Senior Manager, Category Finance

William Vaughn; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 139,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

William Vaughn, a growing consumer products company, seeks a Senior Manager of Category Finance in Chicago. The role partners with Sales, Marketing and Revenue Growth to influence pricing, trade investments, and portfolio decisions.

The ideal candidate has owned a category or brand P&L in a CPG environment and can translate financial data into actionable recommendations that drive profitable growth. You will help lead planning, forecasting, and performance reviews with senior leadership.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive finance experience in CPG, food, beverage or branded consumer products.
• Experience owning or supporting a category, brand, customer, or business-unit P&L.
• Strong understanding of pricing, gross-to-net, and promotional effectiveness.
• Experience partnering with Sales, Marketing and cross-functional leadership.
• Ability to turn financial analysis into commercial recommendations.
• Advanced financial modeling, forecasting, and Excel skills.

Responsibilities

• Own financial planning, forecasting, and performance management across brands, categories, customers, and channels.
• Partner on pricing, trade investment, promotions, and margin improvement opportunities.
• Own gross-to-net forecasting including trade spend, pricing, and promotions.
• Analyze category and customer performance across volume, price, mix, distribution, and profitability.
• Develop customer, category, SKU, and channel P&Ls to improve visibility.
• Evaluate innovation and new-product opportunities with ROI assumptions.
• Lead promotions analysis to improve ROI and effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities across SKU rationalization, portfolio mix, and resource allocation.
• Lead annual planning, rolling forecasts, and risk/opportunity reviews.
• Present financial performance and recommendations to executives.
• Build reporting tools and scalable models in a lean organization.
• Operate between strategy and execution, delivering timely leadership-ready insights.

Skills

Financial modeling

Forecasting

P&L ownership

Pricing strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Business partnering

CPG experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics

Tools

Power BI

Excel

Tableau

Job description

A growing, private equity-backed consumer products company is seeking a Senior Manager of Category Finance to join its Chicago-based finance team.

This is not a traditional corporate FP&A role. The Senior Manager will serve as a strategic finance partner to Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Growth Management, helping the business make stronger decisions across pricing, innovation, customer investment, portfolio strategy, and profitable growth.

The ideal candidate has owned the financial performance of a brand, category, or customer portfolio within a CPG organization and can translate financial and commercial data into clear recommendations and measurable business actions.

Senior Manager, Category Finance Responsibilities:

• Own financial planning, forecasting, and performance management across brands, categories, customers, and channels
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Growth Management on pricing, trade investment, promotions, and margin improvement opportunities
• Own gross-to-net forecasting and analysis, including trade spend, customer deductions, pricing, promotions, and other commercial investments
• Analyze category and customer performance across volume, price, mix, distribution, consumption, and profitability
• Develop customer, category, SKU, and channel-level P&Ls to improve visibility into commercial performance
• Evaluate innovation and new-product opportunities, including pricing, volume assumptions, costs, investment requirements, and expected returns
• Lead pre- and post-event analysis of promotions and customer investments to improve effectiveness and ROI
• Identify opportunities across SKU rationalization, portfolio mix, pricing, cost management, and resource allocation
• Lead annual planning, rolling forecasts and risk and opportunity reviews
• Present financial performance, business drivers and recommendations during executive and cross-functional business reviews
• Bring structure to fragmented data and evolving processes by building practical reporting and decision-support tools
• Operate comfortably between strategy and execution, independently working through ambiguity and delivering timely recommendations to leadership
• Build scalable financial models, reporting and processes within a lean, fast-moving organization

Senior Manager, Category Finance Qualifications:

• 7+ years of progressive finance experience, including direct experience within CPG, food, beverage, or another branded consumer-products business
• Direct experience in Category Finance, Brand Finance, Sales Finance, Customer Finance, or Commercial Finance
• Experience owning or supporting a category, brand, customer, or business-unit P&L
• Strong understanding of pricing, trade investment, gross-to-net, promotional effectiveness, customer profitability, and revenue growth drivers
• Experience partnering directly with Sales, Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, and cross-functional leadership
• Experience evaluating innovation, new-product launches, or SKU-level profitability
• Demonstrated ability to turn financial analysis into commercial recommendations and measurable business actions
• Builder mentality with the ability to create structure, improve processes, and operate effectively with imperfect data
• Advanced financial modeling, forecasting, and Excel capabilities
• Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar reporting tools is preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related discipline

This is a highly visible, hands-on role for someone who wants to help build the commercial finance function, work directly with senior leadership, and influence how a growing consumer business invests, innovates, and expands profitability.

**The expected base salary range for this position is $139,499-$175,000, plus an annual bonus. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and overall fit for the role.**