Manager - Financial Planning & Analysis - Education Sector

Manager - Financial Planning & Analysis - Education Sector

Purpose of Role:

- The organisation is looking for a Manager - Financial Planning & Analysis - India, reporting to the Finance Director - India.

- This position is responsible for all aspects of the region's FP&A work including developing financial models and analysis to support strategic initiatives, analyzing financial data and trends, providing consolidated management and business performance reporting for the region.

- The individual will be responsible for the coordination, consolidation, review and challenge of management and business performance reporting, for the schools in the region, to ensure clear understanding of actual performance to targets.

Key Responsibilities:

Budgeting, forecasting & Management Reporting:

- Drive and coordinate Annual Budget, medium term and long-term plans for the region and biannually P&L forecasting process for the region, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the underlying assumptions.

- Maintain a comprehensive understanding of the assumptions used to produce the School/Regional budgets and forecasts and track them against actual results to drive an understanding of the financial performance of the schools.

- Ensure school Finance teams provide monthly accurate management reporting and KPI information is submitted in accordance with internal deadlines.

- Produce a robust monthly management reporting pack, with insightful analysis and interpretation of variances, against budget expectations.

- Conduct investigation and business analysis to ensure a full understanding of key underlying drivers of performance.

- Provide support to identify and evaluate actions to mitigate deviations from targets.

- Conduct monthly calls with school, regional and group management on performance, to drive accountability and understanding of performance across the organisation.

- Manage and report monthly KPI data for enrolment and headcount.

- Work with regional functional heads to ensure that data used to track and monitor performance is robust, accurate and able to be produced on a timely basis

Commercial Support:

- Develop a business partnering approach, providing guidance and analysis to the school and regional management, to support the growth of the region.

- Conduct review meetings or calls with the school and regional management to drive financial understanding and accountability of business performance.

- Provide analysis and support to evaluate strategic, tactical and operational initiatives, to drive sound business decisions.

- Support the schools and region in putting together annual pricing exercises, collating data and preparing submissions for discussion and review with senior management.

- Assist in the completion of Capex investment papers, providing financial and analytical input.

- Conduct regular review of actual expenditure for capital projects versus approved budget spend and highlight deviations.

- Evaluate business and financial risks and opportunities and report any possible impact to the delivery of targets.

- Provide analysis on the business profitability namely by department and activity and identify areas for improvement.

Systems:

- Assist in the adoption of the core accounting platform, NetSuite and its management reporting tool PBCS, to facilitate efficient and consistent production of timely management information.

- Provide feedback, suggestions and input from the region, to help develop the systems and facilitate efficient and consistent reporting across the region.

Onboarding:

- Work closely with the Group Finance Team to ensure that acquired schools are integrated into processes and reporting in a timely manner.

People Management:

- A key finance representative for organization in the region

- Manage the network of School Finance Managers and support financial planning processes. Help organize common processes and guide a team to perform according to deadlines.

- Develop a partnering approach to the school team, providing guidance, training and support, to drive understanding and accountability for target delivery.

- Ensure that financial planning and analysis capability in the region and schools is continually improved

Desired Profile :

- Qualified CA / MBA Finance from A grade business schools with demonstrable experience (8

-12 years) in financial planning and analysis and business partnering in a commercial environment.

- Excellent communication and writing skills.

- Comfortable in giving direction and influencing others in the achievement of objectives.

- Strong understanding of financial planning and analysis best practice for a multi-location, dispersed organisation.

- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships at senior levels of the organisation and influence key stakeholders.

- Strong people skills and emotional intelligence