Senior Financial Analyst, Discovery Solutions Strategy & Services

The businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany•Burlington, MA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Financial Analyst, DS Strategy & Services in our Life Science business plays a key financial advisory role within the DS Leadership Team, supporting operational and strategic decisions to achieve business goals in a complex, matrix environment. This role will report to the Head of Controlling – DS eCommerce, Strategy & R&D. You will manage critical processes for financial planning and reporting that enable decision-making for the DS Business Unit leaders. Your responsibilities include preparing and analyzing monthly financial results, forecasts, and operating plans for Sales, COGS, Opex, and Capex. You will support R&D leaders across the business with financial insights to drive efficient and impactful R&D investments. The role will have exposure to the eCommerce business, working with the team to develop sales forecasts and optimize marketing expenses. This role will also support strategic and transformation initiatives as assigned. You will be required to leverage digital reporting and visualization solutions to enhance business insights and model complex business cases (TM1, Tableau, PowerBI, Uptimize Foundry, Excel, SAP, and others).

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and/or Finance with Minimum 5 years of relevant financial analysis experience.
Strong communication (both written and verbal) and presentation skills in English.
Strong business acumen with knowledge of company markets, products, and industry trends.
Expertise in financial planning, analysis, and reporting to deliver actionable business insights.
Familiarity with current trends and best practices.
Proficient in ERP systems and reporting tools, including SAP, TM1, Tableau, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Skilled at analyzing complex data sets and producing clear, management-ready reports.
Able to communicate complex financial concepts in simple, audience-tailored terms.
Change agent mindset, proactive in challenging the status quo and driving improvements.
Experience in recommending and implementing continuous improvement initiatives.
Effective at prioritizing workload, improving efficiency, and managing resources.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Accounting and/or Finance with Minimum 3 years of relevant financial analysis experience.
Graduate of financial management/leadership development program.
Experience supporting functional leaders, R&D and eCommerce organizations.
Broad financial knowledge with prior exposure to P&L, balance sheet, and working capital management; preferably in a manufacturing organization.
Strong understanding and applying financial principles, practices and standards, in a complex environment: matrix organizations, wide ERP landscape, worldwide scope of legal entities.

Responsibilities

Support eCommerce team: Preparation of Forecast for sales, new product sales, price/volume, COGS, inventories, sales order analysis
Provide regular and ad hoc support to the eCommerce team on multiple financials areas: sales, trade margin, inventory, order intake, marking spend, etc.
Support the business by providing detailed insights on business performance into sales trends, price/volume, discounts, new product sales, profitability, and all financial KPIs that support achieving strategic and operational objectives.
Provides transparency into business drivers, risks, and opportunities
Supports business decision-making in a wide variety of operational matters through fact-based analyses
Leverage digital solutions and financial dashboards to monitor and track financial targets
Prepare business update presentations to senior management
Elevate overall Controlling business partnering with R&D leaders
Help R&D leaders to steer resources allocations based on viability and strategic alignment on New Product Introduction (NPI) to support the company’s goals
Educate and train R&D staff on financial concepts enabling them to better understand budgeting and financial implications of their decisions
Support the development of the annual 5-year strategic plan (SD)
Proactively identify areas of improvement within the business including but not limited to dashboards, reporting, and other activities to drive added value
Provide support for ad-hoc analyses on a broad financial spectrum that may include elements of P&L, balance sheet, working capital, capital expenditures, etc.