SC Finance Business Partner -Procurement & Inventory at Unilever

Main job purpose

The role holder will be key Business partner to the Procurement Team and Leaders and will be responsible for providing high quality financial insights that drive right decisions for Business growth on material cost. He or she will be required to ensure that financial risks and volatility is handled and well-understood through the procurement forecasting process.

Key interactions

The role reports to the SC Finance Manager EA and interacts with Kenya and Uganda SC Procurement lead, Key in-market procurement representatives, Regional/Global Finance and SC stakeholders and SC Directors as well members of Country Leadership Teams from time to time.

Key Accountabilities

• Understand key material cost drivers that feed into actual Profit &Loss and forecast. Connect with the Performance Management team, to ensure that material processes are integrated in the regional planning processes including monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting and budgeting processes.
• Analyzing price purchase variances and material usage variances and share insights with the stakeholders
• Support the development of new capabilities and analytics, in order to give the team the tools to operate with a higher level of effectiveness and steer the resources behind key value-focused capabilities.
• Performance management - with analysis and insights - on buying savings, product logic, ZBB, working capital optimization, and transfer prices for materials.
• Support the risk management policy and compliance in procurement processes.
• Identify and review value opportunities/ projects and ensure they have a favorable payback and return on investment.
• Support supply chain team at the key decision gates of innovation business cases- i.e. innovation funnel review analysis
• Review impacts of performance interventions & identify major risks and opportunities.
• Facilitate development of corrective actions to close gaps to targets.
• Facilitate identification and implementation of savings opportunities.
• Collect data for base assumptions and liaise with Supply Chain, and relevant cross functional teams to build the base business case and sensitivity analysis.
• Perform Business Case modelling (or facilitate self-service) and articulate business case characteristics to non-Finance stakeholders.
• Embed the rigor, discipline, and continuous improvement around Post-Launch Evaluations (PLEs) for implemented projects.
• Build proactive Innovation Performance Management capabilities – maintain and continuously improve self-service tools and reports to track delivery of Innovation Business Cases (e.g., in market performance of key launches)
• Provide training to Business Partners on standard Business Case tools.

Key Competences Required (Education, Knowledge & Skills)

• University graduate in Finance/Accounting or related field of study
• Professional qualification in accounting e.g., ACCA, CIA, CIMA, CPA etc.
• Atleast 5 years’ experience with a minimum 2-3 years in manufacturing finance.
• Worked in FMCG, multi-national companies and/or international roles.
• Experience in Procurement/Material process/Forex Management is a plus.
• Significant experience managing a large and complex set of stakeholders.
• Experience in presenting to and communicating with senior Finance and non-Finance stakeholders.
• Stakeholder management.
• Strong analytical skills, Excel modelling skills and attention to detail.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills.
• Strong engagement, presentation, and communication skills.
• Ability to present complex information in a simplified manner.