Finance Business Partner Italy & Iberia

About the role

The Finance BP for IT/ES  is the right hand for financial topics of the Managing Directors Italy and Spain  and the business partner of the commercial teams of Italy and Spain .

As the main Finance interface of the assigned business, this role supports and advises the local management team in commercial and operational decision-making processes, drives change and recommends solutions in supporting the achievement of the business goals and targets of the country cluster Italy / Iberia. The Finance BP acts as a promoter of Finance digitalization and standardization initiatives and enables the transition into a new finance operating model.

The Finance BP is responsible / accountable for the short- and long-term financial performance of the country cluster Iberia & Italy together with the Italy and Spain management teams. The role is key in shaping and defining the strategy of the Cluster with respect to volume & profitability, pricing decisions, customer/product/market mix, costs and working capital management.

Key responsibilities include

• Act as a business partner to the IT/ES country cluster Managing Directors and the IT/ES  commercial teams; Co-pilot with the business and provide meaningful decision support to management whilst influencing and challenging key decisions
• Develop together with the country cluster Managing Director and his/ her commercial team the commercial strategy for the area of responsibility and drive strategy implementation
• Steer the MTP (mid-term plan) for the Cluster as per process and guidance set by Global FP&A
• Drive the financial performance of the cluster, focusing on profitability and working capital management, in line with strategy and business objectives
• Provide (together with FP&A) the business and management with analytical support to enable an understanding of the business dynamics
• Closely cooperate with FP&A in terms of preparing budgets and forecasts, identifying and supporting cost savings
• Lead and coordinate projects to improve business performance, in particular profitability and working capital improvements
• Drive and coordinate commercial business case preparation related to business expansions/ outsourcing deals, chocolate academies and sales offices
• Support transition to the new finance operating model (incl. GBS leverage)
• Drive improvement initiatives of finance processes, with focus on digitalization and standardization
• Collaborate with Pricing to ensure an accurate pricing of products to customers (based on FP&A analysis of pre- and post-calculated costs), including a correct reflection of interest costs in price levels
• Ensure integrity and financial controls in the Clusters of the organization by using and building on data, information and intelligence from global finance functions

About you

• Bachelor’s / Master’s in Finance, Accounting, Economics or similar
• English business proficiency, both written and oral
• Extensive experience in finance (prior roles in accounting/FP&A/business partnering in a multinational company, preferably in B2B / food industries)
• Strong stakeholder management skills in matrix organization
• Open minded and curious, eager to continuously learn and explore various aspects of finance, self-starter
• Analytical / hands-on / flexible, very solution oriented and performance driven to achieve the targets
• Strong team player
• Knowledge of SAP (incl. BW)
• IFRS knowledge
• Stakeholder management
• Analytical / hands-on / flexible / strong drive to deliver / very solutions oriented
• Problem solving and decision-making skills
• Ability to handle multiple tasks concurrently and meet deadlines while maintaining focus in an environment with conflicting demands
• Strong team player

This roles is located in Italy ( Milano) or Spain ( Barcelona), and involves travel