Finance Business Partner Analyst East and Southern Africa (EASA)

Role Purpose 

• Performing Financial Planning & Analysis activities for Business Area East and Southern Africa.
• Be a trusted partner to the CP Commercial Finance Lead EASA and Finance BP EASA to provide insightful analysis and recommendations on the respective financials.
• Driving improvements and technology adaptations in Financial Planning & Analysis processes and contribution to regional Continuous Improvement agenda.

Accountabilities

How:

• Be a trusted finance business partner, supporting all activities in scope, on recurring and ad hoc finance topics.
• Seamless engaging and interacting with finance communities and stakeholders.
• Add value to organization through providing business insight, understanding the numbers and challenging the status quo.
• Provide finance skillset in project / ad hoc assignments.
• Build relationships across multiple finance functional teams to share and align best practices.
• Develop understanding of Syngenta's business and interaction between the different business units and functional reporting lines.

What:

• Actuals: Month end closing:
  • Analyze monthly sales and function costs, and provide relevant commentaries and insights to finance and business stakeholders.
  • Based on discussions with business stakeholders and in collaboration with Accounting-to-Reporting teams, ensure accruals for sales deductions and function cost are properly reflected in reported monthly results.
  • Participate in month-end closing processes.
• Financial analysis:
  • Provide timely and insightful financial analysis to support business decisions, understanding business performance on a monthly / annual basis.
  • Leverage technology (SAC) to further develop (SAC stories) and fully utilize available reports to meet the needs of the various business owners, on time, with high quality.
  • Full accountability for the analysis and commentaries to business stakeholders for variance analysis of function cost reports.
• Master data management:
  • Ensure proper master data maintenance (cost center structure, delegation of authorities, headcount reporting).
• Budgeting and Rolling Forecast processes:
  • Provide reliable and timely budgets and latest outlooks for P&L in scope.
  • Provide support and guidance to business managers and function cost owners on achieving budget targets.
  • Participate in strategic business planning and business processes by preparing financial budgets and rolling forecasts.
• Business review process:
  • Support the MBR process
  • Prepare and collect insightful commentaries for robust reporting and analysis of variances.
  • Focus on reliable full year outlooks and risk/opportunity assessments.
• Digital Capabilities:
  • Contribute to development and use of business intelligence tools, data visualization and predictive analysis techniques.

Knowledge, Experience & Capabilities

Critical Knowledge

• Bachelor/Master/Business School in Economics or Finance.
• Understanding of IFRS accounting, budgeting, forecasting and planning processes.
• Excel & SAP knowledge are a must, business intelligence systems an advantage.
• Understanding of Syngenta business, processes and industry drivers.

Critical Experience

• 2+ years in Finance and Controlling is a must.

Critical technical, professional and personal capabilities

• Analytical skills.
• Financial and accounting acumen.
• Communication and presentation skills.
• English is a must, other languages are a plus.
• Ability to prioritise, especially to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
• Ability to work independently as well as within (cross-) functional teams.
• High focus and energy, with a pragmatic mindset and solution-oriented approach.

Critical success factors & key challenges

• Ability to apply professional knowledge of accounting and financial reporting in supporting the business
• Ability to handle multiple stakeholders, priorities and deadlines
• Working in virtual teams
• Sound professional judgement and effective influencing skills

As a world market leader in crop protection, we help farmers to counter these threats and ensure enough safe, nutritious, affordable food for all – while minimizing the use of land and other agricultural inputs. Syngenta Crop Protection keeps plants safe from planting to harvesting.  From the moment a seed is planted through to harvest, crops need to be protected from weeds, insects and diseases as well as droughts and floods, heat and cold.