Head - Financial Planning & Analysis

Our Client is a fast-growing global specialty chemicals business in R&D, AI and Global Chemical business trading across international markets, manufacture through a network of toll and contract manufacturing partners, and run a rapidly scaling category business in India.
We are looking for a Head of FP&A to build the planning and insight engine that keeps this business commercially sharp. This is not a reporting role. You will own the numbers the leadership team uses to decide which categories to push, which geographies to enter, where capital goes, and at what price we are willing to sell. You will build the function, the models, and the discipline behind it.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting:
- Own the annual operating plan, quarterly re-forecasts, and long-range plan across all entities and geographies; drive the calendar, the assumptions, and the accountability behind each number.
- Build and maintain a driver-based financial model that connects sourcing costs, toll manufacturing conversion costs, freight and duty, pricing, and volume to revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA.
- Own cash flow forecasting and working capital planning - inventory, receivables, payables, and the funding needs of a business that carries goods across borders.
- Run scenario and sensitivity analysis on the variables that actually move this business: FX, tariff and duty changes, freight rates, raw material price movement, and customer concentration.
Business Insight & Decision Support:
- Own unit economics at the level the business is run - by category, product, customer, geography, and trade lane. Make gross margin explainable, not just reportable.
- Partner with Category, Global Sourcing, Commercial, and Supply Chain leadership to pressure-test pricing decisions, sourcing choices, and new market entry business cases.
- Build the analytical view of landed cost and contribution margin so commercial teams know, before they quote, what a deal is actually worth.
- Evaluate capital allocation decisions and investment proposals - new categories, new geographies, capability build - with clear returns logic and post-implementation review.
Management & Investor Reporting:
- Own the monthly MIS and management reporting pack: performance against plan, variance analysis with root cause, and a clear narrative for what changed and what leadership should do about it.
- Prepare board and investor reporting - performance packs, KPI dashboards, and the underlying data that must withstand scrutiny.
- Define and govern the company-wide KPI framework so that Finance, Commercial, and Operations are working off one version of the truth.
- Support diligence, lender, and stakeholder information requests with fast, accurate, well-structured analysis.
Function & Systems Build:
- Build, lead, and develop the FP&A team; set standards for analytical rigour and business partnering.

- Upgrade the planning and reporting stack - planning tools, BI and dashboarding, and the data pipelines that feed them; reduce dependence on manual spreadsheet cycles.
- Work with the Controller and business teams to strengthen data integrity at source, so that reporting improves without adding reconciliation effort.
MUST-HAVE REQUIREMENTS:
- 10-12 years of post-qualification experience, with substantial time in FP&A, business finance, or commercial finance in a leadership capacity.
- Proven ownership of budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting for a multi-entity or multi-geography business.
- Strong commercial and analytical capability - advanced financial modelling in Excel, plus working proficiency with BI or visualisation tools (Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent). Comfort with SQL is a strong advantage.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior commercial and operating leaders with analysis - not just to produce it.
- Working knowledge of ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or equivalent) and of how transactional data becomes reliable management information.
- Sound grounding in Ind AS / IFRS and the ability to work closely with Controllership without duplicating it.
- Structured thinking, high ownership, and the ability to operate with limited precedent in a fast-changing business.
- Based in Bangalore or willing to relocate.