DescriptionYour top priority as a Finance Manager is to serve as the primary Finance Business Partner to the Retail organization, providing financial leadership, insight, and challenge to support decision-making in a dynamic, evolving environment. This role partners closely with business leaders to align investments and priorities with strategic and financial objectives while driving accountability, transparency, and performance.Your positive, professional, roll-up-your-sleeves-to-help attitude contributes to our winning culture and makes sure we leave a lasting impression.
Key Responsibilities:
Business Partnership & Strategy
- Act as a trusted advisor to Retail leadership, providing financial guidance that influences decision-making and aligns business priorities.
- Proactively challenge assumptions, requests, and investments to ensure resources are deployed effectively.
- Partner on strategic initiatives and business cases, providing financial modeling, ROI analysis, and risk assessment.
- Bring an external perspective on industry, customer, and competitive trends to inform strategy.
Planning, Forecasting & Performance Management
- Lead the annual budget and ongoing forecast processes for the Retail function.
- Monitor performance against plan; identify risks and opportunities, and partner with leaders on mitigation actions.
- Conduct weekly and monthly variance analysis, translating insights into clear, actionable recommendations.
- Ensure alignment between financial plans and operational execution.
- Workday Adaptive experience a plus, with the ability to leverage the tool to streamline budgeting and reporting.
Reporting & Insights
- Develop and maintain reporting and dashboards that provide clear visibility into business performance.
- Analyze trends and key drivers to improve financial and operational outcomes.
- Deliver concise, forward-looking insights to senior leadership, including the Finance Director and CFO.
- PowerBI experience a plus with the ability to build, maintain and enhance dashboards.
Financial Modeling & Decision Support
- Build and maintain robust financial models that support scenario planning and investment decisions.
- Evaluate financial impact of key initiatives and provide recommendations grounded in data.
- Support ad hoc analysis to address emerging business needs in a fast-paced environment.
Process Improvement & Cross-Functional Alignment
- Identify and implement improvements to financial processes, tools, and reporting.
- Drive consistency and discipline in financial management across the Retail organization.
- Partner cross-functionally (Merchandising, Operations, Marketing, etc.) to ensure alignment and strong execution.
- Communicate clearly across stakeholders to maintain transparency and alignment.
Team & Leadership
- Mentor and develop financial analysts, providing coaching on modeling, analytical techniques, and business acumen.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning and curiosity by encouraging analysts to ask "why" behind the numbers, explore new tools & techniques, and challenge the status quo on better ways of delivering insights.
What you will bring to the table:
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field required; Master's degree (MBA) is preferred.
- 8+ years of experience in Finance or related analytical experience, with strong preference for retail or direct-to-consumer environments.
- Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and financial modeling.
- Advanced Excel skills; experience with financial and data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI).
- Solid understanding of accounting principles and financial statements.
- Proven ability to operate effectively in a fast-changing, ambiguous environment.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and partner across all levels of the organization.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to translate financial data into clear business insights.
- High degree of curiosity, ownership, and critical thinking.
- Effectively balances challenge and partnership-not just reporting results but shaping decisions.
- Provides clear, actionable insights, not just data.
- Brings structure and discipline to a changing, evolving Retail environment.
- Aligns financial outcomes to strategic priorities and operational execution.
- Demonstrates Northern Tool + Equipment's 12 Core Competencies.
