Director Of Financial Analysis

Summary of position:

The Director of Financial Analysis (DFA) supports Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative (SMBSC), its subsidiaries and partners by leading analytical support for the business as well as developing complex financial models and systems that extract, aggregate, and dissect financial/operational data and performance metrics for management review to answer business questions, identify issues, and recommend courses of action. This is a critical position that drives sound, practical and profitable business decisions via strong collaboration with the Executive team and functional leaders.

Essential Functions:

Analyzing and Forecasting

• Develop and maintain analytical models and data analysis tools that drive business transformation recommendations which support the short and long-term view of sugar and coproduct markets. This includes analyzing fundamental supply and demand data, production and shipping schedules/constraints, product prices (basis/premiums), regional/company spreads, forward curves, cash flow, seasonality analysis, and macroeconomic variables
• Create, implement, and maintain dynamic tools and processes to gather, interpret, and model information for use in strategic planning, fundamental budgeting and monthly forecast activities, and market trend analysis. This includes leading systems and tools for budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, cash flow projections, sugar and coproduct supply-demand planning, operational cost analyses and all other ad hoc analyses critical to driving cost-benefit decisions within the business and for our grower-owners
• Partner with Operations and Ag staff to develop pro-forma and post-mortem project/portfolio economic analysis (ROI, P&L, cash flow, balance sheet) that ensures the Company is investing shareholder funds in the most prudent and economical manner possible. This project/portfolio analysis will also drive the long-term operational direction of operations and the business.
• Update and Maintain the Capital Long Rang Plan by working with other departments to ensure a complete and well thought-thru plan to incorporate into the companies Long Range Plan
• Model short and long-term cash flows and assist with ensuring the most efficient capitalization/financing of the business
• Analyze sugar industry data value chain to develop forecasts, identify key takeaways of analysis, and communicate findings and conclusions; conduct research on related topics in order to increase the Company’s understanding of the factors that influence supply and demand dynamics in local, regional, national, and global markets
• Performs sensitivity and scenario analyses as well as analytic and pricing modeling; creates qualitative and quantitative models
• Evaluates current practices and methods for reporting and analyzing data; recommends changes to improve processes
• Partners with plant operations, agriculture, and all other functions/sites to lead analyses which drive sound, profitable decision-making
• Partners with National Sugar Marketing and other partners to complete baseline activities, identify opportunities to improve current state, transform processes, and change initiatives resulting in improved economics including both revenue and expenses
• Performs root cause analysis to uncover core data issues; works with Controller, VP of Finance, and Chief Financial Officer to improve issues and create new measures for productivity across all sites.
• Identifies and assists in preparation of grant applications
• Assist in preparation of monthly board presentation
• Assist in preparing the monthly financial reporting package which is called the Green Book for both Management and the Board

Leadership

• Offers leadership by driving internal communications with staff at all levels throughout the Company; creates and promotes a positive and supportive work environment that promotes housekeeping and safety
• Provides subject matter expertise on financial forecasting and data analysis to members of the management team and functional leaders
• Lead the formulation of operating and capital budgets/ forecasts; recommends and maintains allocation for needs based on SMBSC’s established financial guidelines and business planning process
• Maintains memberships and affiliations with trade and/or professional organizations related to the company

 Core Competencies and Skill Requirements:

• Must be able to create dynamic models/tools that allow for complex sensitivity analysis, contingency planning and cost-benefit analysis
• Must be able to collaborate across the business, work independently with little supervision while dealing with ambiguous and complex situations
• Strong understanding of accounting, economic and financial principles
  • Knowledge reviewing and analyzing financial statements, ratios, margins and knowledge of Financial concepts such as net present value, economic value added, and weighted average cost of capital
  • Ability to perform advanced financial modeling in Access, SQL, and Visual Basic for Applications
  • Prepares quarterly covenant compliance calculations with banks
  • Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of Financial data
  • Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, production methods, and coordination of people and resources
• Superior critical thinking skills
  • Ability to use logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems
  • Ability to identify complex problems and review related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions
  • Ability to consider the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one
  • Ability to analyze and evaluate forecasting systems by determining how a system should work and how changes in input data through production, inventory, economic data, and government regulations will affect outcomes as well as identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
  • Ability to demonstrate superior interpersonal skills needed for working with a variety of knowledge levels including employees and vendor, which includes answering questions and distributing information
  • Ability to have a high attention to detail
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel and Access databases
  • Ability to create and use macros, indexes, conditional lists, arrays, pivots, and look ups
  • Ability to create and manage Access databases; ability to manipulate and extract from databases
  • Information management acumen including advanced desktop application and data modeling skills
• Strong work ethic
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities, produce excellent work results and follow through on commitments
  • Ability to work independently and with a team in a fast-paced and high volume environment with emphasis on accuracy and timeliness
  • Ability and comfort in navigating through ambiguity
  • Ability to work overtime as required
• Commitment to safety
  • Ability to work in a responsible, safe manner by adhering to SMBSC’s safety protocol

Required Education and Experience:

 Bachelor’s degree in accounting, economics or finance; Master’s degree preferred

• Seven or more years of experience in commodity price markets with direct work in supply and demand analysis as well as statistical modeling

Other:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.  Duties, responsibilities and activities may change any time with or without notice.