Senior Industrial Finance Manager – NA Foods

The Senior Industrial Finance Manager serves as the Head of Factory Finance for the North American Foods network, supporting iconic brands such as Hellmann’s Mayo and Knorr Cooking Aids & Mini Meals. This role is the onsite finance lead for three manufacturing sites in the NA Foods network, with accountability for strong controls, process excellence, and effective financial governance. While Unilever supports a flexible working environment, this role requires regular travel to production sites near Chicago, IL; Kansas City, MO; and Toronto, Canada.

In this role, you will partner closely with the North America Sourcing Unit network to help the business achieve its financial objectives, proactively identify improvement opportunities, and implement solutions that enhance factory performance. You will play a key role in shaping both strategic and operational decisions, ensuring growth is profitable and sustainable. A core part of this role is coaching and developing a high performing team of Site Controllers across the network.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Senior Industrial Finance Manager should have exceptional leadership and be an innate problem-solver, with the ability to support the business in developing and executing on effective business strategies; including the planning and budgeting process. Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the North America Foods Industrial Finance Network: three factories (Kilbourn in Illinois, Independence in Missouri and Rexdale in Toronto), with four direct reports in total
• Contribute to drive financial performance of the sites together with leadership teams
• Lead annual business planning process, forecasts and actual reporting.
• Lead for cost improvement / restructuring / capex / sourcing projects, and challenge, calculate sensitivities and build business cases.
• Provide financial expertise and challenge on ad hoc projects.
• Provide leadership and vision for process improvement and automation opportunities in the Finance and Performance Management space.
• Lead/Monitor all Cost Controlling activities (Month-End Close, Fixed Assets, Costing) performed by colleagues in Supply Chain Financial Services (SCFS).
• Maintain a robust forecasting system in operation and assure budget holders are involved.
• Play a key role in the finance community within the North America Foods, developing relationships to drive performance improvements in the SU, sharing best practices with colleagues.




Who You Are & What You’ll Do:
The ideal candidate would have a strong financial foundation coupled with a blend of decisiveness, analytical power, and tactical thinking to be a key force in driving the plants’ long-term strategy.
• You’re a born leader: You love to be in the driving seat. You are quick to spot trends and identify the root cause of the business issues through analytics, creative in proposing solutions, influential in selling your ideas and resilient in execution.
• You’re driven by results: You have a natural bias for action and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve higher levels of performance. You take direct ownership of objectives, with high levels of self-assurance and resilience to achieve goals.
• You’re a changemaker: You are a self-starter. You enjoy the challenge of connecting the dots that follow and have passion for shaping a legacy. You will focus on streamlining the processes in role and will be restless in understanding not just the what, but also the why behind our strategies.
• You’re a talent catalyst: You have a passion for coaching and leading people and are able to inspire them to bring their true & best selves to work. You invest time in training and mentoring people and are motivated by team’s success.

Experiences & Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a senior finance role, with a focus on supply chain/operations finance. CPG experience preferred.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills.
• Proficiency in financial software and ERP systems. SAP is preferred.
• Excellent communication and influential leadership skills to collaborate with Senior Leadership
• Experience managing teams across diverse locations.
• Excellent communication and influential leadership skills to collaborate with Senior Leadership
Location:
This role is based out of Kansas City, MO, and will require an element of travel to the Chicago and Canadian facilities.

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