Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Vice President, Financial Planning

🎯 Role Definition

The Vice President, Financial Planning (VP, Financial Planning) leads the corporate FP&A function and is the strategic partner to the CFO and business leaders. This executive role owns budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, financial modeling, performance management, and decision support to optimize capital allocation, drive profitable growth, and enhance investor and board reporting. The ideal VP brings strong FP&A domain expertise, systems and data fluency (ERP/BI/SQL), M&A and transaction experience, and demonstrated ability to lead and scale a high-performing finance team.

Keywords for search: Vice President Financial Planning, VP FP&A, financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, strategic finance, capital allocation, CFO partner, FP&A leader.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Director, FP&A or Director, FP&A
Corporate Controller or Senior Finance Manager
Head of Business Finance / Finance Business Partner

Advancement To:

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Executive Vice President, Finance
Head of Corporate Development or Treasurer

Lateral Moves:

Head of Corporate Development / M&A
Chief of Staff – Finance / Strategic Initiatives
Head of Commercial Finance or Revenue Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead and own the end-to-end annual budgeting process, coordinating across Business Units, Sales, Operations, HR, and Product to produce an integrated, bottom-up and top-down corporate budget that aligns resources to strategic priorities.
Design, manage and continuously improve rolling quarterly and monthly forecasting processes, including scenario and sensitivity analyses to inform near-term decisions and maintain financial agility.
Build, maintain, and validate complex financial models to support long-range planning (3–5 year horizon), business case evaluation, pricing analysis, and capital allocation decisions.
Partner closely with the CFO and executive leadership to translate strategy into financial objectives, KPIs, and actionable operating plans tied to revenue, margin, and cash flow targets.
Direct the monthly close and reporting cadence for FP&A outputs, delivering timely, accurate variance analysis, operating reviews, and executive-level presentations for the CEO/CFO and Board of Directors.
Develop and maintain comprehensive management and investor reporting packages, including board decks, investor presentations, and materials used in earnings calls and external investor meetings.
Lead the consolidation and analysis of P&L, balance sheet and cash flow drivers, ensuring forecasts reconcile to accounting close, treasury forecasts, and real-time liquidity needs.
Serve as the primary finance business partner to sales, marketing, operations, and product leaders — translating financial implications into commercial actions and prioritizing investments that maximize ROI.
Drive operational performance management by defining, tracking and reporting on critical KPIs (CAC, LTV, gross margin, contribution margin, ARR/MRR, churn) and recommending corrective actions.
Own working capital management strategies and provide forecasting, scenario modeling and recommendations to optimize cash conversion, receivables, inventory and payables.
Lead or support M&A activities, including target financial diligence, valuation modeling, integration planning, synergy tracking and post-close financial performance monitoring.
Oversee pricing and go-to-market economics analyses to ensure sustainable margins and inform new product or market launches.
Implement and govern FP&A policies, financial controls, and processes to ensure accuracy, audit readiness and compliance with internal and external reporting obligations.
Drive FP&A systems strategy and execution — including ERP, consolidation tools, and BI/visualization platforms — partnering with IT and finance operations to improve automation, data quality, and self-service analytics.
Manage and mentor a high-performing FP&A organization: recruit, develop and retain talent, set team structure, define career paths, and instill a culture of accuracy, curiosity, and business partnering.
Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives (cost reduction programs, productivity initiatives, transformation projects) with clear financial metrics and execution roadmaps.
Provide direct support for investor relations and external stakeholders on financial performance, forecasts and strategic priorities; coordinate responses to investor and lender inquiries.
Champion scenario planning and “what-if” analyses for key strategic choices (product investment, pricing changes, geographic expansion, large customer contracts), quantifying upside/downside and risk.
Liaise with Accounting and Tax teams to ensure alignment between FP&A forecasts and statutory reporting, tax planning, and audit processes.
Set and monitor incentive compensation plans, quotas and metrics from a financial viability perspective and ensure alignment with corporate objectives.
Drive continual improvement in analytics capabilities, establishing standard dashboards, data dictionaries and self-service reporting to scale insights across the organization.
Represent finance in executive and board-level strategic discussions by converting complex financial concepts into concise, actionable recommendations.

Secondary Functions

Provide ad-hoc deep-dive analyses and quick-turn decision support for the CEO, CFO and business unit leaders on time-sensitive issues.
Support ERP, FP&A tool selection and implementation projects (e.g., Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, Workday, Adaptive Insights) to modernize planning and reporting capabilities.
Participate in capital markets activities as needed (debt financings, covenant management, lender interactions) by preparing covenant forecasts and scenario packs.
Establish data governance standards for financial data sources, definitions, and reporting cadence to improve consistency and trust in FP&A outputs.
Lead cross-functional training on financial literacy, budgeting best practices, and interpretation of FP&A outputs for non-finance stakeholders.
Coordinate with internal and external auditors during audits related to forecasting, budgets, and internal controls over financial reporting.
Drive cost optimization initiatives and vendor spend reviews, including benchmarking and renegotiation support for major contracts.
Support HR and People Ops with workforce planning, compensation modeling and headcount forecasting tied to strategic growth plans.
Serve as a backup or liaison to Treasury for short-term cash management, liquidity planning and bank relationship coordination.
Facilitate post-merger integration analytics, ensuring financial consolidation, synergies realization and consistent reporting across combined entities.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced financial modeling and valuation (DCF, sensitivity and scenario modeling) with demonstrated ability to build scalable models that drive executive decisions.
Deep FP&A domain expertise: budgeting, rolling forecasting, long-range planning, variance analysis and KPI design tailored to SaaS, tech, manufacturing or consumer sectors.
Strong accounting knowledge (US GAAP and/or IFRS) and experience reconciling FP&A outputs to statutory financial statements and close processes.
Expertise with ERP and financial planning software (e.g., Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, Workday, Adaptive/Anaplan) and leading FP&A tool implementations.
Proficiency in business intelligence and visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to deliver executive dashboards and automated reporting.
High-level Excel skills: pivot tables, advanced formulas, Power Query, macros and model structuring best practices.
SQL or data querying skills to extract, validate and transform financial and operational datasets from data warehouses.
Experience with consolidation, multi-entity reporting, intercompany accounting, and foreign currency translation in multi-jurisdictional organizations.
Knowledge of capital markets, debt covenants and treasury forecasting to support financing and liquidity decisions.
M&A transaction experience, including financial due diligence, integration planning, and post-close performance tracking.
Familiarity with tax implications of strategic decisions and how to model tax effects in long-range planning.

Soft Skills

Strategic thinker with the ability to translate high-level strategy into executable financial plans and measurable outcomes.
Exceptional executive presence: concise communicator who can present complex financial topics to C-suite, board members and investors.
Strong business partnering and stakeholder influence skills; trusted advisor to commercial and operational leaders.
People leader and talent developer with experience scaling teams, mentoring managers, and driving cross-functional collaboration.
Analytical curiosity and attention to detail, combined with the ability to act decisively under ambiguity.
Change agent comfortable driving transformational finance projects and process improvements.
Strong organizational skills and ability to prioritize competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
High integrity and commitment to governance, controls, and ethical financial practices.
Effective negotiation skills when working with vendors, banks, investors and cross-functional partners.
Resilience and adaptability in high-growth, high-change business contexts.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related quantitative field.

Preferred Education:

MBA, Master of Finance, or other advanced business degree.
Professional credentials such as CPA, CFA, or equivalent are highly desirable.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Finance
Accounting
Economics
Business Administration
Data Analytics / Applied Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

10–15+ years of progressive finance experience with at least 5–8 years in FP&A, corporate finance or strategic finance roles and a minimum of 3 years managing a finance leadership team.

Preferred:

Prior experience as a Senior Director or VP of FP&A in a mid-market or enterprise company, preferably in technology, SaaS, healthcare, consumer products, or industrials.
Experience working with public companies or preparing public-facing financial communications and investor materials.
Demonstrated track record leading ERP/FP&A tool implementations, driving process automation, and building data-driven decision frameworks.
Hands-on M&A and corporate development exposure with transaction modeling, diligence, and integration experience.