WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Within the Nike South Africa (SA) Finance team, we are looking for a Lead, Finance Planning South Africa to join our SA headquarters in Johannesburg. As a Finance Lead you will play a key role in realizing the growth potential, driving and delivering a sustained, mutually profitable business in collaboration with key commercial stakeholders.

In a commercial focused role, you will make decisions that impact our business and as such high-profile communication is key to enable and drive change. As a team player you will develop x-functional partnerships with our main stakeholders. You will drive financial alignment around strategic and operational goals while ensuring we optimize marketplace investments. Predictivity and accuracy on those partners’ financials are key to the role.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

This is an agile work force for the Nike SA Finance team, and who is expected to possess the following core competencies:

• Demonstrate expertise in financial planning, analysis and strategic thinking to create executive messaging in support of business decision making
• Develop and manage operational initiatives to drive efficiencies and improvements
• Lead scenario planning and forecasting activities to support business and company goals
• Review financial information and identify potential risks and opportunities
• Provide direction and leadership to teammates
• Quantify risks, assess trends and opportunities, define objectives, and develop strategies to improve financial performance
• Use scenario planning and strategic insights to create executive level reporting and messaging that influence business decisions

More specifically, the Finance Planning Lead will be a member of the Nike Marketplace (NMP) Finance Team that has day-to-day responsibilities mainly including the following:

• Drive the long range and in-year revenue planning process across the SA Marketplace including annual, quarterly, and monthly forecasting as well as the budget cycle
• Be responsible for the month-end financial closing activities (monthly landing, actuals analysis, retroactive discount accruals and tracking)
• Proactively drive financial profitability by analysing Revenue, Margin, SG&A and assist Commercial stakeholders with insightful financial data to drive marketplace decisions
• Be a key business partner in developing and standardizing Commercial Terms strategy and framework in cooperation with Commercial stakeholders
• Own the preparation and distribution of timely & insightful financial analysis and optimizing business reporting, providing meaningful insights into the key drivers of the business and support Geo financial deliverables
• Sustain, improve and implement business reporting processes and tools with an automatisation and standardization approach (in collaboration with respective cross-functional stakeholders)
• Support Account and Mutual Profitability analyses to enable Marketplace decision making and maximize profitability for Nike inc. (driving recommendations and executing high-impact opportunities across functions)
• Collaborate with the centralized Customer Finance team to ensure Accounts Receivable positions are collected and overdue and bad debt positions are minimized
• Be a thought partner for Commercial stakeholders in short and long-term P&L management (margin, investments, payoff) and develop measures of success to evaluate performance
• Financial Governance & Controls responsibilities and other statutory/regulatory compliance

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

In this role, you will be part of the Nike SA Finance Team, reporting directly to the Country Finance Sr Director.  To be successful in this role, you will need to collaborate with various business and finance teams, including various Central Finance teams, as well as cross-functional stakeholders such as Nike SA Commercial and Supporting Teams, such as Sales, Marketplace Supply Chain, Demand and Supply Management, Sports Marketing, Marketing etc.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Proven and relevant business partnership experience in a retail or wholesale environment
• CA/CPA/CFA or equivalent professional qualification
• Outstanding analytical and financial analysis skills, including a strong understanding of financial modelling and P&L management
• Excellent skills in Excel, Power Point and MS Office tools
• Ability to develop and maintain analytical models and tools to support business needs
• Ability to integrate and communicate complex and large volumes of data, analysis and reporting to support business decision making
• Strong knowledge of planning, forecasting, budgeting, investment analysis, economic profit analysis
• Strong communication and presentation skills, and stakeholder engagement abilities to collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and solve business problems
• Excellent English language skills with the ability to communicate sophisticated concepts and ideas in a concise style and manner
• Ability to interpret financial risks and controls across end to end business and operational processes
• Ability to support projects and initiatives, ensuring timely delivery and high-quality results
• Strong intellect, results-oriented mind-set with a personal impact and a sense of urgency
• High integrity, transparency, authority, confidence
• Highly efficient problem-solving skills with proactive attitude
• Ability to work in an agile manner across the finance function with optimal prioritization
• Strong knowledge in SAP, Power BI is a plus

• Strong commercial and business acumen, with ability to identify financial opportunities and risks
• Ability to ensure data accuracy and integrity, and to maintain data security and privacy
• Ability to independently utilize knowledge, skills, and abilities to identify areas of opportunity and navigate solutions