Senior Financial Analyst – SPG Finance Projects (B4)

Applied Materials•Santa Clara, CA

About The Position

In this role, the candidate will apply strong finance and enterprise systems expertise to establish and standardize business processes, address complex business problems, and drive investment decisions for profitable growth. As the primary finance partner to Business Unit General Manager and Executives, the candidate will be responsible for oversight of spend management for Global Quality and the SPG HQ groups, while also serving as a key finance systems subject matter expert for planning, reporting, and portfolio management tools. This role will help define system requirements, validate end-to-end designs, support testing and cutover readiness, and ensure adoption of scalable finance processes and reporting. The candidate must anticipate internal and/or external business challenges and actively influence management with critical analysis and sound business advice. This role collaborates with cross-functional organizations globally and requires the ability to translate business needs into system-enabled solutions and governance to sustain results in a complex and growing business.

Requirements

Drive finance reporting and analytics enablement across SAP and connected tools (e.g., Tableau/Anaplan), ensuring consistent definitions, reconciliation to actuals, and fit-for-purpose executive dashboards.
Partner with Business in the prioritization, decision making and execution related to Project Funding, Project Management, and Portfolio Optimization.
Provide ad hoc analysis or scenario impacts from portfolio or program changes.
Partner cross-functionally to drive the quarterly update of expenses, capital, and headcount for Quality and SPG HQ.
Oversight of spend management prepared by near shore organization; define standard work, controls, and system-enabled workflows to improve accuracy and cycle time.
Own long-range forecast (annual planning and outer quarter updates) planning by project and trade off analysis in portfolio prioritization or cutlines.
Build ad-hoc investment financial models for long term Strategic plan.
Experienced with executive-level partnering and communications
Strong Excel skills, including decision modeling and analysis
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Strong interpersonal skills to engage partners, understand key issues, develop recommendations, and implement actions that improve business results
Experience in P&L reporting and analysis
Strong systems capabilities, preferably with SAP S/4HANA (FI/CO) and related finance planning/reporting tools (e.g., Anaplan, SAP BPC, Tableau, PRM)
Demonstrated experience supporting or leading systems implementations and process transformations (requirements, design validation, testing, change management, training)
Ability to translate finance and portfolio management requirements into system-enabled processes, controls, and reporting standards; comfortable working with IT, data, and business process owners
Strong accounting knowledge and financial statement interdependencies
Other valued characteristics: assertiveness, initiative, clear communication, curiosity about the business, and a collaborative/team-oriented mindset
Experience in semiconductor equipment or other manufacturing enterprises
Functional Knowledge Demonstrates depth and/or breadth of expertise in own specialized discipline or field
Business Expertise Interprets internal/external business challenges and recommends best practices to improve products, processes or services
Leadership Will lead functional teams or projects with moderate resource requirements, risk, and/or complexity
Problem Solving Leads others to solve complex problems; uses sophisticated analytical thought to exercise judgement and identify innovative solutions
Impact Impacts the achievement of customer, operational, project or service objectives; work is guided by functional policies
Interpersonal Skills Communicates difficult concepts and negotiates with others to adopt a different point of view

Responsibilities

End-to-end finance business partner and single point of accountability for Global Quality and SPG HQ portfolio financials (plan/forecast/close, spend governance, investment decisions, and executive storytelling).
Support business process project deliverables from SPG Finance including data readiness (master data/COA mapping), user acceptance testing (test scripts, execution, defect triage), role/authorization validation, cutover activities, and stabilization.
Drive finance reporting and analytics enablement across SAP and connected tools (e.g., Tableau/Anaplan), ensuring consistent definitions, reconciliation to actuals, and fit-for-purpose executive dashboards.
Partner with the business in prioritization, decision-making, and execution related to project funding, project management, and portfolio optimization; provide ad hoc analysis and scenario impacts from portfolio/program changes.
Partner cross-functionally to drive the quarterly update of expenses, capital, and headcount for Quality and SPG HQ.
Oversee spend management prepared by the near-shore organization; define standard work, controls, and system-enabled workflows to improve accuracy and cycle time.
Own long-range forecasts (annual planning and outer-quarter updates) by project, including trade-off analysis to support portfolio prioritization and cutlines.
Build ad hoc investment financial models for the long-term strategic plan; create an operating rhythm for milestone-based funding programs.
Support ongoing improvement initiatives in portfolio management and finance systems (e.g., Anaplan, SAP BPC, Tableau reporting, Project Resource Management (PRM)), including requirements definition, testing support, user enablement, and governance.
Ensure financial accuracy and partner with management to tell the story of the business using that information (enterprise portfolio reviews, investment review boards, forecasting/budgeting, actual performance, and balance sheet integrity).