Finance Planning Manager

This role is centered on leading the planning agenda for the Liquid Refreshment Beverages (LRB) portfolio, ensuring the delivery of high-quality strategic and operational plans in close collaboration with cross-functional teams. Acting as a key business partner, the position supports the organization in tracking and delivering business priorities through rigorous KPI monitoring, evaluation of strategic initiatives, funds tracking, and providing analytical insights to guide decision-making. Additionally, it involves ownership of bottler financials preparation and review, including periodic performance discussions and financial support for projects related to bottling network changes.

Key Responsibilities

Business and Financial Strategy, Planning, and Forecasting
Facilitate and support the development and execution of strategic plans, Annual Operating Plans (AOP), and rolling forecasts. Drive the AOP/forecast process by defining business action plans and setting clear priorities. Develop balanced financial algorithms based on ROI and pay-for-performance principles. Build comprehensive business economics to assess performance across brands, packages, and channels. Coordinate BU budgets and financial targets aligned with operating plans. Monitor progress against AOP targets and support contingency planning and corrective actions. Provide deep analytical insights to diagnose and resolve critical business issues. Support business innovations, revenue management initiatives, and productivity enhancements across bottling operations. Manage the BU/Region planning calendar ensuring quality, timeliness, and alignment throughout the planning cycle.

Business Development Support
Support strategic decisions for launching new categories, brands, packages, and channels. Develop optimal pack-price strategies aligned with consumer and market dynamics. Design concentrate pricing formulas balancing competitiveness with margin protection. Ensure sustainable system profitability across stakeholders. Provide financial and analytical support through sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, and risk assessments. Evaluate innovation pipelines and support stakeholder alignment across bottling partners and commercial teams. Collaborate on multi-year investment memos and facilitate approval processes for strategic priorities. Deliver analytical support for performance management by tracking year-to-date performance, analyzing variances, and identifying key business drivers. Monitor and track Spend to Budget (STB) and Advertising & Marketing (A&M) budgets to ensure effective utilization and risk mitigation. Support preparation and delivery of commercial proposals for prospective customers.

Bottler Financials
Lead development and forecasting of detailed shadow P&Ls for each bottler using market intelligence, cross-functional inputs, and historical trends. Conduct monthly updates of assumptions to monitor bottler financial health. Benchmark system performance to validate Profitability Index estimates and strengthen financial projections. Support strategic and regulatory engagement by evaluating tax policy changes and building impact scenarios. Perform sensitivity analyses to quantify financial implications of strategic decisions. Continuously monitor external dynamics such as Net Trade Price movements and competitor actions through market intelligence.

Analytical Support
Deliver actionable insights by evaluating current business results and highlighting opportunities and risks. Provide cross-functional planning support including cost-to-serve economics, channel profitability, and margin optimization. Support detailed sales analysis, reporting, and forecasting to inform commercial strategies. Drive performance tracking and business transparency through volume and margin contribution reporting, funds tracking, and regular updates to senior leadership. Develop and communicate quarterly business updates and financial outlooks. Provide agile, data-driven decision support through ad hoc business analysis and insights.

People Development
Build analytical capability within the planning team. Ensure 100% compliance with PepsiCo Global Compliance Standards (GCS) to minimize business risks.

Required Qualifications
Chartered Accountant / ACMA / ACCA qualification. Eight to ten years of post-qualification experience in finance within a reputable organization. Exposure to Oracle/ERP systems. Strong knowledge of Total System Economics and Business Fundamentals. Core competencies in financial planning, analysis, forecasting, financial process management, business risk assessment, investment and budget management, and customer development. Strong analytical and technical skills with familiarity in IT systems. Demonstrated strategic and systematic thinking, decision-making, innovation, and problem-solving abilities. Proven leadership and interpersonal skills including team management, driving results, integrity, collaboration, influencing, and strong communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.

This position offers a unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping the financial and operational success of the LRB portfolio through strategic planning, analytical rigor, and strong cross-functional collaboration.