Senior Analyst - Financial Planning & Analysis

Senior Analyst - Financial Planning & Analysis at Northwestern Mutual

Location:

Milwaukee, WI

Support the company’s overall expense management process, focusing on ensuring optimal use of company resources and ultimately protecting or maintaining product value and financial strength at the corporate level or for an assigned function/department. Develop timely and accurate expense reporting and provide value-added expense management consultation and analysis. This includes consulting with business partners and building financial models to evaluate strategic decisions, providing complex financial analysis, developing forecasts and budgets, comparing expectations to peers and/or internal expectations, evaluating and presenting options and prioritizing solutions across the company.

• Interact with executive officers, department heads, and other members of senior management to provide meaningful expense management consultation and analysis and present recommendations to aid in decision-making.
• Proactively identify issues and facilitate discussions to resolve those issues across functions and departments.
• Independently meet with managers and directors to understand department operations and resulting cost structure.
• Coordinate monthly reporting of all expenses to meet financial reporting needs of the department.
• Monitor spend, develop forecasts and budgets, and analyze expense results.
• Apply creativity and innovation in identifying process improvements and other opportunities for the function/departments to better manage expenses or reduce spend.
• Build complex financial models to predict and understand the business as well as actual results; understand cost drivers, internal metrics, unit costs and benchmarking for tracking and comparing results.
• Challenge assumptions made in forecasts and projections.
• Make connections to understand and integrate internal best practices to best support overall business objectives.
• Ensure that all expense activity follows the appropriate accounting controls, policies and procedures and is appropriately accounted for on the general ledger in compliance with statutory and/or GAAP accounting standards.
• Possibly be responsible for developing strategies to best utilize systems and maintaining expertise over financial reporting systems (e.g., People Soft, IBM TM1, Apptio, or Project Portfolio Management).
• Possibly be responsible for corporate expense projections, metrics, accounting for payroll, fixed assets and intercompany charges between North American subsidiaries, procure to pay processes or other corporate processes.
• Lead special projects and assignments related to expense management, product line allocations, financial reporting, process improvements, or other projects as requested by division leaders.
• Collaborate with other enterprise resources in Human Resources, Corporate Strategy or Planning Coordinators.

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related degree with accounting emphasis preferred.
• Typically, 5 or more years of financial management experience and/or financial planning and analysis experience.
• Strong analytical, planning, organization, budgeting, problem solving, negotiation, oral and written communication skills are essential to this role.
• Ability to develop and interpret financial models for complex analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to make effective decisions and influence without authority at all levels of leadership.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and manage multiple assignments concurrently while effectively prioritizing.
• Ability to develop and present recommendations to management.
• Ability to build rapport and acceptance at different levels of management and across various departments.
• CPA or CMA designation is preferred.

Pay Range - Start: $69,720.00
Pay Range - End: $
Structure 110 Geographic Specific Pay: $76,720.00 USD - $ USD
Structure 115: $80,150.00 USD - $ USD

• Flexible work schedules
• Concierge service
• Comprehensive benefits
• Employee resource groups

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer who welcomes and encourages diversity in the workforce. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.