Senior Director - Corporate Finance

Northwestern Mutual • Milwaukee, WI

8d

About The Position

About the Job: Responsible for independently and objectively analyzing, forecasting and internally reporting financial results for Northwestern Mutual and subsidiaries. Highly visible position that has interactions with executive officers, business leaders and finance leaders and requires strong business partnerships as analyses, insights and recommendations are presented, including negotiating with senior leaders across the business to influence decisions making. What You'll Do: Responsible for the preparation key internal financial reports to influence and support financial and strategic decisions for the company. Applies broad industry and enterprise knowledge to drive financial performance, anticipating and identifying issues that may impact enterprise-wide results. Drives accountability by setting, monitoring and reporting targets/outcomes related to key performance indicators, which may include financial, operational, or other metrics aligned with the company’s financial and strategic goals. Leads variance and attribution analysis regarding financial results to ensure proper understanding and to support data-driven decisions. Brings new approaches or techniques to improve team’s financial analysis capabilities and to solve problems that have a broad impact on the business. Builds and mentors a high-performing team to ensure timely and successful completion of responsibilities and fosters a culture of innovation and accountability.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in accounting, actuarial science, finance, or other business required
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in positions with increasing actuarial and/or financial management responsibilities
• Exceptional people leadership capabilities to create an engaging work environment
• Intellectual agility, analytical and problem-solving abilities and well-developed presentation skills.
• Ability to develop rapport and maintain effective relationships throughout the Company and influence decision making without authority
• Strong business acumen with an ability to understand and synthesize company-wide results.
• Demonstrated ability to overcome obstacles and lead through change.
• Analytical Thinking: Organizes and compares various aspects of a situation to comprehend and identify key or underlying complex issues through the use of quantitative data and analysis; leverages strong business acumen, problem solving, and interpersonal skills to think critically about situations from multiple perspectives and consistently seeks ways to improve processes.
• Attention to Detail: Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality.
• Business Acumen: Applies knowledge of both general and organization-specific business issues/financial implications for the organization to problem solve.
• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals.
• Financial Analysis: Analyzes balance sheet and income statement accounts to ensure accuracy, utilizes operational indicators, and actuarial information for comprehensive analysis. Interprets financial statements, draws conclusions, makes financial recommendations related to NM's products and services.
• Storytelling through Data: Communicates insights and opportunities from a dataset, using narratives, visualizations, and analysis.
• Talent Development & Planning: Develops direct reports’ skills based on organizational objectives, evaluates skill gaps, and manages succession planning to develop more capable direct reports, diverse, strong teams and better organizational performance in an equitable and inclusive manner.

Nice To Haves

• Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), or Masters of Business Administration (CPA) preferred

Responsibilities

• Preparation key internal financial reports to influence and support financial and strategic decisions for the company.
• Applies broad industry and enterprise knowledge to drive financial performance, anticipating and identifying issues that may impact enterprise-wide results.
• Drives accountability by setting, monitoring and reporting targets/outcomes related to key performance indicators, which may include financial, operational, or other metrics aligned with the company’s financial and strategic goals.
• Leads variance and attribution analysis regarding financial results to ensure proper understanding and to support data-driven decisions.
• Brings new approaches or techniques to improve team’s financial analysis capabilities and to solve problems that have a broad impact on the business.
• Builds and mentors a high-performing team to ensure timely and successful completion of responsibilities and fosters a culture of innovation and accountability.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director