Senior Manager, Innovation Finance

Mars•Chicago, IL

1d•$153,600 - $211,200•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Innovation Finance serves as the financial co-pilot across the category portfolio, providing proactive financial stewardship and strategic leadership for growth-driving initiatives that optimize the P&L. This role is responsible for driving end-to-end innovation governance—from crafting robust business cases and iterating project P&Ls to orchestrating pipeline reviews, performance reporting, and post-launch evaluations. By bridging R&D, Industrial Engineering, Marketing, and Commercial teams, the role ensures investment decisions are financially viable and aligned with Mars' long-term value-creation agenda. Co-pilot team to ensure sustainable innovation that delivers across desirability, viability, or feasibility, and if not, create the tension to decide quickly on stopping immediately.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or related quantitative discipline.
Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive finance experience with significant exposure to financial modeling, business planning, or FP&A.
Strong working knowledge of corporate finance principles, P&L architecture, and stage-gate innovation processes.
Proven track record in building multi-year discounted cash flow (DCF), project P&Ls, and capital justification models.
Deep understanding of how manufacturing supply chain, formula bill of materials (BOM), and commercial marketing drivers interconnect to impact gross margin and operating profit.
Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, and executive presentation capabilities.
Demonstrated ability to manage ambiguity, prioritize across competing project deadlines, and drive alignment across matrixed functions.
Advanced technical fluency in Microsoft Excel, financial modeling systems, and business intelligence/reporting platforms (e.g., Power BI, SAP).

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent advanced professional credential.
Prior experience within Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) / Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).
Direct experience in Innovation Finance, New Product Development (NPD), or Commercial Co-Piloting.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end financial evaluation and modeling for Horizon 3 and 4 innovation and portfolio expansion projects across the category.
Build, pressure-test, and iterate dynamic P&Ls for individual projects by consolidating inputs from R&D (formulations/ingredients), Industrial Engineering (CapEx, line capacity, conversion costs), and Marketing (volume forecast, pricing, A&CP support).
Conduct rigorous sensitivity, scenario, and risk/opportunity analyses to stress-test financial assumptions, gross margin hurdles, Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and payback horizons.
Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure innovation initiatives are financially sound, well-governed, and aligned with long-term business objectives.
Lead integration of Kellanova innovation data & processes into Mars systems.
Ensure recurring innovation reporting and governance forums exist with cross-functional leaders.
Ensure that innovation performance is reported across all horizons, identifying potential risks and opportunities to ensure long-term pipeline sufficiency.
Support the delivery of innovation pipeline health metrics, tracking milestones, launch readiness, projected net sales value, and margin delivery against annual operating plans and strategic targets.
Require that innovation data is consistent and accurate across all category pipeline reviews and executive updates.
Act as a key finance decision-maker within innovation forums (GTO, ILT), guiding project funding requests by challenging teams to justify funding needs and encouraging agile decision-making on innovation portfolio.
Establish global standards on innovation assessment and financial guardrails; lead adoption of global standard and best practices across the organization.
Support post-launch reviews (Post-Launch Audits / Lookbacks) at established intervals (e.g., 6, 12, and 24 months post-commercialization) to measure actual market performance against business case commitments.
Require diagnosis of root causes of variance across volume realization, trade rate, supply chain efficiencies, and promotional effectiveness.
Collaborate with Innovation teams to translate analytical findings into actionable operational learnings to continuously refine future innovation assumptions, hurdle rates, and forecasting models.
Act as an objective, trusted advisor to cross-functional teams, proactively identifying financial risks and opportunities before decisions are locked.
Guide project teams to evaluate material cost drivers, trade-offs, recipe optimization, packaging options, and distribution strategies to ensure margin accretive launches.
Cultivate financial acumen across non-finance stakeholders, embedding a mindset of return on investment and commercial accountability throughout the stage-gate lifecycle.
Build finance skills amongst associates by creating turnkey business modeling templates, deliver training on Mars P&L structures and finance fundamentals, and emphasizing how different line items impact new business model success.