Commercial Finance Manager Ecuador & Peru

Function: Finance
Scope: Local
Location: Ecuador or Perú

ABOUT UNILEVER
With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.
At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

JOB PURPOSE
Find your purpose at Unilever. You will lead innovations, big and small, that will make our business win and grow. You will learn from brilliant business leaders and colleagues in a truly global and diverse culture to ultimately become a better you. The Commercial Finance Manager works closely with the commercial functions (CD & Marketing), to provide financial insights in key decisions in business while creating actionable strategies to achieve financial business targets with continuous performance monitoring and effective resource allocation. The role also partners the country leadership team.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE:
1) Business Partner to CD and Marketing
a) As a business partner to CD, the commercial finance manager will
i) Channel planning: Will take part in Planning by channels- co-own the outcome of JBPs with Head of CD and ensure these are included in S&OP.
ii) Joint Business Planning: Will participate in Joint business planning with customers & the review of customer forecasts – co-own the outcome of JBPs with Head of CD and ensure these are included in S&OP
For the above two items, the Commercial finance manager has to be choiceful and partner value as opposed to every request.
iii) Review performance by Channel by customer: Review performance by Channel by Customer vs plans as a critical part of performance management and discuss and agree interventions with Head of CD.
iv) Distribution Improvement plans: Will monitor the improvements in distribution as a key pillar of country strategy.
b) As a business partner to Marketing
i) Annual BMI Budget assignment: Assign BMI budgets to each category /brand based on budgets communicated by FET- however budget management daily (PO creation, IO creations, actuals vs FC review sits with the marketing teams). This exercise is annual.
ii) Quarterly activity Planning: Will oversee the promo /activity planning that becomes the basis of next quarters forecast and will help critically evaluate choices to meet the business strategic objectives
iii) Pricing: Pricing Choices of the CD/Marketing community
iv) NRM: Play the role of Finance partner to NRM

2) Finance representation on the Country LT
a) As a leader amongst equals will represent finance on Country LT
b) Lead Performance management of the country P&L and manage risks and Opps
c) Liaison with SCF lead, Country controller, Andina countries commercial mangers and FET lead to ensure key finance support to the market is provided.

3) Role in S&OP and Liaison with FET & Head of Finance Andina
a) Review S&OP forecast before submission and ensure sign off with Country CD lead on Topline, TTS and BMI Submissions.
b) Maintain a formal list of Risks and Opps for Topline and BMI which must be submitted to FET lead and HOF Andina formally before S&OP is signed off.
c) Alert FET and Head of Finance of risks and opportunities.

4) Role in Month end:
a) Ensuring all control linked activities impacting CD and Marketing are completed, including key accruals
b) Completing the review of Actuals vs FC by co-ordinating with SC Finance & FET & ensuring Sign off on WD4

5) Business Partner- Country Categories
A critical part of the role is to partner the category or business growth leads. This is a shared service whereby all critical wide category initiatives would be partnered by the commercial finance manager. This would include but not be limited to
a) Partnering the business growth leads on innovation business cases
b) Develop Category FGMs
c) Track Category plans and performance vs plans
d) Working with other commercial leads and SCF manager to ensure category initiatives are landing well with desired iTOs and GMs
e) Be a key contributor to ITO assumptions and aligning on GM and BMI assumptions for annual financial planning process

6) Landing Productivity
A key success criterion for the role is to ensure that productivity is landed. This includes
a) Recruitment: Recruiting and nurturing the team directly reporting to the role
b) Communication: Communicating clearly with stakeholders what finance will and will not do as part of new operating model
c) Training & Handover: For activities being transferred to business, ensure that the knowledge transfer is adequately done to the business partners.
d) Providing Critical Tools to stakeholders: For activities that are now being handed over to the business which previously used to be within the remit of Business partnering, the commercial manager would have to develop useful tools that will allow non finance leaders to be manage the process- Ie for promo evaluation, a standard template to evaluate the promos and colour code them as Red Amber Green must be developed and landed with the business partners
e) Simplification: Identifying activities that represent complexity or excessive business partnering
f) Reporting: Reduce ad hoc reporting and support standardisation of reports

What will this role not cover
1. Providing reporting extracts to CD and marketing BPs
2. Excessive analysis to support multiple scenarios requested by business partners
3. PO approval
4. IO creation or approval
5. Business cases for renovation and innovations (defined thresholds)

Experiences & Qualifications & Skills
Professional qualification in accountancy, economy or business administration (or other finance professional qualification) preferably.

• Min 3-5 years’ Experience at CD or Category Finance

• Experience at Management and managing people

• Leadership skills – able to lead, motivate, inspire

• Proficient in Microsoft Excel.

• Proven track record of being effective in a complex operating environment and driving business performance

• Strong communication and influencing skills

• Objectivity and integrity in the face of challenge; courage and personal resilience

• Ability to build networks and manage multiple senior stakeholders

• Understanding or ability to quickly grasp financial principles in the end-to-end commercial functions, identify and drive relevant value-creating choices and decisions

• Leadership of change – the ability to drive change management initiatives, staying close to best practices and relevant external developments

• Leadership

• You are an inclusive motivator of people. Your team deliver with real passion, growing and learning from each other whilst delivering quick wins.

• You are still responsible for your own results and as a manager, you also need to motivate others to deliver with passion, creating an inclusive and engaging climate around you. You can balance challenge with support and coaching. You understand the wider business context and you are emotionally intelligent enough to motivate people to deliver what is needed.

Unilever is an equal opportunities employer and committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.  We are intentional in employing the best talent that reflects the demographics of our country and which will help build representation of currently under-represented groups. We therefore invite applications from all candidates representing diversity of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.