Planning and Modelling Manager

About the Role

Reporting directly to the Head of Planning & Performance, you will play a crucial role in influencing how important business decisions are analyzed, challenged, and supported throughout the company. This position is a key individual contributor role where your expertise, sound judgement, and commercial acumen will be highly valued by senior leadership.

You will be responsible for developing and refining financial models that drive forecasting, budgeting, long-term planning, business case formulation, and strategic decision-making. You will collaborate closely with teams from Supply, Operations, Sales, Technology & Data, as well as other departments utilizing modelling and planning tools. Rather than replacing existing processes, you will forge trusted partnerships to ensure modelling methods remain robust, consistent, and fit-for-purpose, becoming the organisation's go-to expert on complex modelling challenges and enhancements.

Your role includes transforming uncertainty into actionable insights, challenging underlying assumptions confidently, and helping leaders comprehend the financial consequences of opportunities, risks, and critical decisions. This role can be based at either the Dunedin or Christchurch hubs.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain ownership and ongoing enhancement of financial models supporting forecasting, budgeting, long-term planning, and strategic decisions.
• Design advanced driver-based, scenario, and sensitivity models enabling leadership to assess opportunities, risks, and alternative outcomes.
• Develop and assess business cases, investment proposals, and strategic initiatives for informed capital allocation.
• Provide independent verification and challenge of forecasts, assumptions, and financial results across the organisation.
• Serve as the subject matter expert on financial modelling best practices, governance, and analytical frameworks.
• Assist in evolving planning systems, forecasting tools, and analytical capabilities, including Planning Analytics and related performance management platforms.

Why This Role is Important

Quality decisions require high-quality analysis. In our complex operating environment, there is an increasing demand for sophisticated financial modelling and scenario analysis to help leaders assess opportunities and risks ahead of decisions. Success in this role delivers those critical insights.

Your financial insights and analytical rigor will directly influence strategic investments, major business projects, commercial choices, and long-term planning. You will shape how the organisation manages uncertainty, evaluates options, and prioritises actions.

Candidate Profile

• Extensive background in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Commercial Finance, Corporate Finance, Transaction Services, Strategy, or comparably analytical finance fields.
• Advanced skills in financial modelling, with proven experience in building integrated, driver-based, and scenario models from inception.
• Strong expertise in forecasting, budgeting, long-term planning, business case development, and investment appraisal.
• Ability to translate complex commercial and operational challenges into clear financial outcomes, insights, and actionable recommendations.
• Proficient in advanced Excel modelling and familiar with planning and performance management tools such as TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, Power BI, or similar platforms.
• Experience analyzing large, complex, and sometimes imperfect data sets to identify trends, risks, opportunities, and performance drivers.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and influence skills across diverse business functions.
• Confidence to challenge assumptions constructively while building and maintaining trust within working relationships.
• Strong communication skills geared towards explaining complex financial concepts clearly and practically.
• A continuous improvement mindset with a passion for enhancing analytical capabilities and modelling standards.

Diversity and Inclusion

Silver Fern Farms values diversity and inclusion and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds to contribute to creating goodness together with us.