Jobs at Syngenta

Job Description

Role Purpose 

• Performing Financial Planning & Analysis activities for Business Area East and Southern Africa.
• Be a trusted partner to the CP Commercial Finance Lead EASA and Finance BP EASA to provide insightful analysis and recommendations on the respective financials.
• Driving improvements and technology adaptations in Financial Planning & Analysis processes and contribution to regional Continuous Improvement agenda.

Accountabilities

How:

• Be a trusted finance business partner, supporting all activities in scope, on recurring and ad hoc finance topics.
• Seamless engaging and interacting with finance communities and stakeholders.
• Add value to organization through providing business insight, understanding the numbers and challenging the status quo.
• Provide finance skillset in project / ad hoc assignments.
• Build relationships across multiple finance functional teams to share and align best practices.
• Develop understanding of Syngenta's business and interaction between the different business units and functional reporting lines.

What:

• Actuals: Month end closing:
  • Analyze monthly sales and function costs, and provide relevant commentaries and insights to finance and business stakeholders.
  • Based on discussions with business stakeholders and in collaboration with Accounting-to-Reporting teams, ensure accruals for sales deductions and function cost are properly reflected in reported monthly results.
  • Participate in month-end closing processes.
• Financial analysis:
  • Provide timely and insightful financial analysis to support business decisions, understanding business performance on a monthly / annual basis.
  • Leverage technology (SAC) to further develop (SAC stories) and fully utilize available reports to meet the needs of the various business owners, on time, with high quality.
  • Full accountability for the analysis and commentaries to business stakeholders for variance analysis of function cost reports.
• Master data management:
  • Ensure proper master data maintenance (cost center structure, delegation of authorities, headcount reporting).
• Budgeting and Rolling Forecast processes:
  • Provide reliable and timely budgets and latest outlooks for P&L in scope.
  • Provide support and guidance to business managers and function cost owners on achieving budget targets.
  • Participate in strategic business planning and business processes by preparing financial budgets and rolling forecasts.
• Business review process:
  • Support the MBR process
  • Prepare and collect insightful commentaries for robust reporting and analysis of variances.
  • Focus on reliable full year outlooks and risk/opportunity assessments.
• Digital Capabilities:
  • Contribute to development and use of business intelligence tools, data visualization and predictive analysis techniques.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Experience & Capabilities

Critical Knowledge

• Bachelor/Master/Business School in Economics or Finance.
• Understanding of IFRS accounting, budgeting, forecasting and planning processes.
• Excel & SAP knowledge are a must, business intelligence systems an advantage.
• Understanding of Syngenta business, processes and industry drivers.

Critical Experience

• 2+ years in Finance and Controlling is a must.

Critical technical, professional and personal capabilities

• Analytical skills.
• Financial and accounting acumen.
• Communication and presentation skills.
• English is a must, other languages are a plus.
• Ability to prioritise, especially to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
• Ability to work independently as well as within (cross-) functional teams.
• High focus and energy, with a pragmatic mindset and solution-oriented approach.

Critical success factors & key challenges

• Ability to apply professional knowledge of accounting and financial reporting in supporting the business
• Ability to handle multiple stakeholders, priorities and deadlines
• Working in virtual teams
• Sound professional judgement and effective influencing skills

go to method of application »

Job Description

• Supports overall site Research Program for cereals aimed at establishing a Centre of Expertise (CoE) in Research for new genetic trials, new technology screening and developing crop production & processing improvement programs to improve productivity.
• Helps implement the annual crop calendars as developed by the requesters and translated by the Seeds specialist/Crop manager.
• Ensures timely execution of all operations for the development of SSD & CMS lines including sowing, plant morphology recording, field observations, plant and ear selection and pollination, harvest and threshing, label production and data collection, shipment preparation together with post-harvest and logistics Sections/functions.
• Executes the tissue sampling, freezing, and drying of various material in readiness for marker testing in our molecular marker lab in France.
• Participates in developing scientific evidence-based standards and analytical capabilities including experimental design & reporting, standardized tools and metrics, and upscaling/change management processes to realize reliable results- e.g., LCS - Harvesting stage, plant nutrition, tray well size, etc.
• Takes lead in reviewing ‘Crop Production' Best Practice Protocols in liaison with your line manager and the breeders and/or their crop specialists.
• Communicates progress reports effectively to the crop manager and breeders to enable prompt decision making during the production process.
• Ensures optimization of all resources allocated to him/her in execution of duties and looks out for and leads the implementation of continuous improvement (LSS/OPEX) opportunities to achieve productivity improvements.
• Collaborates with the R&D Veg & DFC section in sharing best practices and optimization of resources like, people, media, trays/pots, labels, seed machines, greenhouses, etc., where applicable.
• Supports Budgeting and budget management by providing data to help preparation and continuous monitoring of performance against budget.
• Provides adequate and continuous training and objective performance evaluation of the team to secure efficient and sustainable delivery to the customers while intentionally and relentlessly working with individual workers to improve in areas where they are weak and identify and nurture talents.
• Efficiently allocates tasks to the workers based on capabilities and competencies to secure efficient and cost-effective delivery of our promise to the customers.
• Takes lead in troubleshooting and conducting RCAs using appropriate Problem-solving methodologies when significant deviations in protocol or overall performance occur, to prevent re-occurrence.
• Champions the implementation of Syngenta HSE policy and adherence to all HSEs rules in all decisions and activities on site, taking lead in submitting safety observations/Near misses for remediation.
• Always ensures compliance to phytosanitary/Hygiene protocols within the site.
• Supports the attainment and sustenance of the GSPP/Syngenta QMS accreditations for the GSPP section and the non-GSPP section within the R&D site respectively.
• Champions the implementation of digital technology both in Cereals and other operations on site i.e.  Digital data capture and reporting, label-printing and barcoding systems to eliminate pen and paper, while improving efficiency and accuracy. The holder of his role is by default the digitization champion.
• Any other tasks & projects as may be allocated from time to time by the line manager.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Agriculture/Horticulture/Plant Breeding/Biotechnology or related field
• 2 to 3 years’ experience working in a similar role
• Experience leading a team
• Data management and analysis e.g. planning, budgeting etc.

Additional Information

• Keen to details.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines.
• Proactive and able to handle matters swiftly.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills 
• Strong analytical skills, action oriented and quick learner 
• Ability to interact with diverse stakeholders.