Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Senior FP&A leadership role with a very large and complex multi-national company headquartered in Canada. Great role for someone who is seeking a friendly corporate culture and very interesting, challenging, and diverse work. Qualified candidates will have experience leading an FP&A team (mix of direct and indirect reports), will have worked in high change/high growth/high transformation companies, will be highly proficient in financial systems, and will have multi-national/multi-locational FP&A experience.

This is a key role in managing skilled teams in budgeting and forecasting, in BI AND AI and as well as leading change management projects in optimizing systems and processes reporting right into the head of strategy directly impacting the direction of the organization!

Our client is a very well-established and successful company with operations across North America, ~2000 employees, 10+ legal entities, 30+ operating sites across Canada and the US, etc. They have a great reputation among their happy customers and partners. The 40+ person finance team is collaborative and friendly, and the leaders promote productive workdays with plenty of communication and organization to limit unnecessary overtime.

Our client seeking a new Director of Financial Planning & Analysis who will lead an FP&A team of 7 people (including 3 Managers). The purview of the Director’s team includes data & analytics, budgeting Board reporting, business intelligence & data visualization, capital investment planning & capital allocation, financial modeling, and business partnering (commercial and corporate functions). The company is embarking on a new and exciting five-year plan to continue on a trajectory of growth (organic and through M&A), so the Director will lead change management, drive transformation, and champion process improvements and systems optimization.

The company uses various sophisticated technologies, including an ERP, a data visualization software, an enterprise performance management system, and various AI and BI tools. SWIM will provide interested candidates with a detailed job description.

We are seeking a well-rounded and senior-level FP&A professional with at least 15 years’ of relevant and progressive work experience, including at least 5 years in people management (leading managers who in turn have their own direct reports). Canadian CPA designation will be viewed very favourably, as would MBA-Finance from a reputable University and/or CFA designation. Qualified candidates will have experience working in a multi-national, large, diversified, and complex company… i.e. $500M+ in revenues, 1000+ employees, and/or multi-locational operations across 2+ countries (ideally Canada and US).

We are seeking people with strong interpersonal and critical thinking skills who are comfortable presenting to senior leaders, influencing stakeholders, and being hands-on while mentoring and developing their team and working collaboratively towards long-term business goals and overarching strategy.

Confidence with leveraging and optimizing financial systems is crucial in this role as this company believes in ongoing innovation and automation. Candidates will have hands-on experience using an ERP as well as data visualization, performance management, BI, machine learning, and AI tools (for example…. Oracle, SAP, Netsuite, Hyperion Planning/HFM, One Stream, Qlik Sense, Tableau, Power BI, Adaptive Insights, Prophix, Vena Solutions, Anaplan, etc, etc.).

Candidates do not have to have used the systems already in-place at this company, but need to have transferable experience to skill-up and master the systems relatively quickly.

Apart from the above, the most important qualifications are soft skills and communication skills…. collaboration, leadership, teamwork, organization, influence, negotiation, story-telling, mutual respect, empathy, adaptability, integrity, resilience, creativity, and thirst for learning are all traits that come to mind. Swim Recruiting has placed many people with this company (in finance and other functions) and can attest to their vibrant culture and…