Marketing and Procurement Specialist

OSL Retail Services Inc•Mississauga, ON

15d•CA$70,000 - CA$75,000

About The Position

In this fast-paced and very dynamic department, the Marketing Finance and Procurement Senior Specialist will primarily focus on ensuring finance guidelines and procurement policy are met through the approval of marketing Proposals and Payment Requests (PP/PR), training, and driving correct behaviors of business stakeholders. This role involves performing complex data analysis to identify new marketing vendor sourcing, expanding the vendor pool, and identifying other cost optimization opportunities to generate cost savings for managed categories. The specialist will be responsible for developing and performing financial, operational, system, and process audits of the company’s business units and outsourced operations, making recommendations for improvements based on findings. They will also maintain the company’s overall internal control environment via participation in internal and external audits and ensure that divisional, local, and foreign budgets are planned, forecasted, and spent according to management's direction and within established expenditure boundaries. This is an 18-month contract position.

Requirements

University degree or College equivalent (Business Administration, Commerce or Accounting) preferred.
3-5 years of related finance planning and/or accounting experience; purchasing experience, strategic sourcing.
Experience with an ERP system (preferably SAP) an asset.
Knowledge and understanding of sourcing/procurement systems; bid management.
Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills with ability to present control analysis and recommendations with clarity and professionalism.
Ability to think analytically, communicate complex issues, and develop control recommendations.
Negotiation skills and ability to influence.
Exceptional Excel and Power Point Skills.
The position requires a broad audit experience and the ability to interact with management at all levels.
Experience in projects within the finance team.
Successful completion of a criminal background check.

Nice To Haves

Experience with an ERP system (preferably SAP)

Responsibilities

Manage all business-directed cost center creation, workflow changes, and Campaign (MP) reallocations.
Analyze and approve all marketing budget approval forms (PP/) with ongoing follow-up on approvals to ensure completion within required timeframes.
Audit and approve all marketing payment request (PR) submissions from Marketing divisions to ensure invoice policy is adhered to, backups and taxation are compliant.
Communicate with marketing managers and power users to ensure accruals are used.
Lead month-end closing activities: GFP month-end system closing and accrual vs. negative accrual check and balance.
Facilitate Marketing Finance process training and reinforcement to Marketing and Sales Teams.
Maintain marketing vendor relations and improve vendor billing quality and process efficiencies.
Accrual follow up to receive invoices.
Validate invoices, checking tax, vendor info, duplication, budget source and process into the GFP system once verified.
Follow up with approvers to ensure all payments are approved and can be paid.
Contact and liaise with main vendors to receive outstanding AR list, as well as follow up on outstanding items.
Utilize tracker to provide clear view of marketing expense to management and executives, ensuring total accuracy.
Provide accurate forecasting to ensure divisional P/L impact is prepared and foreseen.
Review and track monthly accrual feasibility and monitor divisional forecasting and accuracy.
Ensure all FOC orders are shipped before required delivery date.
Reconcile the budget after it is billed in the system.
Prepare ad-hoc reports for HQ, NAHQ and internal management to fulfill their requirements.
Deliver audit fieldwork according to established schedule.
Recommend internal control improvements that may include operational enhancements or efficiencies.
Lead or participate in HQ and external audits as required, lead or participate in special projects as required.
Manage both ATL & BTL activities with primary focus on ATL activities.
Perform marketing vendor onboarding registering process in compliance with procurement standards, controls, and risk management, including maintaining vendor relations, contract renewal terms, and vendor on-site inspection.
Lead the development of departmental procedures and templates to further Finance objectives across the organization.
Responsible for supplier sourcing and negotiation of procurement costs, including process steps such as supplier research, category/market research, data analysis on timeline schedule/cost/scope, maintaining baseline, RFP/RFI/RFQ, bid management, and cost benefit offer analysis.
Assist in the communication of registering & purchasing policies and practices to relevant groups of employees, customers, and internal business units.
Prepare and present reports providing information to identify purchasing requirements and communicate and report performance against plans and business objectives.
Manage projects and activities to ensure conformance to plans and the timely and effective achievement of results.
Responsible for post-bid management, which includes activities such as spend analysis and post project evaluation with Project Owner.
Review Marketing project requests and examine appropriate vendors by open bidding or quotation.
Ensure the budget is secured through PP approval, ensure the standard steps are enforced.
Aid vendors to submit the bids or quotes within the planned timeline.
Review documents submitted by vendors to ensure that the winning bid is selected based on the best interest of the company (e.g. Cost effectiveness/saving, content, capability, etc.).
Analyze the bids with historical marketing expenses and current market trend to ensure cost efficiency.
Co-work with project owner to finalize the winning bid and submit for approval.
Prepare monthly report on BQMS statistics (bidding, quotation, contract and delivery confirmation, etc.) to Management.
Conduct periodic analysis and evaluation of BQMS related data.
Manage contract change when original approved contract needs to be altered due to revised work scope.
Provide training to internal users (Project Owner) as well as external users (Vendors) of BQMS.
Assist in onsite vendor visits to qualify vendors for Marketing use.