The Director, Corporate FP&A leads enterprise-wide financial planning, including forecasts, annual budgeting, and management reporting, while driving standardization of processes, tools, and reporting frameworks across the organization. This role will serve as the primary financial business partner to senior leaders across all Corporate functions, providing strategic insights, executive level decision support, and forward looking analysis that drives alignment and informs key decisions. Activities include financial planning and forecasting, business analysis and management reporting, and decision support. This position is part of the business unit leadership team and will be responsible for helping the business and Ardent Mills realize their financial and strategic objectives.
Responsibilities:- Defines and drives the vision, design, and execution of core FP&A processes (budgeting, forecasting, performance reporting, etc.) across the enterprise
- Standardizes and works across the FP&A team to improve enterprise FP&A processes to align with business strategy, reduce FP&A cycle time, and increase insights to decision makers
- Collaborates with Finance and FP&A leaders to develop and enforce planning, forecasting and reporting standards across Ardent Mills
- Perform hands-on, day-to-day tasks alongside direct reports, providing guidance, setting strategy, and driving team performance and customer service, aka act as a Player-Coach
- Develops and monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive accountability and measure the effectiveness of the FP&A function across all functions and business units
- Partners with other FP&A teams, business unit and functional leaders to ensure the delivery of consistent, high-quality, and insightful financial analysis. Provides strategic guidance and support during key financial planning cycles
- Guides the use of leading practices to improve FP&A process efficiency and effectiveness, including planning and forecast drivers, level of detail, integrated calendar events and cadences, AI / machine learning, and the adoption of modern financial planning technology
- Service as a key point of contact for FP&A process, technology, and change management performance and continuous improvement opportunities
- Drives the financial performance of the corporate functions (HR, IT, Finance, Legal, and Executive), non-US entities, and corporate-wide capabilities. Serve as focal point to anticipate and identify functional and business needs, communicate requests into the FP&A organization, and collaborate with functional and other FP&A leaders on improvement opportunities
- Liaises with Corporate function leadership to identify and prioritize inbound requests and serves as a coordinating resource to drive work to completion
- Partners with business leadership to translate business / customer needs to supporting resources on their team
- Leads and directs work of resources serving one or more functions or business units to ensure that the focus is on highest priorities / most material impacts to Ardent Mills
- Identifies current and future needs of business partners and design into team's workload
- Improves financial "literacy" of partners and their teams through coaching on financial implications of operational choices, and to create alignment between business and financial assumptions and outcomes
- Partners with the SLT in identifying and driving required corporate, functional projects / initiatives; communicates to stakeholders on behalf of the BU or function
- Conducts cost / benefit & capitalization analysis of enterprise / corporate initiatives, develops and manages review of CIR forms and business cases for capital requests
- Evaluates current and projected performance of investments, capital projects and other initiatives against CIR assumptions
- Conducts program and portfolio reviews, evaluating performance, funding status, and alignment with long-term goals.
- Maintains capital project pipeline and tracks projects in-flight and progress, upcoming planned projects, and future prioritized projects
- Completes Annual Capital Study, and develops materials for the Capital Committee
- Champions the use of modern BI tools, automation, and AI for more efficient and effective management reporting & analysis
- Construct and review the strategic plan, incorporating SLT inputs and financial modeling of defined scenarios to facilitate decisions, functional and BU alignment, and target setting
- Leads functional and other unit leaders in setting and distributing annual performance targets that align unit performance with enterprise goals and objectives
- Works in partnership with business partners to identify business drivers and potential "what-if" scenarios for planning / forecast models, including integrated financial statement views, before-and-after impact of M&A or structural changes, etc.
- Partners with functions, operations, commercial BU's in preparing and determining goals, strategies, and tactical action plans aligned to enterprise performance objectives, such as cost maintenance/reduction, continuous improvement, etc.
- Develops and communicates budget and forecast guidelines, aligning expectations across business units and entities to a standard calendar, global assumptions and common templates
- Consolidates income statement/management P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow plans and forecasts submitted by BU's and functions
- Consolidates workforce plans and forecasts, integrating headcount and compensation data into the budget
- Supports the annual operating plan (AOP) and long-range planning process, coordinating across FP&A teams and functional departments to align financial goals with corporate strategy
- Leads post-mortem review of the budgeting and forecasting processes, identifying improvement opportunities for future cycles
- Maintains and publishes an AOP Scorecard with key metrics for monthly tracking and communication of the health of the business
- Standardizes and governs forward-looking strategy, budget, forecast, and variance reports and dashboards, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and alignment with enterprise reporting standards
- Defines standard FP&A reports and dashboards to be used for share events in the performance management cycle (e.g., monthly business reviews)
- Develops advanced financial models for business cases, capital investments, and long-term organizational growth strategies
- Prepares Board-level materials and financial presentations, translating complex data into actionable insights for the CFO and senior leadership team
Essential skills and experience:- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, FP&A or a related field
- Minimum of 10 years of general management or FP&A experience
- Knowledge of FP&A leading practice and experience in design and implementation in a complex environment
- Demonstrated ability to influence at senior levels of the organization
- Serves as a proactive catalyst for change
- Intellectual curiosity and continuous learning mindset
- Ability to successfully prioritize and manage multiple tasks simultaneously and independently
- Strong execution abilities and history of delivered results
- Excellent communication, interpersonal and relationship management skills
- Strong functional skills in financial analysis, financial planning, and management reporting
- Willingness and availability to advance one's own learning and skillset via formal & informal means
Good to have:- Served in a Director-level role in a FP&A, Finance or business capacity
- Experience in multiple core accounting or financial functions / services, and working with multiple corporate functions and BUs in leadership roles
- Proven project management experience with a business perspective
