Head of Commercial Finance

Our client is a market leader in its field with ambitious growth plans. You will be responsible for supporting operations, finance, retail and e-commerce in all commercial areas.

Key responsibilities

Brand Finance

• Provide business partnering support to the Marketing Operational Leadership Team
• Lead the preparation of the financial plans for both the Commercial Planning Process  and 3 year strategic planning process
• Provide business partnering support to the Brand teams in relation to innovation and NPD pipeline, ensuring financial rigour, and tracking performance of launches and progress against the overall business innovation sales target
• Provide business partnering support to the Brand teams on pricing decisions and in-year activation
• Control and manage the advertising and promotion budget to ensure there are no overspends and we get the best ROI on our investment (through media econometrics)
• Control and manage the R&D budget to ensure there are no overspends
• Ensure Commercial and Supply alignment on COGS, demand planning and forecasts
• Manage the forecasting process from a brand perspective and understand and deliver insights for in year performance.
• Provide financial analysis using both internal and external information to draw insight and conclusions that lead to actions that improve business performance
• Upskill the Marketing and R&D teams by delivering finance training modules

• Build strong/effective relationships across company commercial functions (Brand Marketing, Category and Sales) to ensure impactful, workable, sustainable solutions are rolled out across the business
• Line manager for 3 direct reports who are responsible for business partnering the Operational and Brand Development teams

Commercial Finance Business Partner: qualifications, attributes and experience:

• Financial acumen - qualified accountant with a proven track record
• Expertise in working within cross-functional team & projects
• Expertise in FMCG commercial business partnering finance support, ideally sales channels  
• Expertise in International Accounting Standards for revenue reporting/treatment
• Strong leadership and influencing skills
• Confident & credible in front of senior management
• Instinctively able to challenge status quo with healthy balance of assertiveness and tact
• Track record of ability to build good working relationships internally and externally
• High intellectual capacity that can deal with strategic issues, process and operational challenges interchangeably
• High level of resilience under pressure
• Track record of effective prioritisation and decision making, ideally during a period of significant business change
• Ability to adapt plans and ways of working and to confidently articulate alternative plans and strategies and to demonstrate strong leadership in an uncertain environment