Categories, Channels, Strategy & Data Tech Lead - MENA

About The Job

Danone is looking for a talented finance professional based in Cairo, Egypt, to lead the Channels, Strategy & Data Finance agenda for its Specialized Nutrition Business, in the Middle East and North Africa region. This role will work on long-term projects within finance such as value creation across clusters in the region.

The person will carry out the below responsibilities

CATEGORIES & CHANNELS

• Prepare subcategory and channel-wise P&L for CBU and drill down to clusters/countries. Benchmark and animate performance and provide ideas to improve financial performance or gaps to address.
• Develop subcategories, cluster/country, and channel mix target and strategy. Propose accordingly the Channel investment strategy & sales/profit targets.
• Prepare Tender and non-tender channels across clusters to animate performance and provide actionable insights.
  
  

STRATEGY

• Together with Finance Director and by working closely with Marketing, supply chain and finance team, prepare strat plan financials and high/low scenarios.
• Prepare quarterly business review content bringing actual, forecasts, strat plan together to clearly articulate progress, resource needs, risks and opportunities to achieve mid-term goals.
• Investigate & integrate relevant facts and insights (Shopper, Customer & Channel - also integrate Consumer insight by closely working with Marketing) to identify growth or realization opportunities.
• Identify and analyze growth drivers and levers like mix and price effects within Net sales and Operating Margin explaining their impacts clearly at the CBU level.
• Bring constructive challenges, provide meaningful analysis and financial insights by developing standardized KPI's.
• Continuous channel and product portfolio financial review for the overall CBU.
  
  

AS FINANCE DATA & TECH PROJECT MANAGER, you will work closely with cluster controlling teams to support the change of ways of working. What does that mean?

• Understand current ways of working and design a CBU-wide scalable data model for business and financial performance integrating both internal and external financial data.
• Identify local specificities for each cluster and support gap analysis, and prepare recommendations for arbitration when needed.
• Suggest and drive continuous improvement of major financial tools and reports driving performance and uniformity across clusters.
• Act as a strategic business partner by shifting time from data crunching/reporting to higher added value analysis leading to higher business impact.
• Co-lead workshops with Finance & IT teams to define future ways of working for transformational projects.
• Manage build or deployment plan and monitor achievement of each milestone, being the guardian of planning/budget/quality requirements.
  
  

About You

In order for you to be successful in this role, you would ideally have

Education And Experience

• Bachelor degree in Finance or equivalent
• Minimum 5-7 years of experience primarily in finance roles
• Experience in an MNC environment is highly preferred; FMCG background is a strong plus
  
  

Functional Skills

• Project Management experience
• Finance experience in business controlling.
• Advanced Excel and Power BI Skills
• By nature an interest in IT topics
• A strong set of interpersonal and communication skills
• Entrepreneurial, leadership, and "can do" mindset
  
  

Soft Skills

• Strong communication & presentation skills.
• A high degree of reliability, agility, initiative, resilience, integrity, confidentiality and empathy.
• Strong stakeholder management, ability to influence
• Ability to perform in a cross-functional, volatile, uncertain and multi-cultural environment
  
  

Location Cairo, Egypt; business trips to MENA countries required

Languages Fluent in English and Arabic

Danone Values Candidates are expected to adhere to Danone's core values Humanism, Openness, Proximity & Enthusiasm.

About Us

Danone is a world-leading food company operating in three business divisions Fresh Dairy Products, Specialized Nutrition, and Waters.

Danone’s mission is Bringing health through food to as many people as possible and we want to invite people to join the movement for a healthier world. We recognize the power people have in impacting the world through their daily choices. Each time we eat and drink, we vote for the world we want to live in. We believe a healthy body needs healthy food. And healthy food needs a healthy planet and this is what our new signature One Planet One Health embodies.