Head of FP&A - Growth & Strategy
Position Description
Role Snapshot
- The opportunity: Lead global FP&A for a newly formed central Growth team delivering the next era of Fonterra driving strategy, growth, marketing, business development and innovation.
- Reports to: Director, Finance, Growth & Strategy | Direct report: Manager, FP&A Growth & Strategy | Based in Singapore (global remit).
- Ideal candidate: An aspirational finance leader seeking a development pathway to a Market Finance Leadership role. This is a strategic, performance-driving position, not a day-to-day operational one.
Purpose of the Position
This role leads global Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) across a newly formed central Growth team responsible for delivering the next era of Fonterra’s growth across Ingredients and Food Service. It is deliberately not a day-to-day operational role and exists to drive performance and ensure alignment between strategy, growth, marketing, business development and innovation (including research and science) efforts.
Partnering with the Director of Finance, Growth & Strategy, the Head of FP&A provides strategic financial leadership through enterprise-wide planning, forecasting, performance management, decision support and business partnering.
The role protects value, drives value creation and sustainable growth, and ensures robust commercial performance, financial governance and strategic insight across the Growth and Strategy business. Acting as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, the role develops and monitors long-term strategies, delivers robust financial planning, analysis and action-oriented insights and ensures alignment with the Co-op’s purpose, vision, strategies and goals.
Key Accountabilities
Strategic Leadership
- Active member of the Growth and Strategy Finance Leadership Team, contributing to overall strategy and collective leadership accountability.
- Develop and implement long-term strategic plans aligned with organisational objectives and market opportunities.
- Provide thought leadership to identify growth drivers and value creation across strategy, marketing, business development and innovation.
- Lead the annual planning, budgeting, forecasting and long-range planning cycles within an integrated framework that links business objectives to financial outcomes.
- Deliver high-quality forecasts and revenue/pricing insights, identifying key risks, opportunities and performance drivers with transparency across assumptions.
- Lead performance management and reporting, developing KPIs, delivering timely monthly, quarterly and annual reporting, and liaising with Group FP&A on BU requirements.
- Translate financial information into clear, actionable insights through data-driven storytelling.
- Act as a trusted strategic advisor, leading financial modelling for pricing, investment, resource allocation and strategic initiatives.
- Support investment decisions through rigorous business cases, scenario modelling and benefit realisation tracking.
- Challenge assumptions and provide independent commercial insight to improve decision quality and identify growth, productivity and cost opportunities.
- Drive competitive analysis and benchmarking to inform market positioning.
- Working with Group and BU risk controllers, ensure robust financial governance and compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements.
- Identify and mitigate financial, operational and market risks through proactive management.
- Champion continuous improvement of FP&A systems, data and analytics, including SAP S4, Power BI and AI-enabled forecasting, ensuring data integrity and governance.
- Inspire, lead, coach and develop a high-performing FP&A team, driving talent development, succession planning and a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Build effective relationships with the Leadership Team, Group Finance and key commercial partners, influencing and challenging senior stakeholders constructively.
- Represent the Growth and Strategy business unit with credibility in cross-functional and external engagements.
What You Bring
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Commerce or related discipline; CA, CPA, CFA or CMA preferred.
- 10+ years’ progressive experience across FP&A, commercial finance, business partnering and financial leadership.
- Proven track record leading enterprise planning, forecasting and performance management, and developing high-performing teams.
- Success partnering with senior and executive stakeholders; FMCG, food ingredients or complex multinational experience preferred.
Technical Capability
- Financial planning, forecasting, modelling and investment appraisal.
- Enterprise performance management, scenario planning and risk analysis.
- Financial reporting and analytics; advanced Excel, Power BI, SAP, SAC and ERP systems.
Leadership & Behaviours
- Strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen, translating strategy into financial outcomes.
- Trusted advisor with executive-level credibility, influence and financial storytelling.
- Coaching, collaborative leadership and change leadership through complexity and ambiguity.
- Proactive, outcome-focused, curious, with an enterprise mindset, integrity and continuous-improvement orientation.