Chief Financial Officer

The ideal CFO candidate must be well-versed in all aspects of financial management, self-motivated, self-directed leader who is able to work under pressure in a dynamic environment.

The CFO will have both day-to-day and ongoing impact on company operations, helping the owners to analyse, strategize, and grow the company’s financial position. As a member of the senior management, he or she will be comfortable in a leadership role that demands clear communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

ACCOUNTING AND TAXES

• Guarantees compliance with all relevant local legislation (e.g. statutory accounting standards, tax law, civil law) and internal group guidelines.
• Ensures that the accounting is correct, transparent (within the organisation and towards Private Equity (PE) owners) and complete (including appropriate accruals/deferrals). The financial statements must present a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the reported period.
• Assures timely submission of accurate financial information to all stakeholders.
• Pro-actively and cost-efficiently manages the year-end audit process and external auditors.
• Establishes effective tax management ensuring that all changes in tax legislation and their implications are evaluated well in advance, a regular tax risk assessment is being conducted and all day-to-day tax queries are handled in the most cost-efficient way.

CASH MANAGEMENT AND TREASURY

• Establishes and maintains an effective credit risk management, makes sure that payment terms are in line with industry standards, assesses customer creditworthiness on a regular basis, sets credit limits and security requirements for all customers, implements in cooperation with the sales department an effective collection and dunning process and strictly avoids bad debts.
• Sets up effective cash management by minimizing working capital needs.
• Ensures that reliable liquidity forecasts are being delivered to PE owners on time.
• Carries out a return on investment calculation for all proposed investments as per the Investment guideline and makes sure that a positive return will be achieved.
• Manages all local insurance topics (cars, claims and general internal inquiries) according to the guideline.

INTERNAL CONTROLS

• Assures the application of and compliance with all relevant IC guidelines received from PE owners.
• Implements local policies to set principles for behaviour, to have written documentation of common sense and to guarantee fair treatment within the organisation.
• Establishes and continuously re-assesses an effective Internal Control System and thus minimises the risk of errors, misconduct or fraud by designing company processes to satisfy the 4-eyes principle, ensuring sufficient segregation of duties and creating awareness about the possibility of fraud.
• Promotes candid business conduct and establishes a climate of honesty, trust and loyalty (= lead by example) and encourages a (confidential) culture of reporting misbehavior.

CONTROLLING

• Fully complies with the PE Group Controlling guideline.
• Designs the system setup to perfectly mirror the responsibilities in the organization.
• Ensures timely distribution of financial information (plan and actual) to every budget holder by sending out reports, by allowing system access and by presenting the information in regular meetings.
• Promotes efficiency in Controlling in order to minimise time spent for report generation and increase time for analysis, commenting and insights sharing.
• Establishes a true bottom up planning process and develops a local planning calendar based on the group planning timetable allowing for sufficient review time and feedback cycles.
• Assures that the forecasting accuracy of business plans, revised estimates and long term forecasts is high by creating an environment in which realistic plans are being developed.
• Supports budget holders during the planning process, but also challenges input by eliminating reserves and agreeing on corrections on too ambitious/conservative plans. Makes sure that risks and opportunities are well balanced.
• Measures and reviews the cost/benefit ratio of proposed activities.
• Sets up a monthly reporting calendar. Plan – actual deviations are commented on their causes with the objective of preventing further deviations and agreeing on countermeasures.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP

• Builds a solid relationship with budget holders based on mutual respect and trust.
• Is driven through a service mentality by sharing insights, by supporting budget reallocations, by ensuring overall budget adherence, by acting as a facilitator to achieve objectives, by highlighting risks and opportunities, by providing financial simulations and by developing business cases for new projects.
• Manages fact and knowledge-based, spreads and exchanges information, translates findings into action, and follows up on agreed measures.
• Promotes efficiency, productivity and profitability in all areas of the company by ensuring efficient use and protection of company assets and by maximizing benefits and synergies with other group activities.
• Increases cost-consciousness by creating transparency, rethinking local policies while checking compliance with existing ones, by challenging spending behaviour, conducting bidding processes/tenders and by creating a “competition” for lower spending.
• Works closely with the Management team to improve company cash flow.
• Carries out the return on investment calculations for new customers and new channels, for new products through the SKU launch proposal assessing the profitability impact of the new SKUs, for promotional activities, for new overhead structures, marketing projects, and for capital investments.
• Supports the preparation for important customer and vendor negotiations by sharing beneficial contract modification proposals.
• Contributes to the implementation of a consistent pricing structure, minimizing customer exposure risk and ensuring that the minimum pricing levels are not undercut by individual customers.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

• Builds a team of highly engaged and motivated people.
• Develops and updates regularly the job descriptions for all Finance staff.
• Ensures that each position is held by a person with the appropriate qualification.
• Agrees on annual objectives and links variable pay to the achievement levels.
• Holds bi-annual performance reviews giving clear, honest, and fair feedback.
• Promotes internal trainings (Finance Academies and Best Practice Workshops) to elevate knowledge levels within the team.
• Assures that all key processes are documented in writing and that checklists are being used.

Skills and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in accounting, business accounting, or finance
• Proven experience as CFO, finance director, or other relevant roles preferably in FMCG or /and manufacturing environment
• 5+ years experience in executive positions with proven strong leadership and organizational skills,
• Understanding of advanced accounting, regulatory issues, and tax planning
• Personal integrity and ability to work under pressure
• Exceptional communication and analytical skills
• Ability to identify and analyze risks and impacts, able to define alternatives, strategize and solve problems
• Fluent in Romanian, Hungarian, and English

Please send your CV to the following e-mail address [email protected]