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Senior Financial Planning Analyst - Hybrid - Somerset, NJ

Guest Supply · Somerset, NJ · 1 mo ago
On-siteFinanceFull-time

Position Purpose

The Senior Finance Analyst serves as a strategic finance partner to the business, owning end-to-end planning, forecasting, and performance management for assigned areas. This role consolidates budgeting and analytical responsibilities into a single senior position to improve consistency, speed, and quality of decision support.

Primary Responsibilities

  • Own and continuously improve FP&A reporting and planning tools, establishing standardized definitions, governance, and automation to deliver timely, accurate profitability and performance insights.

  • Deliver executive-ready dashboards and recurring performance reviews; proactively surface drivers, risks, and opportunities and recommend actions to optimize margin, expense, and working capital outcomes.

  • Lead annual budget, quarterly forecast, and long-range planning cycles for assigned cost centers and investment plans; drive alignment with business owners and ensure assumptions are documented, challenged, and reconciled.

  • Develop and maintain key financial narratives (monthly/quarterly packages) that connect results to strategy and clearly articulate implications, trade-offs, and recommended decisions.

  • Lead monthly close-to-forecast and close-to-budget reviews for assigned areas; investigate key variances, validate drivers with business owners, and propose corrective actions with quantified impact.

  • Analyze sales, cost, and spend trends by channel/account; identify structural margin drivers, recommend risk/opportunity actions, and track benefits realization.

  • Proactively build and deliver revenue/expense and margin scenario models to support RFPs, new business, and contract negotiations; clearly communicate assumptions, sensitivities, and risks.

  • Evaluate pricing, incentive, and contractual changes; quantify financial impact, support negotiation strategy, and define post-deal tracking to ensure expected economics are delivered.

  • Establish KPI/scorecard frameworks, data definitions, and performance rhythms with cross-functional partners; present insights and recommendations to leadership.

  • Lead financial workstreams for strategic initiatives; define success metrics, track milestones and benefits, and escalate risks with recommended mitigations.

  • Provide finance leadership on cross-functional projects by assessing financial viability, clarifying trade-offs, and influencing decisions to ensure initiatives meet financial targets.

  • Participate in key decision-making forums related to contribution margin; challenge assumptions, ensure financial guardrails, and recommend actions to improve performance.

  • Perform complex ad hoc analysis for executive leadership, synthesizing insights into clear recommendations, options, and quantified trade-offs.

  • Develop market and competitive analyses, financial models, and business cases for key growth programs; partner with stakeholders to shape recommendations and prepare materials for leadership decisions.

Education and Experience

  • Bachelor’s Degree in business, accounting, finance or related field. MBA a plus.

  • Minimum of 4 years progressive finance experience (FP&A, budgeting/forecasting, and reporting), preferably in an integrated ERP environment.

  • Demonstrated experience in advanced financial modeling, channel/account profitability analysis, and scenario-based decision support for cross-functional stakeholders.

Skills

  • Strategic finance partnership: strong business acumen; ability to translate operational drivers into financial insights and actions.

  • FP&A expertise: end-to-end budgeting, forecasting, close-to-forecast analysis, and KPI/scorecard design.

  • Advanced financial modeling: scenario/sensitivity analysis, profitability modeling, and business case development with clear assumptions and trade-offs.

  • Executive-ready communication: concise written and verbal storytelling; ability to present recommendations and influence without authority.

  • Data management and automation mindset: improve reporting processes, standardize definitions, and enhance controls/governance.

  • Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, Power Query, complex formulas) and strong PowerPoint skills for executive materials; experience with BI tools is a plus.

  • ERP/reporting tools proficiency (PeopleSoft preferred) and ability to reconcile across multiple data sources.

  • Strong prioritization and project management skills; able to manage multiple deadlines, ambiguity, and stakeholder expectations.

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