Business Planning & Analysis (Fixed Term Contract)

Novartis; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Novartis in South Africa seeks an experienced FP&A/BPA professional to partner with management, driving budgeting, rolling forecasts and performance analysis for a large business unit.

You will coordinate a team of specialists, ensure data integrity, provide actionable insights, and support strategic planning with senior leadership. Candidates should have 5–8 years in FP&A, a finance degree, and CA preferred.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years in FP&A or BPA roles focusing on performance measurement and forecasting.
• Strong budgeting, planning and operating financial reporting experience.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate with senior management and regional offices.
• Experience collaborating in cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Ensure operational alignment of BPA goals within a business area and provide timely, accurate financial analysis.
• Perform risk/opportunity analyses and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Support budgeting, rolling forecasts and strategic planning with quality data.
• Maintain data integrity and improve forecast accuracy with value-added analyses.
• Drive lean reporting processes and streamline management reporting.
• Coordinate with a team of specialists to deliver insights to management.

Skills

Critical Thinking

Data Visualization

Insight Generation

Market Understanding

Process Optimization

Employee Engagement

Managing Ambiguity

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance

Chartered Accountant (Preferred)

Job description

Job Description Summary

-To support the business within a country with complex analysis, reporting, forecasts etc. (typically very large to large revenue) and may coordinate a team of specialists. To act as a Business Partner for BPA within a country, providing insightful and value-added analysis and decision support to the management team.

Job Description

Major accountabilities:

• Ensure the operational conversion of the BPA strategic goals within a dedicated area of the business -Provide management with accurate, relevant business analysis to support monthly operational reviews and ad-hoc requests and ensure timely and accurate information gathering.
• Perform analysis to evaluate risks or opportunities; make recommendations to mitigate these risks.
• Manage and provide financial analysis and decision-making support for a investment/project in a domain
• Ensure ongoing business performance is appropriately monitored and measured, and drive early warning for re-direction of resources with Business Partners.
• Provide accurate operational information and advice to support the annual budgeting, rolling forecast and Strategic Planning processes.
• Ensure integrity of data provided by commercial teams, and provides value added; provides recommendations on forecast accuracy improvement.
• Provide well managed and quality financial analysis in order to improve business case proposals and profitability tracking.
• Continually improve and streamline existing management reporting processes and support the definition and implementation of lean processes to meet the changing demands of the business.

Key performance indicators:

• Internal customer satisfaction with quality, appropriateness, and timeliness of financial analyses provided
• Reliability, timeliness and accuracy of budgetary and financial forecasts
• Accuracy of early-warning system and results.
• Managing risks and ops efficiently for the line of business

Experience/Professional requirement

• Minimum 5 - 8 years of prior relevant experience in FP&A / BPA teams working on business performance measurement, Forecasting, Corporate Finance, Financial analysis etc.
• Strong experience in budgeting, planning, and operating financial reporting and forecasting systems
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to communicate and provide high context information for senior management and regional office
• Experience collaborating in a cross-functional team environment.
• Being flexible to changes in business environment.
• Strong financial compliance and controls.
• Background in Finance and good knowledge of finance controlling and accounting processes

Education

Bachelor's or 4-year university degree required preferably in Finance or related field

Chartered Accountant (Preferred)

Skills Desired

• Critical Thinking, Data Visualization, Employee Engagement, Insight Generation, Managing Ambiguity, Market Understanding, Process Optimization