Director of Financial Planning and Analysis

Position Summary

The Director, Financial Planning & Analysis leads the company's management reporting, planning, forecasting, budgeting, and strategic analysis processes. This role partners closely with executive leadership and functional leaders to translate financial and operational data into clear insights, actionable recommendations, and improved business performance. The Director will strengthen the FP&A function by improving forecast accuracy, enhancing management reporting and analytics, elevating commercial and operational decision support, and building a proactive, curious, and business-oriented finance team. Success in this role requires going beyond the numbers to understand business drivers, challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and recommend actions that support sustainable EBITDA growth, cash generation, and strategic decision-making.

Location Requirement: This role is considered hybrid, and candidates must be within a commutable distance to our Romeoville office for 3 days a week.

Key Responsibilities

• Financial planning, forecasting, and performance management: Lead the annual budget, rolling forecast, and long-range planning processes, including revenue, gross margin, operating expense, EBITDA, working capital, cash flow, and capital investment planning.
• Develop and maintain driver-based financial models, scenario analyses, and sensitivity analyses that support strategic planning, resource allocation, pricing, customer/product profitability, and major business decisions.
• Provide executive leadership with timely, insightful variance analysis against budget, forecast, prior year, and strategic plan, clearly explaining business drivers, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
• Drive accountability for forecast assumptions, forecast accuracy, and timely identification of risks and opportunities across the business.
• Commercial and operational business partnership: Serve as a trusted financial advisor to executive leadership and functional leaders, with particular emphasis on partnering with commercial leadership to improve sales productivity, pricing discipline, margin performance, customer mix, product mix, and profitability.
• Challenge operational and commercial assumptions, evaluate trade-offs, and translate complex financial information into clear business recommendations that improve performance and accountability.
• Coordinate planning activities across Finance, Accounting, Operations, Sales, Supply Chain, and other functions to ensure alignment between financial commitments, operating plans, and strategic priorities.
• Reporting, analytics, and decision support: Lead the development of monthly, quarterly, and annual management reporting packages, dashboards, KPIs, and business reviews for executive leadership and other stakeholders.
• Improve visibility into business drivers through enhanced reporting, data quality, and analytics, including clear insight into revenue, volume, price, mix, material margin, operating expense, working capital, cash flow, and EBITDA performance.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, consistent, timely, and decision-ready, with clear ownership of definitions, data governance, and recurring performance metrics.
• Strategic initiatives and investment analysis: Support corporate strategy through financial modeling, business case development, ROI analysis, capital allocation support, and evaluation of strategic investments, acquisitions, divestitures, and integration activities.
• Identify opportunities to improve profitability, operating efficiency, working capital productivity, and cash generation, and partner with business leaders to convert insights into measurable actions.
• Process improvement, systems, and data: Continuously improve budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, and analytics processes through standardization, automation, stronger data governance, and effective use of ERP, financial planning, and business intelligence tools.
• Establish FP&A best practices that increase efficiency, improve forecast accuracy, reduce manual effort, and create scalable reporting and planning capabilities.
• Leverage artificial intelligence and advanced analytics tools to enhance financial planning, forecasting, reporting, scenario modeling, and decision-making across the organization.
• Team leadership: Lead, coach, and develop the FP&A team, setting clear goals, expectations, and accountability for high-quality analysis, business partnership, and continuous improvement.
• Promote a culture of curiosity, ownership, proactive problem solving, collaboration, and constructive challenge across Finance and the broader organization.

Qualifications Required

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a related field required.
• 10+ years of progressive finance experience, including significant experience in FP&A, management reporting, business analysis, or commercial finance.
• 5+ years of leadership experience, including coaching, developing, and managing finance professionals.
• Demonstrated experience leading budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, variance analysis, financial modeling, and executive-level decision support.

Preferred

• MBA, CPA, CMA, or other relevant advanced credential preferred.
• Experience in distribution, manufacturing, chemicals, plastics, or other inventory- and working-capital-intensive businesses preferred.
• Experience with ERP systems, financial planning tools, business intelligence platforms, dashboarding, and process automation preferred.
  

Core Competencies & Skills

• Expert understanding of financial statements, accounting principles, financial planning, forecasting, and long-range planning.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect financial results to commercial, operational, supply chain, working capital, and market drivers.
• Curious, proactive, and intellectually rigorous; goes beyond responding to requests by identifying the questions that should be asked and the actions that should be considered.
• Synthesizes complex financial and operational information into concise, actionable insights and recommendations.
• Evaluates the financial implications of strategic decisions, identifies risks and opportunities, and balances short-term performance with long-term value creation.
• Builds trusted relationships across the organization and influences business decisions through credibility, clear communication, and constructive challenge.
• Clearly communicates complex financial concepts to audiences with varying levels of financial expertise.
• Leads organizational and financial transformation initiatives while maintaining stakeholder alignment and engagement.
• Demonstrates strong systems aptitude, data discipline, and commitment to improving reporting accuracy, automation, and scalability.
• Develops talent, sets high standards, and fosters a team culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and business partnership.