Assistant Finance Manager

Business Title: Assistant Finance Manager– Financial Reporting
Location : Mumbai HO, India
Business Unit / Function Finance – Financial Reporting
Reports to Finance Manager / Senior Finance Manager – Financial Reporting
Job Purpose: The Assistant Finance Manager – Financial Reporting is part of a centralised finance team responsible for high quality preparation of financial statements, governance over end to end financial processes, and robust balance sheet management. The role ensures accuracy, timeliness, and compliance of financial reporting while driving process discipline and supporting continuous improvement across the finance control environment. This role manages a small team and works extensively with SAP and related reporting tools, with some use of Power BI for insights and analytics. Key Accountabilities
• Lead the preparation, review, and submission of periodic financial statements in line with Unilever policies, local GAAP / IFRS, and internal timelines.
• Hold governance over core financial processes (e.g., closing, reconciliations, provisions, accruals, intercompany, fixed assets) to ensure accuracy, completeness, and control.
• Own and drive balance sheet hygiene, including regular balance sheet reviews, ageing analysis, and timely resolution of open items.
• Coordinate month end, quarter end, and year end close activities, ensuring adherence to timelines and quality standards.
• Review and sign off key account reconciliations, ensuring issues are identified, escalated, and resolved promptly.
• Use SAP extensively for posting, reporting, analysis, and controls, ensuring data integrity and consistency across systems.
• Leverage Power BI (where applicable) to create or enhance dashboards and reports that provide insight into financial performance, balance sheet health, and process KPIs.
• Partner with other finance teams (e.g., Controllership, FP&A, Tax, Treasury, Business Partnering) and relevant business stakeholders to resolve issues and land improvements.
• Support internal and external audits by preparing audit schedules, responding to queries, and ensuring remediation of audit observations.
• Identify opportunities for simplification, standardisation, and automation in financial reporting and control processes, and drive agreed improvements.
• Lead, coach, and develop a small team of finance professionals, ensuring clarity of goals, strong performance, and learning opportunities.
Key Interfaces
• Central Finance / Controllership teams
• FP&A / Performance Management
• Finance Business Partnering teams
• Shared Services / Global Operations (if applicable)
• Internal and external auditors
• Tax, Treasury, and other specialist finance teams
Critical Experience & Qualifications
• Professional qualification preferred (e.g., CA / CMA / ACCA / MBA in Finance) or equivalent finance qualification.
• Strong experience in financial reporting, controllership, or related finance roles, ideally in a large or multinational organisation.
• Hands on experience with SAP (FI/CO or equivalent modules) in a financial reporting or controlling environment.
• Exposure to reporting/visualisation tools such as Power BI is an advantage.
• Experience of managing or coaching team members is preferred.
Key Skills & Competencies
• Strong technical understanding of accounting principles and financial reporting (local GAAP and/or IFRS).
• High attention to detail with a strong control and governance mindset.
• Proficiency in SAP for financial postings, reconciliations, and reporting.
• Ability to work with and interpret large data sets; familiarity with Power BI or similar tools is a plus.
• Strong problem solving skills and ability to drive issue resolution across multiple stakeholders.
• Good communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a centralised / virtual team environment.
• Ability to plan and prioritise under tight month end and year end timelines.
• People leadership potential with willingness to coach and develop team members.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Timeliness and accuracy of financial statement submissions.
• Quality of balance sheet (ageing, open items, provisions, and reconciliations).
• Number and severity of audit observations and timely closure of actions.
• Effectiveness of process governance (on time close, adherence to controls, KPI performance).
• Stakeholder and audit feedback.
• Team engagement and performance.

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