Manager - Expense Planning & Analysis

BASIC PURPOSE:

The Manager - Expense Planning & Analysis leads enterprise budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, expense management, and financial analysis activities. This position serves as a strategic finance partner to business and executive leadership by translating financial and operational information into actionable insights, scenarios, and recommendations. The manager develops FP&A talent, strengthens financial governance, and drives continuous improvement through advanced analytics, automation, generative AI, and modern planning technologies.

PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership and Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop Expense Management team members; establish priorities, allocate resources, manage performance, and build capabilities aligned with the evolving needs of the finance function.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, sound judgment, and constructive challenges.
• Provide clear goals, timely feedback, meaningful development opportunities, and effective succession and workforce planning for the Expense Management team.

Enterprise Planning, Forecasting, and Performance Management

• Own and continuously enhance enterprise processes for annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, workforce planning, capital planning, and multi-year strategic financial planning.
• Develop driver-based forecasts and scenario analyses that connect financial outcomes to business volumes, operational assumptions, strategic initiatives, and external conditions.
• Oversee consolidated expense and staffing forecasts, including salaries, employee benefits, discretionary expenses, capital expenditures, and other significant cost categories.
• Monitor forecast accuracy, explain material variances, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and recommend actions to improve financial performance.
• Serve as a trusted finance partner to officers, senior leaders, and department leaders by providing objective analysis, constructive challenges, and clear financial recommendations.
• Lead or support business cases, cost-benefit analyses, investment evaluations, and post-implementation reviews for significant initiatives and projects.

Management Reporting and Financial Communication

• Lead the preparation and delivery of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting that compares actual results with plan, forecast, prior year, and relevant operational measures.
• Ensure financial analyses and presentations are accurate, reconciled, appropriately documented, and tailored to the needs of the intended audience.

Technology, Analytics, AI, and Process Transformation

• Identify and implement opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate expense processes while maintaining appropriate financial controls and auditability.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement responsible uses of generative AI, automation, and agent-enabled workflows within forecasting, variance analysis, management reporting, scenario modeling, and financial narrative development.
• Develop, test, and refine structured prompts and finance-focused AI agents that improve the efficiency, consistency, and scalability of work while maintaining human review, data security, documentation, and validation controls.

Financial Governance and Other Responsibilities

• Promote compliance with corporate financial policies, expense procedures, internal controls, and applicable accounting and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain strong working knowledge of company financial results, expense trends, strategic priorities, and relevant property and casualty insurance performance measures.
• Lead and participate in cross-functional initiatives, ad hoc analyses, and other assignments in support of enterprise priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business administration, data analytics, or a related analytical field.
• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in expense management, financial planning and analysis, corporate finance, financial analysis, management reporting, or a related field. .
• Previous experience leading people, projects, or significant cross-functional financial processes.
• Demonstrated proficiency in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, financial modeling, scenario analysis, and management reporting.
• Strong understanding of financial statements, GAAP concepts, financial controls, and the relationship between operational drivers and financial results.
• Advanced spreadsheet and financial modeling skills, with experience using enterprise planning, reporting, database, or business intelligence tools.
• Ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and persuasively to business, executive, and board-level audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to build partnerships, influence decisions, challenge assumptions constructively, and manage competing priorities in a changing environment.

Preferred

• MBA, CPA, CMA, CFA, or another relevant advanced degree or professional designation.
• Experience in property and casualty insurance, financial services, or another regulated and financially complex industry.
• Familiarity with statutory accounting, insurance financial reporting, expense allocation, and insurance performance measures.
• Experience with enterprise performance management or FP&A platforms, Power BI or comparable visualization tools, Power Query, SQL, Microsoft Fabric, or similar data technologies.
• Experience applying generative AI, prompt design, automation, or agent-based solutions to financial planning, analysis, reporting, or workflow improvement.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Professional office environment.

NOTE: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties performed by this employee. Employees may be requested to perform job‑related tasks other than those specifically presented in this job description. The employer reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.

The CM Group is made up of Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I., CM Regent Insurance Company, CM Vantage Specialty Insurance Company and CM Select Insurance Company.