Senior Financial Planning Analyst - Hybrid - Somerset, NJ

Who We Are:

Guest Worldwide is a global collective of dynamic, industry-leading companies with more than 40 years of unparalleled experience serving the unique needs of diverse markets in every corner of the world. From providing full-spectrum hospitality and distribution solutions at Guest Supply and manufacturing award-winning personal care amenities at Gilchrist & Soames, to manufacturing versatile and innovative product assortments that create smarter textile solutions at Manchester Mills, we're proud to provide products to more than 25,000 hotels in over 100 countries. Guest Worldwide is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sysco - an industry leading, global food and beverage distribution company, employing thousands of employees worldwide and home to the 13th largest sales organization in the world. Learn more by visiting www.guestworldwide.com

Position Purpose:

The Senior Finance Analyst serves as a strategic finance partner to the business, owning end-to-end planning, forecasting, and performance management for assigned areas. This role consolidates budgeting and analytical responsibilities into a single senior position to improve consistency, speed, and quality of decision support. The Senior Finance Analyst partners closely with Sales, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Finance leadership to translate data into insights, develop financial models and business cases, recommend actions, and drive execution against profitability, efficiency, and growth objectives.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Own and continuously improve FP&A reporting and planning tools, establishing standardized definitions, governance, and automation to deliver timely, accurate profitability and performance insights.
• Deliver executive-ready dashboards and recurring performance reviews; proactively surface drivers, risks, and opportunities and recommend actions to optimize margin, expense, and working capital outcomes.
• Lead annual budget, quarterly forecast, and long-range planning cycles for assigned cost centers and investment plans; drive alignment with business owners and ensure assumptions are documented, challenged, and reconciled.
• Develop and maintain key financial narratives (monthly/quarterly packages) that connect results to strategy and clearly articulate implications, trade-offs, and recommended decisions.
• Lead monthly close-to-forecast and close-to-budget reviews for assigned areas; investigate key variances, validate drivers with business owners, and propose corrective actions with quantified impact.
• Analyze sales, cost, and spend trends by channel/account; identify structural margin drivers, recommend risk/opportunity actions, and track benefits realization.
• Proactively build and deliver revenue/expense and margin scenario models to support RFPs, new business, and contract negotiations; clearly communicate assumptions, sensitivities, and risks.
• Evaluate pricing, incentive, and contractual changes; quantify financial impact, support negotiation strategy, and define post-deal tracking to ensure expected economics are delivered.
• Establish KPI/scorecard frameworks, data definitions, and performance rhythms with cross-functional partners; present insights and recommendations to leadership.
• Lead financial workstreams for strategic initiatives; define success metrics, track milestones and benefits, and escalate risks with recommended mitigations.
• Provide finance leadership on cross-functional projects by assessing financial viability, clarifying trade-offs, and influencing decisions to ensure initiatives meet financial targets.
• Participate in key decision-making forums related to contribution margin; challenge assumptions, ensure financial guardrails, and recommend actions to improve performance.
• Perform complex ad hoc analysis for executive leadership, synthesizing insights into clear recommendations, options, and quantified trade-offs.
• Develop market and competitive analyses, financial models, and business cases for key growth programs; partner with stakeholders to shape recommendations and prepare materials for leadership decisions.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in business, accounting, finance or related field.
• MBA a plus.

Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years progressive finance experience (FP&A, budgeting/forecasting, and reporting), preferably in an integrated ERP environment.
• Demonstrated experience in advanced financial modeling, channel/account profitability analysis, and scenario-based decision support for cross-functional stakeholders.

Skills:

• Strategic finance partnership: strong business acumen; ability to translate operational drivers into financial insights and actions.
• FP&A expertise: end-to-end budgeting, forecasting, close-to-forecast analysis, and KPI/scorecard design.
• Advanced financial modeling: scenario/sensitivity analysis, profitability modeling, and business case development with clear assumptions and trade-offs.
• Executive-ready communication: concise written and verbal storytelling; ability to present recommendations and influence without authority.
• Data management and automation mindset: improve reporting processes, standardize definitions, and enhance controls/governance.
• Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, Power Query, complex formulas) and strong PowerPoint skills for executive materials; experience with BI tools is a plus.
• ERP/reporting tools proficiency (PeopleSoft preferred) and ability to reconcile across multiple data sources.
• Strong prioritization and project management skills; able to manage multiple deadlines, ambiguity, and stakeholder expectations