities, and advises leaders on financial performance and significant initiatives. The manager leads financial reporting and communication, ensuring analyses and presentations are accurate, reconciled, documented, and tailored to their audiences. The role also identifies opportunities to simplify and automate expense processes, implements responsible uses of generative AI and agent-enabled workflows with appropriate human review and controls, and promotes compliance with financial policies, internal controls, accounting requirements, and regulations. The CM Group comprises Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I., CM Regent Insurance Company, CM Vantage Specialty Insurance Company, and CM Select Insurance Company.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, business administration, data analytics, or a related analytical field.
Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in expense management, financial planning and analysis, corporate finance, financial analysis, management reporting, or a related field.
Previous experience leading people, projects, or significant cross-functional financial processes.
Proficiency in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, financial modeling, scenario analysis, and management reporting.
Strong understanding of financial statements, GAAP concepts, financial controls, and the relationship between operational drivers and financial results.
Advanced spreadsheet and financial modeling skills, with experience using enterprise planning, reporting, database, or business intelligence tools.
Ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and persuasively to business, executive, and board-level audiences.
Ability to build partnerships, influence decisions, constructively challenge assumptions, and manage competing priorities in a changing environment.

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, CFA, or another relevant advanced degree or professional designation.
Experience in property and casualty insurance, financial services, or another regulated and financially complex industry.
Familiarity with statutory accounting, insurance financial reporting, expense allocation, and insurance performance measures.
Experience with enterprise performance management or FP&A platforms, Power BI or comparable visualization tools, Power Query, SQL, Microsoft Fabric, or similar data technologies.
Experience applying generative AI, prompt design, automation, or agent-based solutions to financial planning, analysis, reporting, or workflow improvement.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop Expense Management team members; set priorities, allocate resources, manage performance, and build capabilities.
Promote accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, sound judgment, and constructive challenge within the team.
Set clear goals, provide timely feedback and development opportunities, and support succession and workforce planning for the Expense Management team.
Own and continuously improve annual budgeting, rolling forecasting, workforce planning, capital planning, and multi-year strategic financial planning processes.
Develop driver-based forecasts and scenario analyses connecting financial outcomes to business volumes, operating assumptions, strategic initiatives, and external conditions.
Oversee consolidated expense and staffing forecasts, including salaries, employee benefits, discretionary expenses, capital expenditures, and other significant cost categories.
Monitor forecast accuracy, explain material variances, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and recommend actions to improve financial performance.
Partner with officers, senior leaders, and department leaders by providing objective analysis, constructive challenges, and clear financial recommendations.
Lead or support business cases, cost-benefit analyses, investment evaluations, and post-implementation reviews for significant initiatives and projects.
Lead monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting comparing actual results with plan, forecast, prior year, and relevant operational measures.
Ensure financial analyses and presentations are accurate, reconciled, appropriately documented, and tailored to their audiences.
Identify and implement opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate expense processes while maintaining financial controls and auditability.
Identify, evaluate, and implement responsible uses of generative AI, automation, and agent-enabled workflows in forecasting, variance analysis, reporting, scenario modeling, and financial narrative development.
Develop, test, and refine structured prompts and finance-focused AI agents, maintaining human review, data security, documentation, and validation controls.
Promote compliance with corporate financial policies, expense procedures, internal controls, and applicable accounting and regulatory requirements.
Maintain working knowledge of company financial results, expense trends, strategic priorities, and relevant property and casualty insurance performance measures.
Lead and participate in cross-functional initiatives, ad hoc analyses, and other assignments supporting enterprise priorities.