Finance Business Partner, SSA

About the role

• The Finance Business Partner drives performance through insight, challenge, and decision support. Partnering closely with commercial and cross-functional leaders, the role shapes plans and forecasts, evaluates investments, and enables profitable growth.

Key responsibilities

• Act as a trusted finance partner to commercial and cross-functional leaders, providing insight, challenge, and recommendations to drive profitable growth.
• Own financial performance management for assigned brands/channels: deliver clear analysis of actuals, risks and opportunities, and outlook.
• Lead planning, target setting, and forecasting (including Latest Estimates) in partnership with Sales, ensuring transparent assumptions and regular cadence updates.
• Control, track, and coordinate trade investments and commercial spend with key stakeholders; provide governance and post-evaluation.
• Partner with marketing/trade marketing to evaluate A&P investments, including ROI and effectiveness tracking to improve programme outcomes.
• Build business cases and P&Ls for innovation, portfolio, and revenue management initiatives; support go/no-go decisions and benefits tracking.
• Partner with supply chain to manage product and logistics costs, monitor COGS, and identify efficiency and cost-saving opportunities.
• Deliver management reporting and variance analysis versus plan/budget; contribute to period-end close activities with relevant finance partners.
• Support ad hoc analysis and projects from regional and commercial stakeholders as required.

Qualifications and skills

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field.
• 5 - 7 years of experience in finance, FP&A, and/or finance business partnering, ideally within FMCG or similarly complex industries.
• Solid technical finance capability, including accounting standards, performance management, forecasting, ROI evaluation, and strategic analysis.
• Strategic and analytical thinker with the ability to challenge constructively, simplify complexity, and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders.
• Experience operating in complex, matrixed and global environments; collaborative, proactive, and comfortable working independently in fast‑paced settings.
• Exposure to auditing, controlling, statutory accounting, and commercial spend management is an advantage.