Director, Financial Planning and Analysis, APAC

About Cochlear

Cochlear's mission is to help people hear and be heard. As the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, Cochlear is dedicated to helping people with moderate to profound hearing loss experience a life full of hearing.

Cochlear Asia-Pacific, the fastest growing division of Cochlear Ltd, has a direct market presence in Japan, Korea, China, India, SE Asia and Australia & New Zealand. Cochlear conducts most of its leading research, development and manufacturing of cochlear implants in the Asia Pacific region with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Australia and repair facilities in Malaysia. We are building a new facility in Chengdu to serve China and emerging markets and increase global production.

The Opportunity.

Working as part of the APAC Finance, Leadership team, the Director, FP&A will Lead the FP&A function in APAC, building a high performing network of Finance Business partners (dotted line Finance Managers and direct line financial analysts) in line with the APAC Matrix reporting structure to deliver the regions strategic and operational plans through partnering with business partners and key stakeholders to drive commercially informed business decisions.

This role is tasked with contributing to the delivery of the APAC regional finance strategy and financial targets, building commercial awareness and strategic insight in the finance function. Responsible for leading strategic and operational planning processes in APAC and representing the region at the global COE (Planning and reporting), to ensure continuous improvement of global planning process and alignment with global and regional requirements for the benefit of APAC.

Accountabilities

Annual planning cycle

• Responsible for delivering the strategic plan and budget for APAC and driving the regional business review process to achieve global and regional financial targets.
• Analyse strategic plans and initiatives, evaluate the financial impacts and make recommendations on priorities for investment of resources.
• Responsible for co-ordinating the monthly and quarterly Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes for APAC to ensure deliverables are submitted on time with aligned assumptions.
• Responsible for delivering quality financial insights into the DMR through summaries and Analysis of P&L, risks and opportunities, contingency requests, and review of key financial drivers to facilitate executive action.
• Provide input into the development and utilisation of appropriate planning tools to support the annual planning cycle and ensure forecast accuracy.
• Continuously assess revenue and EBIT performance against budget and targets to ensure delivery of APAC goals and business priorities.
• Ensure that regional financial, cash flow and capex forecasts are robust and properly integrated into business forecasts to provide a full financial outlook. ​​

Financial Analysis and business decision support

• Ensure the APAC Finance business partners provide timely, robust data and deep analysis with recommendations and relevant input to the business performance and decision-making process.
• Provide consistent and comparable analysis enabling the Leadership Team (LT) to assess the financial impact of the regions business strategies.
• Consult with business stakeholders and support them in elaborating business cases by providing financial evaluation and input into decisions on key strategic projects.
• Support commercial decision making through developing financial evaluation of proposed business projects, commercial operations, and performance data.
• Provide financial guidance to senior business managers.

Data Analysis and Business Reviews

• Analyse and evaluate available financial and non-financial business information to provide insight to LT and champion development of metrics and KPIs that improve the visibility of financial and business performance and trends.
• Promote the use of the OBIEE dashboard suite and provide training and support to create user self sufficiency
• Promote a culture of decision making based on using data driven analysis

Gross Margin Optimisation

• Provide data that allows regional sales management to identify the revenue drivers and levers.
• Accountable for the calculation methodology of the ASP and Gross Margin subcategories (ie Revenue, Customer and Product splits) that ensure like for like comparisons (ie comparable reporting across Distributor and Cochlear direct markets)
• Support the business to understand the FOC and discount impacts on ASP and Gross Margin (eg. comparable BOM and impacts on non-upgrade revenue) and provide oversight of customer rebate approvals.
• Accountable for supporting the price tiering methodology and data supporting the pricing database approval process and impacts
• Responsible for investment business cases that clearly link cost to potential revenue and track expected outcomes.

Monthly financial reporting

• Support the Regional Finance Director APAC in the submission of the monthly reporting
• Provide input on the overall review of the business performance and Analysis of variances to forecast.

People Management

• Transform the Regional Finance Business Partner team into commercially focused, forward-looking, well-respected business partners by ensuring their career development and succession plans.
• Development of direct reports and matrix reports (dotted line) ensuring that all members have clear roles and responsibilities.
• Continuous performance review and setting / following up on objectives for direct reports
• Attract and retain quality employees with the best skills and qualifications to ensure that Cochlear standards and values are met and exceeded.

About You.

As we grow our operations, we are looking for people who share our passion for delivering quality hearing solutions to our customers. To add value to Cochlear in this role, you'll be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential

• Qualified to CA, CPA, ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent
• Minimum of 5 years' experience - running Financial Planning and Analysis
• Experience in diverse, multi-national company
• Finance Transformation experience
• Sound commercial and financial acumen.
• Good leadership, communication, and presentation skills
• Experience in team management of a Finance function

How we recognise your contribution

We want Cochlear to be a place where our people enjoy coming to work. Through our internal programs and employee benefits we aim to create an environment where our people will feel valued and supported. Whether your focus is on continuous learning, professional development or simply finding an environment which enables you to thrive whilst balancing family or personal life commitments, then we have several programs in place to support you.

How to apply.

If you are excited about what you have read and would like to be considered for this role then please submit your resume and a covering letter detailing your suitability for this role.

At Cochlear we value and welcome the unique contributions, perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds of our employees and aim to build a culture that celebrates and leverages these differences, creating a sense of belonging and enabling our people to realise their full potential. We offer flexible working arrangements, and we understand flexibility is not the same for everyone. We're open to a conversation about what flexibility means for you.