SCE Country Head of Finance

Job description

With operations in nearly 100 countries around the world and 365 manufacturing sites across six continents, we have strong roots in local markets and first-hand knowledge of local cultures. We lead the home care market through our cleansing and hygiene products in much of the world.

Since 1995, Unilever has operated on the Romanian market as one of the most important companies in the consumer goods sector.

USCE oversees five key business Units: Nutrition, Home Care, Ice Cream, Beauty & Wellbeing, and Personal Care. With brands like Deli'kat, Magnum, Hellmann's, Cocolino, Dero, Cif, Domestos, Dove, and Rexona, USCE enjoys a leading position on the FMCG market.

The SCE National Finance team currently consists of c.25 professionals across Commercial Finance, Controlling, Financial Planning & Analysis, to partner the business locally in market and the different Business Units (category groups).  The Head of Finance leads the finance talent agenda across the region and is the coach and talent sponsor of 50+ finance professionals in the region operating across BUs, National management and functions.

The HOF is the leader of the Finance function in South Central Europe, covering Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, overseeing commercial finance (CD Finance), finance operations (Finance Excellence) and having responsibility over group and statutory controls and compliance. Moreover, there are 3 acquired businesses in the region which are partly integrated into the Unilever systems and Business Group structure.   

Within the Country Leadership team, the HOF is expected both to perform a role which covers their full Finance remit, and also to be a voice of overall rational, economic and ethical challenge within the Leadership Team (LT), playing a leading role in setting a culture of compliance, governance awareness and business acumen among the members of the country LT.

Head of Finance (HOF) Responsibilities

Stewardship

The HOF is responsible for overall control and compliance within the country or country cluster. Many day-to-day aspects of control and stewardship will be carried out by the Controller (with direct reporting line to Regional Controlling & dotted to HOF), but HOF remains accountable and has specific fiduciary duties in respect of the role.  This would include:

·  Financial Statements review and sign-off and reporting for concern and statutory purposes. The HOF must ensure they can place sufficient confidence on the review, explanation and documentary support for the accounts and the financial statements. The HOF is responsible for compliance with Unilever and statutory accounting policies.
·  Responsibility for final sign off for tax compliance submissions where required (in line with Unilever’s Future of Tax operating model), as well as any other local financial or fiscal submissions.
·  Awareness of local accounting and finance regulations with prompt escalation of issues to line manager or other appropriate senior Finance leader where central and / or senior support is required.
·  Review of financial controls, including access controls, regularly, at the frequency required, and ensure that the control framework is complete, effective and sufficient, owning the FCA process. This should include regular review of Value at Risk, during which the HOF should hold those responsible for each line of the VAR review accountable, including when those responsible are not part of the in-country direct line reporting team.
·  Where there are legitimate grounds for a control exception, the HOF should ensure that a formal exception is granted by GCAD and that it remains valid.
·  The HOF represents Unilever to external bodies (eg external auditors, tax authorities, financial regulatory bodies, government departments or ministries, central banks, commercial banks, etc.) where necessary.  In dealing with external bodies, the HOF must make a prior assessment of the risks associated with such engagements and where appropriate seek guidance, support or presence from subject matter experts (eg the tax team for all tax authority engagement) or other Finance leaders with relevant experience or expertise.
·  Leading the in-region risk agenda, including assessment and execution of mitigation in respect of corporate risks as well as specific local risks.
·  Participating as a key member of the country Business Integrity Committee and provides finance investigative support where required.  Where the right scale or capability of local investigative resources are unavailable, HOF should escalate for appropriate support.
·  It is likely that the HOF is a statutory director of one or more legal entities in the country. The HOF must understand the obligations, fiduciary duties and remit of a statutory director and undertake appropriate training on this topic as required.

Tax, Treasury and Insurance

While much of the detailed work, whether operational, transactional, or strategic, will be done by in-country team members including the Controller, as well as the broader regional and Global Tax and Treasury teams, the HOF has overall responsibility for local tax and treasury execution within the frameworks set out by Global Tax and Treasury.

·  Lead country inputs and implementation of agreed actions for FinFlex forum, e.g. cash flow forecast, remittances, liquidity management, legal entity structure simplification, working capital solutions (e.g. supplier financing), treasury technology innovations (e.g. dynamic discounting of supplier invoices)
·  Collaboration with corporate treasury and tax stakeholders, e.g. in context of dividend declarations and related FX risk management actions, financing needs, FCCR charges, etc.
·  Ownership of local bank relationships.
·  Be the approver for local tax accounting purposes according to ToA.
·  Support on tax matters that have a cross BU impact.
·  HOF owns compliance with corporate treasury & insurance standards, e.g. bank counterparty limits, identification of FX exposures, FX hedging, investments (if any), insurance and risk control arrangements etc.

Customer Business Development (CBD) Finance

Many aspects of CBD partnering will be led from Business Units, covering category specific investment and partnering of the CSP.  The HOF is responsible for the Finance support to the CBD function in-country. There may be differing models of resourcing and reporting lines for CBD Finance and Customer Operations, but the HOF should ensure that support for the local aspects of CBD Finance which are not provided by BUs are in place; this could include:

·  Key Account / Channel Finance support 
·  Channel IBP / Channel Strategy including partnering CBD on terms of trade negotiation with customers, with a category framework from the BUs.  
·  Finance face to the customer where required
·  HOF leads the National credit management committees and should ensure cross-functional leadership support on the collections agenda
·  HOF may not always have direct line responsibility for Accounts Receivable, but should regularly review debtors, be the point of approval for credit extensions or other exceptions, approve payment plans for overdue debt and intervene directly in high risk debt situations.
·  HOF should lead a strong relationship between local CBD Finance and BU Finance to drive alignment, transparency, mutual understanding and value. 

Finance Excellence Teams

FETs play a critical role in process execution, information provision and performance management. The HOF is responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective operation of the FET, in providing information both for the country and, in some cases, also for other countries and Business Units.   FET models vary widely across the Unilever world, but the HOF in all cases where there is a country FET would be responsible for:

·  Accurate, on time, in full delivery of agreed outputs to internal customers both within and outside the country 
·  Continual process improvement and progressive process alignment to Unilever best practice
·  Integration of disparate FET tasks into a single organization to maximise scale efficiencies (eg combining “core” FET and Supply Chain Finance FET).
·  Cost improvement programmes to leverage process improvement, automation, and scale opportunities for greater efficiency, drawing on Business Operations expertise where appropriate.

Overheads Management

HOF is responsible for managing overheads for both the Finance function and the overall Country operation. This would cover the specific areas of responsibility of National Management, together with shared costs, including the costs of housing BU or other non-national resources in-country.

·  Responsible to support the delivery of total overheads for the country and delivering the Finance function in line with target
·  Playing a central role in country investment decisions whether revenue or capital, such as office accommodation, fleet costs, third party services etc.
·  Where BU overheads are located in-country, HOF should support BU Finance in ensuring costs are in line with target

Business Operations - Comex & I-Ops

Within a country management team HOFs play a leading role in driving efficiencies through integration with Business Operations and ensuring that the planned benefits are realised. HOFs should actively ensure that appropriate process disciplines are in place and that operations are run in line with agreed SOP’s and in compliance with relevant policies across following key areas:

·  Multi-tier support model/landscape in the areas of O2C, R2R, P2P, M2D
·  Master-data and Access Controls
·  I-Ops support scope

Supply Chain Finance & Customer Operations

With Supply Chain partnering including savings programmes and investment decisions provided from BUs, Country Supply Chain focuses specifically on Logistics Finance. HOF should ensure that control within the country Supply Chain is robust, with key controls properly reviewed.  Through the Controller, SC controls should progressively be integrated with overall country controls to give a single, clear picture of the country control environment. – based on the matrix of responsibility given the split of control ownership

Talent

The HOF is responsible for the local recruitment and development of Finance talent.  This would encompass:

·  Driving Unilever Future Leader (UFL) Program recruitment and sponsoring UFLs both as individuals and as a group to realise their maximum potential
·  Holding regular reviews with UFLs throughout their time on the programme and providing challenge and inspiration to achieve their full potential
·  Leading the country Finance Leadership Team, and personally focusing on the development of direct reports and the next generation of leadership bench strength
·  Maintaining a strong mentoring link to local talent which is working abroad and championing their career development.
·  Chairing people forums and both setting and demanding a high standard of input to the development and planning processes.
·  Leading the Finance function in the country, championing the global Finance agenda and challenging the full local team to seek to advance the agenda in areas of particular relevance.  Sponsoring training and other team events covering the full Finance team.
·  Lead equity, diversity and inclusion both formally and by example for the Finance function, to build a diverse and inclusive team and create a positive climate for all members of the team.    

Professional skills and experience

·  Commercial and Financial acumen a must.
·  Strong engagement, presentation, and communication skills.
·  Strong negotiation and influencing skills with both senior colleagues and across the broader Finance community.
·  Financial Accounting.
·  Significant Finance Business Partnering and Category / Customer experience.
·  Experience with the identification of risks and opportunities in the P&L.
·  Ability to deal with complex project management.
·  Significant experience managing a large and complex set of stakeholders including very senior ones.
·  Ability to manage directly and, even more important, indirectly, people, with the diverse background and working in the different environment.
·  Demonstration of Unilever core values: Respect, Pioneering, Integrity & Responsibility

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.