Assistant Manager Financial Planning & Analysis

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

Lead the business analysis & planning, be heavily involved in the strategic direction and provide accurate & timely information and solutions across functions as a strategic business partner. Foster cross-functional collaboration to achieve one committed plan, linked to the market mission and strategy. Construct and maintain the Integrated Performance Management process (advanced analysis, Global Business Service, Strategy alignment etc) for better decision-making by Japan Senior Leadership Team.

The role focuses on owning and continuously improving specific FP&A-related processes and data, while operating within the broader FP&A framework and working closely with other FP&A team members and stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

Planning & Controlling

• Operate financial planning and forecasting processes in cooperation with business partners, including KPI and target setting.
• Support inventory management, standard margin management (including pricing and cost perspectives), and logistics cost analysis.
• Ensure consistency between company strategy, budget, forecast, and actual performance.
• Identify gaps in forecasts and support actions to close gaps toward targets.

Business Support & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Act as a finance partner to Market Channel, Marketing, and Supply Chain teams by translating business questions into structured financial analysis.
• Facilitate alignment and consensus across functions by clarifying assumptions, financial implications, and trade-offs.
• Support decision-making by clearly explaining financial impacts in a way that is understandable to non-finance stakeholders.

Performance Reporting, Analysis & Insight

• Operate and continuously improve standardized performance reporting across brands and channels, covering P&L, balance sheet-related KPIs, ROI, and profitability.
• Ensure accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of recurring reports used for management review and decision-making.
• Identify key performance drivers and provide clear, practical insights to support business discussions.
• Collaborate with Global Finance teams to align local reporting with global standards and requirements.

Developing and Leading process

• Support integrated planning processes by connecting inventory, standard margin, and logistics cost perspectives.
• Contribute to the integration of FP&A, demand planning, and marketing-related schedules and planning processes to ensure alignment and consistency.
• Operate, maintain, and continuously improve management accounting and reporting processes based on SAP AFS and S/4HANA.
• Develop and enhance reporting environments using Power BI to support performance monitoring, planning, and decision-making.
• Support forecast submission processes in financial systems, ensuring data accuracy, consistency, and timeliness.
• Manage and continuously improve FP&A-related data handling across processes, ensuring data consistency, usability, and reliability for reporting and planning.
• Improve related databases and data flows by leveraging VS Code, GitHub Copilot, GitHub, SQL, BI tools, automation, and AI-enabled solutions to enhance efficiency and insight quality.

Daily Operations

• Steadily execute daily FP&A operations in accordance with established procedures and processes.
• Identify issues in daily operations and work with stakeholders to implement practical corrective actions.
• Operate with appropriate guidance from supervisors while taking ownership of assigned responsibilities.

Key Relationships:

• Market Channel Senior Managers and their teams
• Market Marketing Senior Managers and their teams
• Market Supply Chain Senior Managers and their teams
• Market IT / HR / Legal teams
• Market Finance teams
• Global Finance teams

Mindset & Working Style:

• Passion for sport.
• 6 values: Courage, Ownership, Innovation, Teamplay, Integrity, Respect.
• Demonstrates a steady and reliable working style in a structured, recurring process environment.
• Proactive in clarifying expectations and aligning with stakeholders rather than working based on assumptions.
• Able to balance attention to detail with an understanding of the broader business context.
• Maintains a constructive and professional attitude in a multi-stakeholder and changing environment.

Communication & Stakeholder Management:

• Strong interpersonal skills to communicate with and support alignment among cross-functional stakeholders, including senior management.
• Ability to translate business questions into structured analysis and clearly explain results and implications.

Technical / Data Skills:

• Proficient in MS Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience working with data using SQL and BI tools (e.g. Power BI).
• Experience using automation, scripting, or AI-enabled tools

  (e.g. VS Code, GitHub, DAX, Python, generative AI) to improve reporting, analysis, and data handling processes.

• Experience working with SAP-based financial or planning systems (e.g. SAP AFS, S/4HANA) is preferred.

Language:

• Fluent in Japanese.
• Intermediate level of written English, with the ability to communicate with Global Finance teams.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University graduate.
• Minimum 2 years of professional experience in a corporate environment.
• Experience in finance-related roles such as FP&A, finance analytics, or demand planning is preferred.
• Experience in the sport or apparel industry is a plus.