Job Summary
The Senior Manager, Financial Planning – Engineering is responsible for planning, implementing, managing and controlling financial activities within the Engineering envelope. The incumbent drives accountability by promoting the understanding of budget and forecast issues as well as supports the functional leadership team with key financial insights and operational analytics. The position is critical in fostering a culture of cost consciousness, control, simplification and continuous improvement, as well as documenting improvement opportunities in Engineering systems and coordinating collaborative resolution. Furthermore, the incumbent plays a key role in developing, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of Corporate Strategy with Engineering leaders and their respective teams with emphasis on bottom-line performance and sound investments.
Main Responsibilities
Management Reporting and Financial Management Processes
- Ensure management reporting and financial management processes are dynamic and relevant to business and drive business performance
- Provide Senior Leaders and their respective teams with guidance and advice on their Operating and Capital expenditures, trends and metrics
- Identify gaps and provide recommendations to strategically enhance financial performance and business opportunities, and provide a full range of financial solutions
- Ensure dashboards are dynamic, appropriate and result in management actions
- Recommend regional benchmark exercises for measuring financial performance
- Develop meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the stakeholder and drive change as a result
- Actively pursue opportunities to deliver cost savings and efficiency gains
- Effectively deploy Capital to maximize returns
- Direct the development and analysis of business cases for the function’s Capital investment proposals
- Provide appropriate oversight on Capital spend versus project advancement
Budgeting and Planning Process
Handle Operating and Capital budgeting and planning processes while ensuring they are dynamic and aligned with business needsDirect and translate the corporate business plan into Operating expense budgets and Capital plan investmentsEnsure buy-in by key stakeholders on budgets by making them understand the assumptions and key elements used to establish the budgetMonitor, analyze and explain monthly Operating results against budgetDirect and validate the preparation and distribution of weekly, monthly, quarterly reports on expenditures and key performance metrics, including various analysis as requiredHandle the preparation and distribution of financial reports, outlooks and forecastsHandle changes and transfers within the Operating and Capital budgetsTake a hands-on position of developing, implementing and maintaining comprehensive financial forecasting systemsAdvise and inform senior management teams on the opportunities and risks associated with the outlooks and keep Financial Planning abreast of the changes to the Year End OutlookDrill down on unexpected variances to provide explanations to key stakeholders and establish corrective actions through discussions with Engineering Senior ManagementContinue to Improve Processes, Controls and Day-to-Day Support
Ensure that effective controls are in place to ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) including monitoring and reportingProactively review and implement new processes triggered by new accounting pronouncements, new systems or otherProvide recommendations and procedural improvements for financial audit issues and controlsDirect and sign-off on balance sheet account reconciliationsEnsure the integrity of financial transactions created by the departmentRespond to questions, provide day-to-day support to Engineering staff pertaining to financial systems, and provide them with basic financial insights in order to perform the administrative portion of their duties adequatelyTalent Development
Lead, coach and develop a team of Finance professionalsHelp foster collaboration and best practice within the team and beyondMonitor progress and performance of the teamProvide direction, accountability, coaching and mentoring to the teamCoordinate responses where needed on questions from external auditorsWorking Conditions
The role has standard working conditions in an office environment with a regular workweek from Monday to Friday. The role requires minimal travel (10%) to carry out field visits within each territory across Canada and the United States ( The role requires being available on-call 24 / 7 to respond to critical incidences. Due to the nature of the role, the incumbent must be able to meet tight deadlines, handle pressure and stress.
Requirements
Experience
Financial Leadership or Operational Role
Minimum 10 years of experience in progressively responsible financial leadership or operational rolesoExperience in project management, system or software development and managing data
oExperience in back-end and front-end development (, Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Server, Vistal (, Active Server Pages (ASP), Java, HTML, Cold Fusion)
Education / Certification / Designation
Bachelor’s Degree with a concentration in Finance or AccountingMaster’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA)Chartered / Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) designationAny designation for these above would be considered as an assetCompetencies
Know the business and stay current with industry needsApply critical thinkingSets direction and inspires othersCommunicates with impactInnovateCollaborates with others and shares informationDelegates and empowers others to create accountabilityDevelops self and othersIdentifies needs and finds solutions to create value for all stakeholdersTechnical Skills / Knowledge
Deep knowledge of Engineering business processes and metricsKnowledge of finance, accounting, budgeting and cost control principlesExtensive knowledge of CN's financial and accounting reporting system, including Systems, Applications and Products (SAP) Financial Accounting (FI), Project System (PS), Plant Maintenance (PM), Material Management (MM) modules, Business Warehouse, EssbaseExtensive knowledge of CN’s spend channels including Fieldglass, SAP Purchase Order (PO), Ariba, My CN Voucher, TradeShiftKnowledge of Authorization for Expenditure (AFE360), Enterprise Capital Project System (ECPS) and Project Management Application (PMA) applicationsKnowledge of business intelligence (BI) and data visualization tools such as Power BI or TableauStrong Microsoft Office computer skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access)