Procurement Finance Senior Business Partner

Nomad Foods Inc; Horsell; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Nomad Foods is Europe’s leading branded frozen food company seeking a Procurement Finance Senior Business Partner to drive spend analysis, budgeting and forecasting for the Fish and Indirects procurement streams.

You will partner with Head of Categories and a team of buyers to challenge assumptions, deliver a robust budget, forecast and productivity pipeline, and provide actionable insights to support commercial decisions across Nomad.

Qualifications

• Essential: Education: University graduate, qualified accountant.
• Experience: 5+ years in business partnering roles in FMCG.
• Excellent communication and analytical skills distilling details into clear messages.
• Highly numerate with strong attention to detail.
• Able to influence cross-functional colleagues on financial recommendations.
• Able to lead and develop a direct report to outperform targets.

Responsibilities

• Partner Head of Categories for Fish and Indirects and the buyers.
• Prepare the annual Budget for Procurement purchases, ensuring assumptions are clear and challenged.
• Analyze actual purchases and re-forecast price variances vs budget.
• Forecast material stock, deliveries and consumption with planners.
• Identify risks and opportunities, mitigate gaps to target.
• Own procurement price/cost information and communicate trends to commercial teams.
• Identify and track key procurement cost savings projects and initiatives.
• Ensure accurate financial information is used in decision-making and performance is measured.
• Support evaluation of alternative supply chain and sourcing opportunities.
• Translate external trends into opportunities for Nomad.

Skills

Financial analysis

Communication

Attention to detail

Influence cross-functional

Leadership / coaching

Budgets & forecasting

Education

University degree

Qualified accountant

Job description

Overview

Nomad Foods is Europe’s leading branded frozen food company, with a portfolio of well-known brands including Birds Eye, Findus, iglo, Goodfella’s, Aunt Bessie’s, Ledo and Frikom.

Operating across multiple European markets, we manufacture and distribute trusted frozen food products to millions of consumers. Our ambition is to build a best-in-class portfolio of food brands through organic growth, innovation, disciplined investment and strategic acquisitions.

Nomad is going through an exciting period of change with a clear strategy in place for further growth. The Group has plans to continue to grow organically, whilst pursuing strategic acquisitions and continuing to build a best-in-class frozen food company

Nomad operates a centralised Procurement team which is responsible for the purchases of all raw materials used for the manufacture of Nomad products, as well as other goods and services across the Group. With spend of over €1.5bn on raw & packaging materials and co-manufactured finished products as well as €0.5bn of spend on other goods and services.

As a valued business partner to the Head of Categories responsible for Fish and Indirects, worth a combined spend of ~€1bn, the Procurement Finance Senior Business Partner is a member of the Group Supply Chain Finance team working to provide a stewardship mindset, transparency, challenge and integrity to commercial buying decisions to generate value for Nomad. The role also supports setting the commercial buying and productivity strategy along with the approach to supplier relationships and agreements.

More specifically the role is responsible for the analysis of Nomad’s spend versus budget and forecast as well as providing management with guidance on future outcomes, working with buyers to deliver a robust budget, forecast and productivity pipeline of future cost saving opportunities.

With an analyst reporting into them, the successful candidate will have the ability to encourage, motivate, and guide individuals in high performance, learning and development, and improving effectiveness.

The role is a fantastic opportunity to the right individual and Nomad offers significant opportunities for future career progression, both within and outside of the finance organisation, given its European scale and clear strategy for further growth.

Responsibilities

• Business partner Head of categories for Fish and Indirects and the 10 buyers / senior buyers in those teams
• Preparing the annual Budget for Procurement purchases for the year ahead. Ensuring that assumptions are clear and challenged with buyers and Heads of Category
• Performing analysis of actual purchases and re-forecasting of expected future pricing with comparisons versus budget, explaining and communicating the key drivers of variances
• Working closely with planners in Strategically important factories to help understand raw material stock, deliveries and consumption in order to accurately forecast expected price variances
• Identification of risk and opportunities and work with buyers to mitigate and close any gaps to target
• Owns procurement price and cost information and supporting the communication of this information and trends to the commercial market teams to support retailer discussions
• Work with procurement team to identify, verify and track key procurement cost savings projects and initiatives
• Accountable for ensuring that accurate financial information and insights are used in decision-making and performance is accurately measured and forecasted
• Support the evaluation of alternative supply chain and sourcing opportunities
• Understands trends in the external environment and competitive landscape and translates these into opportunities and insight for Nomad
• Works with buyers and planners to understand inventory positions, contractual call-offs and coverage to ensure optimisation of stock positions and pricing
• Evaluation and decision support for procurement cash and working capital impacts
• Defines and implements small scale process simplification projects
• Lead, coach and develop direct report in business partnering and financial activities
• Undertake formal appraisal reviews with direct report, i.e. mid-year and year end reviews
• Coach and train buyers on financial issues / requirements

Qualifications

Essential

• Education: University graduate, qualified accountant
• Experience: Min Qualified Accountant. A track record of 5+ years delivery in business partnering roles
• FMCG experience
• Excellent communication and analytical skills distilling detailed information down into key clear messages
• Highly numerate + analytical, with good attention to detail
• Able to apply intellect + judgement to influence cross-functional colleagues to act on financial recommendations in commercial decisions
• Able to lead, coach and develop a direct report to out-perform targets
• Able to work collaboratively with peers and deliver through team members
• Organised, strong prioritisation skills and delivery to tight timescales
• Drive for results and high personal resilience
• Self-motivated individual with an analytical mind-set to challenge the business
• Career progression - an active learner who wants to develop others and progress across nomad as a finance leader. Progression will offer opportunities to relocate within Nomad