Sr. Manager, Commercial Finance and FP&A

Senior Manager, Commercial Finance & FP&A

Location: Stamford, CT

Working model: 4 days on site
Reports to: SVP Finance
Compensation: $140,000 - $160,000 bonus
Industry: CPG

Overview

A leading global CPG company is seeking a Senior Manager, Commercial Finance & FP&A, to lead the day-to-day financial management and FP&A operating cadence for two of its divisions.

This is a hands-on commercial finance leadership role responsible for forecasting, planning, month-end close, management reporting, cost stewardship, and risk and opportunity management.

The position partners closely with Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Operations, Demand Planning, Revenue Growth Management, and Corporate FP&A.

The successful candidate will be comfortable moving between detailed financial execution and broader business interpretation - ensuring the numbers are accurate, identifying key risks and opportunities, challenging assumptions, and providing clear recommendations to senior leadership.

The role also manages and develops a finance team member and will take ownership of the core FP&A engine, creating greater capacity for the Senior Director to focus on strategic and commercial priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

Forecasting, Planning & FP&A

• Lead the end-to-end monthly and periodic forecasting process, including assumptions, cross-functional inputs, consolidation, review, and submission
• Lead annual operating plan development and support long-range planning, scenario modeling, target setting, and executive reviews
• Manage weekly and periodic outlooks and maintain a disciplined risk and opportunity process
• Identify assumption gaps, timing risks, mix shifts, and execution dependencies to improve forecast accuracy
• Ensure alignment between financial plans, commercial assumptions, demand, supply, and cost outlooks

Financial Reporting & Close Management

• Lead month-end close analysis and management reporting for the division
• Prepare clear variance analysis across sales, gross margin, gross-to-net, operating expenses, and other key P&L drivers
• Own recurring executive and corporate reporting packages, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, consistency, and a clear business narrative
• Translate financial performance into material risks, opportunities, decisions, and recommended actions
• Maintain the financial calendar and coordinate deliverables across Finance and cross-functional partners

Commercial Finance & Profitability

• Partner with functional leaders to plan, track, and manage divisional costs and productivity commitments
• Support customer, category, channel, and item-level profitability analysis
• Identify margin, mix, spending, and productivity opportunities
• Review and challenge financial models and profitability analysis prepared by the team
• Develop repeatable approaches that reduce manual effort while maintaining analytical integrity

Business Partnership & Decision Support

• Serve as a key finance partner to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Operations, Demand Planning, and Revenue Growth Management
• Clarify the business decision behind analytical requests and ensure assumptions and alternatives are understood
• Develop scenarios, quantify trade-offs, and provide a clear point of view rather than simply presenting data
• Constructively challenge business assumptions while maintaining strong cross-functional relationships
• Provide concise recommendations on strategic, customer, pricing, portfolio, and investment decisions

Team Leadership & Development

• Manage, coach, and develop a finance team member
• Set priorities, delegate work, review quality, and ensure deadlines are met
• Develop technical skills, business acumen, financial storytelling, and independent judgment
• Establish clear work standards, templates, documentation, and recurring processes
• Foster a culture of ownership, curiosity, constructive challenge, and solution-oriented leadership

Process & Systems Improvement

• Simplify and standardize recurring FP&A processes and reporting
• Partner with relevant teams to improve data quality, reporting structures, and system usage
• Identify opportunities to automate or streamline manual customer, category, and item P&L analysis
• Maintain appropriate controls, reconciliations, and documentation around manual models
• Prioritize improvements based on risk reduction, decision value, and capacity created

Key Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field; MBA and/or CPA a plus
• 8 years of progressive FP&A, Commercial Finance, or business partnering experience gained in the CPG space
• Demonstrated ownership of forecasting, annual planning, month-end close, management reporting, and P&L analysis
• Strong financial modeling, analytical, and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to translate complex financial information into clear insights, options, and recommendations
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without relying on formal authority
• Experience managing or developing finance talent
• Advanced Excel skills; experience with SAP, planning tools, Power BI, or other reporting platforms preferred
• Comfortable operating in environments with imperfect data, evolving processes, and significant manual work
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Hands-on, commercially minded approach with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment