Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

northwesternmutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 65,000 - 98,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee seeks a Financial Analyst to support product value and financial strength through data collection, modeling, and reporting. You will partner with business units to forecast budgets, evaluate decisions, and provide actionable insights for senior leadership.

The role emphasizes forecasting, variance analysis, and presenting findings to drive performance and alignment with strategic goals. Strong communication and GAAP-focused controls are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related field.
• 3+ years of financial management or FP&A experience.
• Strong analytical, planning, budgeting, problem solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with business partners to monitor spend, forecast budgets, and analyze results.
• Analyze variances between actuals and plans to inform decision making.
• Prepare ad hoc analyses and recurring financial reports and dashboards for leadership.
• Build financial models and support projects, understanding cost drivers and benchmarks.

Skills

Attention to Detail

Cross Functional Partnering

Expense Reporting

Financial Acumen

Financial Analysis

Financial Forecasting

Process Improvement

Process Mindset

Storytelling Through Data

Education

Bachelor's degree in accounting/finance/business administration

Job description

About the Job

Support the Company's overall product value and financial strength by collecting, analyzing, and reporting financial data that helps management make informed business decisions. Collaborate with business partners and build financial models to evaluate strategic decisions, provide financial analysis, develop forecasts and budgets, and compare expectations to peers and/or internal expectations. Utilize analytical skills to evaluate, present, and prioritize options and solutions for business partners. May interact with divisional or department leaders and other members of senior management to provide meaningful expense management consultation and analysis and presents recommendations to aid in decision-making.

What You'll Do

• Consult with business partners across the enterprise to monitor spend, develop forecasts and budgets, and analyze expense results.
• Analyze variances between actual and planned results
• Assist with the preparation of ad hoc analyses and recurring financial reports and dashboards to clearly communicate forecast results to finance and business leadership.
• Build financial models and support special projects to predict and understand the business as well as actual results. Understand cost drivers, internal metrics, unit costs, variance analysis and expense benchmarking for tracking and comparing results.
• Challenge assumptions made in forecasts and projections.
• Assure 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.

What Experience You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related degree.
• Typically three or more years of financial management experience and/or financial planning and analysis experience.
• Strong analytical, planning, budgeting, problem solving, oral and written communication skills.

Skills

• Attention to Detail : Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality.
• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals.
• Expense Reporting Management: Tracks and documents operational and other related costs by recording and classifying expenses to monitor and control costs, assess budget adherence, and evaluate efficiency of resource utilization
• Financial Acumen: Applies knowledge of financial statements, financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling to ensure decisions are fiscally sound and responsible.
• Financial Analysis: Analyzes balance sheet and income statement accounts for accuracy, uses operational indicators and actuarial information for analysis, interprets financial statements, draws conclusions, and makes financial recommendations.
• Financial Forecasting : Predicts and estimates future financial outcomes based on historical data, current trends, and informed assumptions, using appropriate forecasting methods for different scenarios.
• Process Improvement : Assesses current processes and their impact to analyze, design, and manage improvement opportunities for more efficient and effective workflows.
• Process Mindset : Defines processes to organize people, activities, and milestones; creates efficient workflows and success measures; identifies integration opportunities; and simplifies complex processes.
• Storytelling Through Data: Communicates insights and opportunities from a dataset using narratives, visualizations, and analysis.

Compensation Range

Pay Range - Start: $65,440.00

Pay Range - End: $98,160.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

Structure 110: $72,000.00 USD - $108,000.00 USD

Structure 115: $75,280.00 USD - $112,920.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. 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 meet