Financial Planning and Analysis Director jobs in Minnesota

The Position

The Director of Finance will lead finance processes for full P&L and Balance Sheet business analysis and forecasting/budgeting in support of the business unit strategy. The Director of Finance will be responsible for in-depth analysis of business performance across facilities, product lines, customers, and channel partners. The Director of Finance will partner with Corporate Finance for the review and analytics of month end financials and key performance improvement initiatives and be active in the quarterly forecast and annual plan submissions. This role reports to the Executive Vice President of Municipal.

Major elements of the Director of Finance’s responsibilities include:

1. Be a valued and integral part of the organization, engaging with various levels of leadership within the business unit and with corporate resources.
2. Develop Finance processes and be viewed as a change agent, role model, and coach (including training team members in finance concepts).
3. Drive business performance and lead Finance processes by:

• Developing an in-depth knowledge of the target industry segments, major competitors, and market trends to support an understanding of existing business strategies and evaluate markets and customers that are served by the portfolio.
• Providing advanced analytical support to identify key customer, market, and cost trends with a focus on achieving financial goals, including free cash flow and working capital of the business unit.
• Advising and supporting business unit leadership with financial analyses of various projects: growth initiatives, portfolio management (product, channel, customer), pricing, costing, and new product development.
• Compiling monthly customer and product sales and margin analysis, ensuring business unit leaders are provided a clear understanding of key issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Delivering accurate monthly/quarterly forecasting and annual budgeting processes for the business unit, while partnering with functional department leaders and corporate leadership.
• Engaging in and contributing to the SIOP processes for forecasting and planning.
• Actively participating and partnering with corporate to complete in-depth financial reviews, strategic planning and modeling for acquisitions in this business segment.
• Analyzing significant variances from planned and forecasted results to provide recommendations to business unit management with a focus on continuous improvement of business processes.
• Ensuring reliability of financial data and analysis by supporting and validating the reconciliation process of ERP, Financial Reporting systems and Business Intelligence Tools.
• Partnering with Corporate Finance to help ensure the accuracy of the monthly results as needed.
• Help standardize and improve key processes and reporting for the municipal business unit and overall organization in a culture that fosters respect and teamwork, positive energy, customer first, absolute integrity, innovation and adaptability, and accountability for performance.

Candidate Profile

The Director of Finance will have a proven track record of success leading finance processes for full P&L and Balance Sheet business analysis and forecasting/budgeting. The fully qualified candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance; an MBA or CPA/CMA is preferred. This individual should have a minimum of five years of experience in Sales and Operations Finance, Financial Planning and Forecasting, or Corporate Finance, with knowledge of US GAAP and International Accounting Standards (IAS). Experience in a manufacturing company is preferred.

Additional qualifications include:

• Solid understanding of financial statements and accounting principles.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skillset with the ability to summarize and report out in an easily understood format to all levels of management.
• Ability to work deeply in the business to identify opportunities, gather data, validate facts, and draw conclusions while working on the business to refine and execute strategic initiatives.
• Ability to lead or support cross-functional projects involving Business Leadership, Finance, and Operational personnel.
• Ability to utilize data visualization tools, such as Tableau and Domo, to produce illustrative reports and insights.
• Advanced skills in Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
• Oracle NetSuite experience would be beneficial.