Job Description:

The Finance Manager, FP&A is the dedicated finance partner to Zep's Food & Beverage business. The role owns the F&B budget, rolling forecasts and monthly performance reporting, and turns results into clear, actionable insight for the VP of Finance and F&B leadership.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role. You will build the models, run the analysis and present the story behind the numbers. The right person is equally comfortable in a detailed Excel model and in a conversation with a commercial or operations leader.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Planning and forecasting

• Lead the Food & Beverage annual budget: build the templates and model, coordinate inputs from F&B commercial and operations leaders, and roll it into the company consolidation
• Own the F&B rolling forecast for revenue, gross profit, operating expenses and EBITDA
• Maintain driver-based models linking volume, price, mix and cost assumptions to financial outcomes
• Support the long-range plan and scenario analysis for strategic initiatives

Performance reporting and analysis

• Prepare monthly management reporting packages, including actual vs. budget vs. forecast variance analysis
• Ownership of the P&L
• Explain the drivers behind F&B results, especially gross margin by customer, channel and product line, plus SG&A and working capital trends
• Build and maintain KPI dashboards for leadership and business partners
• Contribute to board and executive presentation materials

Business Partnering

• Serve as the go-to finance partner for the F&B leadership team across sales, operations and supply chain, helping leaders manage to budget
• Evaluate F&B business cases, key account deals, capital requests and pricing or cost-saving initiatives with ROI and payback analysis
• Respond to ad hoc analytical requests from the VP of Finance and executive team
• Work directly with Pricing & Master Data teams to develop optimal pricing and profit realization

Process and Systems

• Improve FP&A processes, templates and timelines to shorten cycle times and reduce manual work
• Partner with Accounting on accruals, allocations and close timing so reporting stays accurate and consistent
• Help define and maintain data sources and reporting tools used for planning

EDUCATION AND REQUIREMENTS

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics or a related field
• 5+ years of progressive experience in FP&A, corporate finance or business unit finance
• Hands-on ownership of budgeting and forecasting cycles, including building models from scratch
• Advanced Excel skills (complex formulas, lookups, pivot tables, scenario modeling)
• Experience with an ERP (e.g., SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards) and a planning or BI tool (e.g., Adaptive, Anaplan, Power BI, Tableau)
• Strong grasp of P&L, balance sheet and cash flow relationships

Preferred

• Experience supporting a Food & Beverage, CPG, specialty chemicals or other manufacturing business
• Background in gross margin analysis: price/volume/mix, standard costing and manufacturing variances
• Exposure to key account or channel profitability analysis
• MBA, CPA or CFA (or progress toward one)
• Experience at a private equity-backed company

Skills and competencies

• Analytical rigor: builds accurate, auditable models and spots the story in the data quickly
• Business acumen: understands how F&B customers, pricing, raw material costs and plant performance flow through the P&L
• Communication: explains complex results simply, in writing and in front of senior leaders
• Influence without authority: challenges assumptions and drives accountability with business partners
• Ownership: manages multiple deadlines through budget and close cycles with minimal supervision
• Continuous improvement: looks for ways to automate, simplify and speed up reporting

What success looks like in the first year

• F&B budget and forecasts delivered on time, with forecast accuracy leadership trusts
• Monthly F&B reporting package that explains margin and cost drivers clearly, not just the variances
• F&B leaders using finance as a regular input to pricing, customer and cost decisions
• At least one FP&A process meaningfully automated or streamlined

Thank you for your interest and consideration in a career with Zep!
www.zep.com